FEEL THE PRESSURE RELEASE!
Perfect start puts England in buoyant mood ahead of Scots’ visit to Wembley
THE first game of a big summer tournament is one of those occasions when you look at the scoreline first and work backwards from there. From that point of view, this was a perfect start for England and the scenes immediately after the final whistle pointed directly to that.
On the touchline Gareth Southgate and his assistant Steve Holland embraced as though they had just won the final. Soon after, England’s players — weary on a blisteringly hot day — gathered to wave at their families seated with a perfect view of where Raheem Sterling had scored his winning goal.
Kieran Trippier — perhaps as surprised as the rest of us that he was chosen at left back — looked up to the stands and puffed out his cheeks. Kyle Walker blew kisses up to his children and Mason Mount and Declan Rice — best friends for so long — stood with arms round each other as though they had just realised the sheer scale of the adventure that now stretches out before them in this competition.
It all looked and felt a little as though a huge pressure valve had just been released. This victory means so much, not just in terms of the three group points but also regarding the mood of this England squad ahead of Friday’s game here against Scotland.
That was always going to be a huge fixture but already it feels different. England have a security blanket now, one that they didn’t have, for example, when they faced the Scots in game two of their Euro 96 campaign.
Twenty-five years ago England drew 1-1 with Switzerland in their first game here with a bits-and-pieces performance that was not so different from this one. As such it took Paul Gascoigne’s famous goal against Scotland to ignite their tournament. Up until that moment, that game had jeopardy written all over it.
This time it need not be that way. Friday night will still be fractious and feisty and maybe not terribly pretty. At least if the Scots have their way. But the difference is that England’s tournament fuse has already been lit by Sterling’s goal and it was one that arrived with perfect timing in more ways than one.
The through ball from Kalvin Phillips — who was outstanding on the day — was timed beautifully and so was Sterling’s scurrying dart into space.
More widely, the goal arrived at the perfect stage of the game. England had started the afternoon superbly, threatening to run a leaden Croatia team off the park with the tempo and energy of their football. Sterling and Phil Foden managed to isolate defenders as Southgate would have hoped and spaces opened on the back of that.
But as we approached the hour, the whole feeling of the game had changed.
England had been unable to maintain that aggressive opening and had started to allow Croatia to control the rhythm. Luka Modric, still Croatia’s most dangerous player at 35, was fouled twice by desperate tackles in the early stages of the second half and that seemed indicative of the direction the game was heading.
It had all become rather slow and that was never going to suit Southgate’s players. On the sidelines, his substitutes were readying. Time for Jack Grealish or Marcus Rashford perhaps.
So the goal was important in that it changed all of that. Suddenly it was Croatia who had to push and play with eagerness, to take chances. That does not come naturally to an ageing team and England saw out the final 20 minutes or so of the game without much alarm.
England will have to be better than this as the tournament progresses. They cannot concede possession in the middle third as easily as they did at times here. They will have to find a way to build a more reliable platform on which players such as Sterling, Mount and Foden can work.
But that is for another day. England will ultimately take confidence from this, both collectively and individually.
This was a huge day for Sterling as he scored his first major tournament goal so close to where he grew up. The Manchester City player had not played an awful lot of club football before the Euros began but was bright.
Aston Villa’s Grealish was England’s stand-out attacking player during their two warm-up games but feasibly may reach full-time this Friday without having kicked a ball. That is how football can be at times like this. That is how suddenly things can change.
Phillips was fabulous in the heart of Southgate’s midfield and Tyrone Mings, so poor against Austria and Romania, managed to find something much better. He will play alongside John Stones again against Scotland while we await Harry Maguire’s return to proper fitness.
It was a toil in the heat at times. England will not be disappointed that their next two games take place in the evening. Equally, there will be no escaping it in Qatar’s World Cup in 18 months’ time.
But since when were opening tournament games supposed to be easy anyway? These occasions are supposed to test your mettle and this one did.
It was heartening at halftime, with the game poised, to look at the England bench and see such quality. That will doubtless become important the longer we move through this tournament.
For now England can take a breath. As supper time approached and the mowers emerged to work on a Wembley surface by now halfcovered by shade, the big scoreboards at either end still read England 1 Croatia 0. That is really all that mattered.
HARRY KANE will doubtless still be a Tottenham Hotspur player by the start of pre-season training. Any transfer away from the club is unlikely to be done quickly. But what will the england captain return to when the euros are over and normal football life resumes? Tottenham’s search for a new manager has been of the rollercoaster variety. A move for Brendan Rodgers became a push for erik Ten Hag of Ajax. That soon morphed into a pursuit of free agent Antonio Conte and now all roads have led to a deal with former Roma coach Paulo Fonseca that we are led to believe is almost done. none of this will do anything to persuade Kane to stay. Fonseca has done little in his eclectic playing and managerial career to suggest he will pull up trees in the Premier League. It feels a little bit as though he is merely the last available fish in Daniel Levy’s barrel. Filling vacancies in and around the Premier League is not easy and is increasingly expensive. West Brom — just relegated — are finding it hard and so are Crystal Palace. everton’s deal to bring in nuno espirito Santo is also not yet done. But when I think of Tottenham and all that they could be under a coach with fresh ideas and a long-term vision, I just wonder why they can’t do better. What about eddie Howe? Dean Smith? Graham Potter? What about just being brave for once?
JOSE MOURINHO may never be a Premier League manager again (where is left for him to go?) but will never be far away it seems. The recently dismissed Tottenham manager is doing a stint for talk SPORT during the Euros and his hour discussing England on Friday morning was compulsive listening. In that short time Mourinho told us things we didn’t know, said other things that made us think and offered some analysis of Gareth Southgate’s squad that could only come from the mind of an experienced coach. It was proper punditry and we need more of it. The offerings of BBC television and ITV over the weekend — with a couple of exceptions — were largely underwhelming.
WAS it right that the Denmark v Finland game resumed so soon after Christian eriksen’s collapse on Saturday night? Yes it was. Once eriksen gave it his blessing and the players felt able to play, it was the best solution available. Had everyone been asked to come back and resume the next day it would not necessarily have been any easier.
WALES made heavy weather of their opener against Switzerland and at times didn’t look particularly well coached. Doubtless suffering the absence of manager Ryan Giggs, awaiting trial on assault charges which he denies, passing the mantle to his assistant Robert Page seemed a straightforward choice. That said, Mark Hughes is in the studio for the BBC and Chris Coleman is working on the tournament for ESPN in America. Both men have excellent records as Wales manager. Could one of them not have been asked to help out?
JESSE LINGARD can feel hard done by not to be in the england squad. Of all the players cut from the initial pool of 33, Lingard (right) probably had the most convincing claim on a place. What happens to the 28-year-old’s club career will be interesting to see. West Ham want to sign him after his successful loan spell and Aston Villa had a gentle sniff prior to settling on emiliano Buendia from norwich. Despite all that the feeling is that he will probably sign a new contract at Old Trafford. How he gets past Bruno Fernandes and into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team remains to be seen.