England delivered an environment friendly however hardly scintillating show to beat Czech Republic 1-0 with an early Raheem Sterling header on Tuesday to advance to Euro 2020’s final 16 as Group D winners, with the Czechs via as among the finest third-placed groups.
Sterling scored his and England’s second aim of the match within the twelfth minute however the preliminary injection of tempo, depth and crowd-pleasing pleasure introduced by Jack Grealish and teenage man of the match Bukayo Saka step by step dissipated as the sport petered out into an completely forgettable second half.
Neither facet will thoughts although as they now start to plot their assaults on the knockout part.
England return to Wembley on Tuesday to face the runners-up from Group E – prone to be France, Germany or Portugal – whereas the Czechs should wait to seek out out which group winner they play.
They have been dislodged from second place by Croatia, who beat Scotland 3-1 and can play the Group E runners-up – Sweden, Slovakia, Spain or Poland – in Copenhagen on Monday.
Highlights:
On the constructive facet of England’s steadiness sheet is 2 wins and a draw, three clear sheets, a return to Wembley and a great variety of gamers getting a style of the motion.
Conversely, they’ve scored solely two objectives – the bottom by any workforce ever to high a Euros group – have been sluggish and over-cautious for lengthy durations of all three video games and the midfield mixture and strategy seemingly stay something however settled. They additionally face a probably daunting final 16 sport subsequent.
“We are not fluent but we have moments where we look a good side,” mentioned England coach Gareth Southgate.
“The Czechs are a very good facet. They use the ball nicely and are actually robust to interrupt down. There is extra to come back from us, undoubtedly. We haven’t scored from a set play but. They are essential in huge matches and we now have to get these nailed.
“All of our next opponents will be different games but there are a lot of good things we are doing.”
SHARP END
Sterling was on the sharp finish of England’s early assaults as they started stuffed with power. He struck a put up within the second minute when he lifted the ball previous advancing keeper Tomas Vaclik – the third time England had hit a put up of the identical aim early in every match.
Ten minutes later Sterlingfound the goal with a close-range header from a scrumptious floated cross by Grealish after a driving run by Saka had splintered the Czech rearguard.
Making his first look of the match, the 19-year-old huge man confirmed a willingness to run with the ball that was painfully absent from England’s first two performances and, with Grealish a relentless menace, the hosts seemed extra threatening.
Harry Kane seemed sharper too and had a shot nicely saved late within the first half by Vaclik, however that early promise was step by step changed by the all-too-familiar warning and England barely mustered one other significant try.
The Czechs have been neat and tidy with out carrying an enormous quantity of penalty field risk, although Tomas Holes had a shot palmed clear by Jordan Pickford and Tomas Soucek fired simply huge within the first half.
Substitute Jordan Henderson thought he had scored his first aim for England on his sixtieth look 5 minutes from time after a scramble, solely to see it dominated out for offside.
Overall although it was desperately skinny gruel for a lot of the second half, with the loudest cheers reserved for the large display screen bulletins of Croatia’s objectives that eradicated Scotland.
