England kicked off their Euro 2024 qualification bid with a classic game of two halves that ended with a 2-1 win in Naples – England’s first win against Italy in Italy since 1961 – to bag three welcome points from what is on paper the toughest assignment of a potentially banana-skinnish qualification group.
And Harry Kane scored his 54th England goal to go past Wayne Rooney’s all-time record. So all in all, a good night for England fans. Lots in the first half for the optimists to enjoy, plenty in the second half for the doom-mongers to latch on to. Lovely.
Here’s how the players rated…
JORDAN PICKFORD
Couple of shaky moments with the ball at his feet but after being left utterly exposed by his defence for Italy’s goal had pleasingly little to do despite the Azzurri’s dominance of the closing stages.
KYLE WALKER
A very busy boy in the second half as Italy took control of proceedings, and was just starting to fray at the edges after picking up a booking and with Wilfried Gnonto running at him seemingly constantly. Was given Reece James for extra assistance over the closing minutes and this was one defensive move for which Gareth Southgate is unlikely to face too much flak.
LUKE SHAW
Two bookings in two minutes always looks bad, doesn’t it? The first one for time-wasting was harsh – we’re huge admirers of Italy’s ability to be arch sh*thouses yet have an attack of the vapours if they perceive the slightest hint of anyone employing anything even approaching the dark arts against them – but once you’ve got that first booking your days of diving in to tackles 40 yards from goal are over and Shaw has been around the block enough times now to know this. Shame, because he’d been fine up to then, with a couple of nice set-piece deliveries in the first half.
JOHN STONES
Good block to deny Retegui on a rare first-half foray for Italy and spent much of the second half getting himself in the way of Italian shots. Very good indeed over a testing closing period that could have very easily been far more fraught than it was.
HARRY MAGUIRE
Will be enormously grateful for both the result and the inevitable focus on the Harry Kane record, because while he was generally sound his part in Italy’s goal was calamitous. First gave the ball away horribly cheaply in a dangerous area, and then dived into a reckless amends-making attempt that, once the referee played a smart advantage, left England’s backline bent entirely out of shape,…
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