Three Lions deservedly beat Dutch
GARETH Southgate’s men capped a promising display with a deserved 1-0 win over Holland as an experimental England side secured victory thanks to Jesse Lingard’s first international goal.
Time is running out for players to prove their worth with the World Cup just three months away, while Southgate does not have many more opportunities to tweak with things ahead of the opener against Tunisia.
With that in mind Southgate raised eyebrows with some selections, but England looked confident against one of the most notable World Cup absentees.
The Three Lions manager will be first to admit that there is still much work to do, but his side looked in control for the most part at a sold-out Amsterdam ArenA.
What looked to be a gamble in selecting Kyle Walker in a three-man defence worked well and Joe Gomez’s early injury did not throw the England backline off kilter against Holland.
Marcus Rashford was angered not to win a penalty shortly after half-time, but Manchester United team-mate Lingard soon struck his first international goal to earn England a deserved victory.
Southgate’s first win in a glamour friendly came at the sixth time of asking and he will want to see more from his side against Italy at Wembley on Tuesday – the final match before he selects his World Cup squad.
Gomez’s second appearance came to an untimely end as Harry Maguire came on for the injured defender inside 10 minutes.
Jordan Pickford, auditioning for the No 1 job, comfortably dealt with a long-range Matthijs de Ligt strike at the other end before smartly coming off his line to thwart Quincy Promes, but there was not a whole lot for the Everton goalkeeper to do.
England were the brighter side in the first half and skipper Jordan Henderson flicked a header wide, with Sterling prevented from being put through by Lingard’s smart ball by charging Holland goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet.
They picked up where they left off after the break and Rashford was furious not to be awarded a penalty after going down under pressure from De Ligt and Zoet.
But it was his close friend who broke the deadlock. Rose was not having the best of evenings, but his left-wing cross ended up taking deflection and Lingard met the loose ball with a first-time finish.