England got over the line against the ten men of the Czech Republic in Prague but will need to play far more convincingly over the four games to come if they are to overtake Spain and win Nations League A Group C.
Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane were England’s scorers at Wembley in Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to the world champions and were again the difference-makers as the Three Lions won in the Czech capital for the first time since 1908.
Attacking football, eventually
England scored twice in the second half and hit the woodwork either side of the break, and yet they struggled to put on a show against a team that sat in and sought to frustrate their opponents.
Returning to the Fortuna Arena for the first time since a 2-1 defeat to the Czechs in 2019 that remains their sole defeat in World Cup or European Championship qualifiers in the past 17 years, they knew it would take a professional and diligent performance to win there.
But Pavel Sulc’s red card on 25 minutes for a reckless studs-up challenge on Elliot Anderson changed very little about how the first half panned out: a frustrating watch where England were one-paced and sluggish and created very little.
The second half was largely better, a product of the Czech Republic tiring and England finding a second gear, though never a third or fourth.
Eight men have played for England at right-back since Trent Alexander-Arnold’s last start there two years ago — including midfielder Curtis Jones — but the Real Madrid man picked up a rogue Czech pass and pirouetted before crossing for Gordon, who manufactured a clever header to give England a lead they just about deserved over their hosts.
England ramped up the pressure, then, benefiting from more space. When the ball ran for Kane, he fired through the legs of a defender and into the net for his 87th goal for his country, and there were further close calls as Eberechi Eze, Rogers, Jude Bellingham and debutant Alex Scott all came close to adding a late third.
Slowly but surely, England got the job done. When Tuchel spoke afterwards, he was not bursting with pride at the performance — and that was to the surprise of no one who had sat through a lukewarm display by England.
Defence still firmly under microscope
Much had been made of England’s defending against Spain after they shipped a further three goals to add to the nine they conceded in the final four games of their World Cup campaign this summer.
Though a first clean sheet in seven games was forthcoming, it was not without nervy moments and passages of play that showed confusion in the England backline.
Como centre-back Trevoh Chalobah, on the occasion of his first competitive start for his country, made a decisive block in the first ten minutes as England rocked, and not in a good way.
But positional errors explained why he was required to make that block, and explained why James Trafford was needed to come out and smother from Sulc as the midfielder ran through unopposed before his sending off. Trafford parried another shot late on, with Chalobah and his centre-back partner Marc Guehi having failed to get tight.
In Prague, England’s clean sheet was just a statistic. Tuchel and his players are not out of the woods yet; their approach to defending remains firmly under the microscope.
Gordon becomes England’s latest undroppable
England’s scorers at Wembley were Gordon and Kane, and history repeating itself three days later was no coincidence.
Since arriving at Barcelona, Gordon has taken his game to another level, beginning with a World Cup campaign where he only got better and more effective as the games before more difficult and more important.
Gordon said this week that he was appreciated in England for his pace and his work ethic but that his move to Barca is beginning to alert people to his decision-making, his “football IQ”, that those who lack such smarts “stand out like a sore thumb” at Barcelona.
How right he is, in more ways than one. The 25-year-old left winger was the only England player taking risks in that lifeless first half and was repaid less than two minutes after the interval when Alexander-Arnold, who he said he had been “dying to play with”, crossed early for the Barca man to nod in. Gordon is England’s hottest prospect on either flank right now.
Space continued to open up and Gordon and left-back Lewis Hall so nearly cashed in on their chemistry down the left from their Newcastle United days as a give and go between the pair allowed Hall, on his fifth cap, to bomb on. He rolled his shot just wide of the post. He had been bright, Gordon the best player on the pitch.
