A LATE ICE
IT WAS not n-ice. In fact, it was downright ugly.
Even the 90th minute Raheem Sterling penalty – which ensured Gareth Southgate avoided the shame that Roy Hodgson’s England felt the last came up against Iceland on the French Riviera – was as scruffy as it was lucky.
Sterling converted from the spot after Sverrir Ingi Ingason had been harshly adjudged to have handled his closerange blast.
To add insult to injury, Ingason was also sent off for a second yellow card.
But even then there was a chance for Erik Hamren’s journeymen to inflict some pain on the Three Lions.
Serbian referee Srdjan Jovanovic decided he would make a name for himself again in injury-time by pointing to the spot again when Joe Gomez tangled with sub Samuel Fridjonsson. Birkir Bjarnason’s strike was certainly cleaner that Sterling’s – but it was also much too high.
And so England escaped from Reykjavik with a victory from their opening Nations League game.
In a group that also includes Belgium and Denmark, anything else would have been a problem.
Tuesday night’s trip to Copenhagen already looks like a huge problem.
Southgate will be delighted that his men prevailed despite a poor performance. When Kyle Walker was sent off with 20 minutes of his international return still remaining, the England boss might have actually feared that the Thunder Clap was going to strike again.
Southgate’s team contained only two players aged over 27 – Walker and fellow full-back Kieran Trippier.
Manchester City tyro Phil Foden was handed his debut alongside Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling and James Ward-Prowse.
But, apart from a Harry Kane strike that was incorrectly disallowed, the Three Lions were toothless. This wasn’t even Iceland. It was Iceland reserves.
It was bad enough for Hamren that his Premier League stars Gylfi Sigurdsson and Johan Berg Gudmundsson had preferred to prepare for the new season with Everton and Burnley respectively rather than travel home.
Hamren was also without Aron Gunnarsson and Alfred Finnbogason, who play for Al-Arabi in Qatar and Germany’s Augsburg.
And then, in the warm-up, he lost Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, when the striker who had been England’s nemesis in Nice pulled a muscle.
Iceland still had four players who had featured in their nation’s most famous win four years ago.
And they also had the benefit of VAR not being available in the quaint stadium in Laugardalsvollur.
Kane was onside when he slid in at the far post to nudge home Sterling’s sixth-minute cross.
But the England skipper was denied a
33rd goal for his country by an offside flag that should embarrass the Serbian official who raised it.
Kane had seen an earlier snapshot saved by Hannes Thor Halldorsson and Walker’s rocket drive was deflected into the side-netting.
But after Declan Rice miskicked when presented with the best chance of the half by Jadon Sancho, the visitors lost their way.
Every twist and turn was tracked by an Icelander. Keeper Jordan Pickford would have been well advised to have packed some sun cream such was his inactivity.
It didn’t improve after the break. England pressed, Iceland repelled.
Former Millwall winger Jon Dadi Bodvarsson sent a header close enough to his own goal to have caused his heart to flutter when James Ward-Prowse sent in a free-kick. Southgate took 68 minutes to make a change.
Kane was lucky to stay on. Instead, Foden made away and Danny Ings was asked to rescue the cause five years after making his only other England appearance.
Then Walker’s lung at Arnor Traustason brought him a second yellow card and England were down to 10 men with 20 minutes still to play.
Southgate sent on Trent AlexanderArnold for Sancho, who had arguably been England’s biggest threat.
Make that their only threat. Kane made way for Mason Greenwood with 12 minutes remaining.
And when Sterling’s goal-bound blast struck Ingason on his elbow, it was left to the Manchester City winger to step up in his captain’s absence.
SEEING RED: Sverrir Ingason