Gareth Southgate speaks to Jordan Henderson after England's disappointing draw with Ukraine. Photo: PA/Nick Potts. Match summary: Ukraine v England
There With just nine months to go until Euro 2024 has now become a moment of destiny, surpassing all previous moments of fortune during Gareth Southgate's reign, the England manager has ruefully admitted that his team must be more ruthless than here.
The first point drop from five qualifying games does not put England in any danger of losing that place in Germany next summer — although it does raise some familiar concerns. Is this team ready to win games in those moments that define the lives of players and coaches? Being the leader of the group and invincible should only be a small pebble in the shoe, but after so many decades of disappointment it can become much more significant.
Southgate's team has some of the best players in Europe, both in form and reputation, but it was nonetheless not exactly a stellar performance. They dominated possession and controlled the game for the most part, but they were never able to completely break the spirit of a Ukrainian team playing in a city where thousands of their countrymen live as refugees.
Later, Southgate, as he often did, would present a broader picture of the value of the experience: a hostile crowd, an opponent driven by something much bigger, a point saved from a goal behind. It's very Southgate-style — a clever shift in the narrative from glass half empty to glass half full. However, even he had to admit that some parts of the game were not up to normal standards.
“We had the ball about 70 percent of the time by the time we scored, but it was our first shot on target,” he said. “Obviously a lot of the offensive play wasn’t at the level we were hoping for.” As for Southgate, it was seen as quite harsh criticism. The team, he said, «turned over too many balls, which is something we don't normally do, and I wouldn't expect that to happen again.»
There were moments from England: Bukayo's second-half strike from Saka hit goalkeeper Georgiy Buschan's fingertips against the crossbar, Kyle Walker's first goal for the national team, but not the decisive moment when the game was at his mercy. In March at Wembley they confidently beat Ukraine, but this time, in the September heat, there was no advantage in front of a lot of Ukrainian support.
SO close to Saki 🏴 Football Football | #ThreeLions | #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/DH9hKyHEg5
— Channel 4 Sport (@C4Sport) September 9, 2023
England should have won. Harry Kane, Saka and Jude Bellingham are in form this season and the team has had enough of the ball. Substitutes Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford suggested Southgate shared concerns about a lack of urgency and variety in attack. They looked so confident in the first period of the game, and then Oleksandr Zinchenko scored an unlikely goal that gave Ukraine and its fans a chance to hang on.
Alexander Zinchenko celebrates Ukraine's victory in the first half Photo: AFP/Janek Skarzynski
Bulgarian referee Georgiy Kabakov was, to put it mildly, lenient, and for the most part Ukraine benefited from this. Saka took a poor hit from Everton defender Vitaly Mykolenko early in the match and never recovered.
James Maddison and Jude Bellingham had plenty to say to Kabakov in the first half, and Maddison in particular looked to be pushing his luck. Bellingham chased down a tackle on the touchline and when Ukrainian coach Sergei Rebrov tried to help him up, the young Englishman waved the help away. At the same time, Rashford's foul on the very edge of the penalty area on Mikhail Mudrik in the second half went unpunished.
Following Scotland's clash in Glasgow on Tuesday, Southgate will have to take another look at what makes this team capable of becoming European champions. He stuck with Jordan Henderson in midfield and Harry Maguire in defense, although one wonders if this was the last phase of that era. With Henderson playing in a league of questionable value and Maguire not playing at all, it will be difficult to justify dragging both into such a tight game.
Southgate said four points from the two toughest away qualifiers — Italy being the other — was a decent result. He praised Marc Guei's performance as Maguire's defensive partner. England lacked the courage, however, and Southgate knew it. “Sometimes, especially in attacking play, it doesn’t quite work out,” he said. “The models we developed this week are what we always do. It's not that we approached the game differently. We tried to freshen up the situation. Apart from the goal and Bukayo's hit to the crossbar, the level was no longer the same as in previous games.»
They dominated the first 20 minutes of the game. England even held the ball back for such a long pass that you could feel the Ukrainians' anxiety growing. Rebrov's team was weak at first, but took advantage of their chance brilliantly. Their best attacking player was Yukhim Konoplya, who played as a right winger and was much more effective than Mudryk. He chose Zinchenko in a quick return strike against Ukraine.
Yukhim Konoplya was the best player of the Ukrainian national team forward Photo: PA/Nick Potts
Kane's vision allowed Walker to equalize with a shot inside the right channel. It was Walker's first goal in 77 caps, the longest an England scorer had waited for his first goal. England were struggling against a team playing for a greater cause. Another hostile crowd awaits in Glasgow on Tuesday and another test of strength.
Line-ups: Ukraine vs England
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