There is no such thing as a practise match
After the disappointment of our defeat to Holland on Thursday night in our semi-final match, meant we took on Switzerland in Guimaraes earlier this afternoon for the third-place playoff game.
Before we go any further though, we must remember the sad news from Friday with the death of ex-Spurs player Justin Edinburgh aged just 49. Our thoughts go out to all his family, friends and all that knew him.
England’s poor defensive mistakes cost them dearly against the Netherlands on Thursday, so my worry before today was how would we cope today? I’m sure Gareth Southgate would have been thinking the same before kick off and would surely have worked with and given advise to some of his defenders.
Gareth Southgate: “there is no such thing as a practise match”
It was all change before kick off too, with Southgate mixing up the England side to bring in some fresh legs with only Pickford, Maguire and Sterling starting from the Holland game.
The numerous changes included four that were not involved at all against the Dutch, Rose, Dier, Alexander-Arnold and Gomez. Harry Kane was back starting though as captain. The likes of Chilwell, Rashford, Henderson were all completely ruled our because of various bumps and bruises.
The Swiss on the other hand only made two changes but they had changed tactically with three centre halves playing, so their shape looked different from the back to their front-line.
First-Half
Even before kick off I never felt it was going to be an all action game as you could tell neither team wanted to be there anymore. What with the long season which included last year’s World Cup, a lot of players had not had any time off for around two years.
Kane got a chance early doors though but was denied when Swiss keeper Yann Sommer finger tipped his shot onto the bar. Sterling then got his first chance of many and like the theme the other night when there were loads of errors at the back, this time around the theme would be Sterling’s misses. There were lots of them.
England were getting all the chances in the first-half and next up was Dele Alli who met Trent Alexander-Arnold’s brilliant cross with a header just over. Alexander-Arnold’s general distribution from the right is something else and that is something he has over Kyle Walker for sure. And the Liverpool full-back is still only 20 years old.
Second-Half
It all seemed to be England, trust me Switzerland were in this came, they just weren’t creating anything to test Pickford or the England defense. The next best chance fell England’s way, this time it was a cross from the left from Danny Rose, his intended target was Kane but instead Newcastle United’s Fabian Schär tried to cut it out and spooned it onto his own post.
Finally a decent chance for the Swiss as Granit Xhaka hit a first time left-footed from the edge of the 18 yard box which Pickford has to save well low down. More half chances followed including a couple more for Sterling who was just having a complete and total off night.
Then good old VAR denied us once again after Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson stabbed in from close range with 5 minutes to go. However in the build a couple of seconds earlier Wilson himself had pulled back Manuel Akanji and the goal was ruled out.
Extra-Time & Penalties
Extra-time started with another Sterling miss after another brilliant cross from Man-of-the-Match Arnold, who was superb all afternoon. As it wasn’t too long later that he created another headed chance for Deli Alli, this time from the left after swapping sides. Sommer was equal to it though and pulled off an excellent save once again before he was up to block Sterling’s rebounded effort.
The only other chance than came was another Sterling chance, this time though it was a bending free-kick from the edge of the area that hit the bar. That was that. Penalties.
And England won another penalty shoot-out! This time 6-5, with Pickford the hero once again, this time scoring a penalty as well as saving one. Overall on the night they fully deserved the win, just disappointing not to win the Nations League overall but it’s not been a bad year under Southgate. Lets just hope he continues taking us in the right direction.
Match Highlights