And with that, I’m off. Here’s the match report again. Bye!
Also from Grealish, as he’s asked to assess his current position with Manchester City at the top of the league and fighting for a treble, and a World Cup to look forward to: “It’s a brilliant time to be in my shoes.”
Here’s David Hytner’s match report from Wembley:
It was a night when Gareth Southgate shuffled his pack extensively and asked whether a number of players on the fringes of his England team could cope with the weight of the shirt. By full time, with Ivory Coast demoralised and dismantled, the manager had an emphatic answer.
From first to last, this was a procession, the visitors seemingly wanting to be elsewhere – ideally the playoffs for Africa’s five World Cup spots which were going on without them. The Elephants had said goodbye when they finished second to Cameroon at the group phase of qualification.
Their captain, Serge Aurier, gave England a helping hand when he was sent off in the 40th minute for a second yellow card, which appeared to be for dissent. It was such a strange moment, out of keeping with the tone of the friendly, and it sounded the death knell for it as a contest.
Much more here:
Jack Grealish reveals he desperately tried to prevent Serge Aurier’s sending-off: “It’s a friendly. You learn more from playing 11 men, and it would be more challenging for us. I said to the ref, ‘Let him stay on.’”
I think we can forget the second half, in which very little happened beyond lots of substitutions until Tyrone Mings turned in a stoppage-time goal with, it transpires, his nose. But England were excellent in the first half. Ollie Watkins was very good, and the midfield trio of Rice, Ward-Prowse and Bellingham excellent. Bellingham really is - you heard it here first - quite good.
Ollie Watkins talks to Sky. “I felt like I did well tonight,” he says. “You did,” says the interviewer.
Final score: England 3-0 Ivory Coast
90+4 mins: It’s all over, and England have eased to emphatic victory over 10-man Ivory Coast!
GOAL! England 3-0 Ivory Coast (Mings, 90+3 mins)
Foden takes the corner, and Mings heads it into the ground and from there into the roof of the net! Sangare gets his hands to it, but can only flap it in.
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90+3 mins: Paul Akouokou comes on for the last 20 seconds.
90+2 mins: Chance for a third! Walker-Peters gets to the byline and pulls back to Smith Rowe, whose shot deflects wide!
90+1 mins: Three bonus minutes before this game, which effectively ended a long time ago, officially ends.
90 mins: A nice pass through to Kane, but he can’t bring it under control.
88 mins: Ivory Coast keep the ball for a while. England win it back and limp forward half-heartedly. Play is eventually stopped because Konan is down, at which point he gets up.
85 mins: Yohan Boli comes on for Haller, whose influence has been minimal.
85 mins: Foden cuts in from the right wing and skies a shot from a couple of yards beyond the edge of the area.
82 mins: The game has become something of a snoozefest in the last few minutes, with Ivory Coast having decided that possession is the best form of defence, and England having lost intensity with all their substitutions.
79 mins: A last change for England, who bring Conor Gallagher on for Ward-Prowse. He seems very popular with the locals.
77 mins: A brilliant chance for Ivory Coast! Shaw brings down Kamara on the right, and Seri’s excellent delivery lands on the foot of Deli, seven yards out, who half-volleys over the bar!
75 mins: Poland and Portugal are both now 2-0 up in their qualifying play-offs, and looking well set for spots at the World Cup.
73 mins: Ivory Coast have their first spell of possession since, well, a very long time ago. It ends with Kessie lifting a ball through towards and then beyond Kamara which bounces out of play.
69 mins: Ward-Prowse’s 30-yarder dips just too late to go under the bar, and lands instead on the roof of the net.
67 mins: Bellingham tries to return the ball to Smith Rowe inside the area, but overhits it.
66 mins: England have looked like they’re about to score all half, somehow without even creating a particularly good chance.
64 mins: Ivory Coast bring on Ghislain Konan for Cornet.
62 mins: Harry Kane, Phil Foden, Luke Shaw and Emile Smith Rowe come on for England, while Mitchell, Grealish, Watkins and Sterling go off.
60 mins: Such is England’s superiority, this is taking on the air of one of those things where chess grandmasters play 30 schoolboys at the same time and beat them all.
58 mins: Grealish passes to Bellingham, who spins nicely into space but crosses less nicely into Deli.
55 mins: In other World Cup-related news tonight, Portugal and Poland are beating North Macedonia and Sweden respectively, both 1-0, while Ghana and Senegal have qualified from Africa. Though we might not have heard the last of this:
I mean, just look at this. Salah sails his penalty over… and surely anybody would, given the lasers.
— Henry Bushnell (@HenryBushnell) March 29, 2022
Mane scores, Senegal wins the shootout, Egypt out of the World Cup pic.twitter.com/tgHmCmW8uu
54 mins: Kamara brings down Bellingham but escapes unbooked.
51 mins: Bellingham turns past Hassane Kamara, but his cross from the left somehow goes unconverted.
50 mins: Those three Ivorian subs in full: Bailly, Pepe and Gradel went off, and Emmanuel Agbadou, Willy Boly and Fousseny Coulibaly came on.
No penalty to England!
48 mins: An easy decision, the defender getting a hefty touch on the ball before he came anywhere near Bellingham.
Penalty to England!
47 mins: Bellingham goes down in the area and the referee points to the spot! I think VAR might have a second look at this, though.
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46 mins: Peeeeeeep! Shot! Ivory Coast shoot straight from kick-off, but Pope is untroubled.
The players are back out. England have brought Kyle Walker-Peters on for Ben White, while Ivory Coast have made three changes, details to come.
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Jerome is “currently sat in the pub outside Wembley after the shambles of a bag drop outside the stadium. My daughter and her mate have gone in so not all bad but with a 60-90 minute wait I might have got in for 2nd half injury time!” I heard recently that at Tottenham fans with bags above minimal side have to pay exorbitant fees to store them in lockers during matches. I do feel there must be some way to safely accommodate bag-bearing fans, because there are always going to be some.
A very decent first half for England. To be fair, Ivory Coast look very much like the kind of side that would come second in their CAF qualifying group and now there are only 10 of them, but there has been some sweet interplay, a particularly decent-looking midfield, and two goals to cap it.
Half time: England 2-0 Ivory Coast
45+3 mins: Peeeeeep! We have had half of the time, and England have enjoyed it a lot more than their opponents.
45+2 mins: It is indeed a goal.
45+2 mins: VAR is checking this for something or other.
GOAL! England 2-0 Ivory Coast (Sterling, 45 mins)
A nice touch from Watkins releases Sterling for a run towards the penalty area. His shot is saved but drops to Grealish, who instead of shooting on the half-volley cuts back to Sterling, who turns it in!
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45 mins: It seems the booking was for dissent, because the referee didn’t give Aurier a free-kick when he made a massive drama out of some contact with Watkins, which looked like a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other, and anyway neither player fouled anyone.
44 mins: Sterling tries to dribble into enough space to have a shot, and fails.
🖇 @sterling7 x Watkins 🖇pic.twitter.com/HY5Ji0yFNu
— England (@England) March 29, 2022
42 mins: We still haven’t seen what Aurier was re-booked for. Dissent, perhaps. Play restarts with a goal kick.
Red card! Ivory Coast go down to 10!
40 mins: A Bellingham shot zips just wide, and in the moments afterwards Aurier gets a second booking! The Ivorian captain is heading back to the dressing room.
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37 mins: On a rare foray forward Ivory Coast win a corner, which is taken short allowing Nicolas Pepe to honk a cross miles over everybody and out of play.
34 mins: Chance! Ward-Prowse crosses to Rice, whose header gives Sangare some more catching practice.
33 mins: Seri also gets booked, for a foul on Sterling.
32 mins: England continue to look pretty decent, and Serge Aurier gets booked for a foul on the right flank. Ward-Prowse loops the free-kick straight to Sangare.
GOAL! England 1-0 Ivory Coast (Watkins, 30 mins)
The breakthrough! Sterling jinks past his marker on the left of the area and sends a low pass across goal. It looks to be running too close to Sangare but when the keeper misses it Watkins is left with a tap-in!
Updated
27 mins: A lovely pass from white to Sterling, who controls it nicely to set up a left-foot volley, but it also hits Deli and goes behind.
26 mins: Shouts of handball as Raheem Sterling’s cross deflects off Deli, whose arm couldn’t have been pressed harder against his chest. England settle for a corner, which is cleared.
24 mins: Maguire ushers Kessie out of play in the style of a thoroughly competent defender.
22 mins: I really liked Conor Gallagher’s performance on Saturday, but England do look significantly better with midfielders who actually play in midfield, instead of spending most of their time hanging out with the forwards.
19 mins: Grealish cuts in and has a shot from wide on the left that Sangare saves. Really he’s got no business shooting from there.
15 mins: Bellingham hits the post! He collects a pass from Grealish, plays a super one-two with Sterling and is through on goal, but his shot hits Sangare’s calf and deflects onto an upright!
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14 mins: Simon Deli has a nibble at Sterling’s ankles, conceding another free-kick.
11 mins: Hassane Kamara barges into Sterling on England’s right flank, conceding a free-kick which is headed behind for a corner which is caught by Badra Ali Sangare in the Ivorian goal.
10 mins: A thumbs up from the physio and Sterling rejoins the fray, though he doesn’t look entirely comfortable.
9 mins: The physios are out again, this time with Raheem Sterling feeling his left thigh.
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8 mins: A bit of pressure from England, but Ward-Prowse’s cross is headed clear and so is Rice’s (which might in fact have been a shot) a few moments later.
5 mins: White caught Gradel in an unfortunate and sensitive area with his follow-through after clearing the ball in the moments before that move, and it takes a while before Gradel is ready to play on.
4 mins: The ball breaks to Bellingham in midfield, but his pass to Watkins is cut out and he was offside anyway.
1 mins: Forty seconds in, and Ollie Watkins is on the floor after getting some studs in the knee courtesy of Simon Deli. It looks like he’s going to pull through.
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1 min: Peeeeeep! England kick off, are told to do it again, and kick off again.
On Saturday the players of Switzerland and England mingled while holding a Ukrainian flag on which the word “peace” was printed. Tonight the flag reappears, but it’s only England players holding it.
Out they come! About a 60-40 split between singing and not singing for the Ivorian anthem, which is a pretty jolly number.
The players are gathering in the vestibule, as the countdown to kick-off, um, counts, er, down.
“As someone who used to religiously check out the sale rails in C&A and Debenhams, may I say that the jacket Wilf Zaha is wearing would look completely at home in either of those places, if the shops were still trading?” writes Charles Antaki. “Possibly it might be priced a little higher than the traditional £29.99 but for aesthetic ghastliness it would fit right in.” As someone who used to religiously check out the sale rails in C&A, you are probably not qualified to comment on sartorial matters.
Gareth Southgate has a chat with Sky. Here he is on tonight’s captain, Raheem Sterling:
He’s the most senior player in the starting line-up. He’s a quiet leader. He’s exceptional at making some of the new players feel welcome. It’s perhaps a quality that wouldn’t be noticed outside the camp.
Pre-match reading: Gareth Southgate is preparing England to face a non-European side for the first time since 2018, as Nick Ames reports:
“In an ideal world we’d have exposed our players to more of that [variety],” he said. “We’ve always wanted to do it, at junior level as well. But we’ve missed that opportunity. When I talk to coaches from South America they’re regretting not having that opportunity as well. It’s been a factor in the last couple of years, with the difficulties we have all faced. It’s not what we would like but we’re in no worse a position than anyone else. It will be the teams that adapt best that succeed.”
Much more here:
If you’re wondering where Wilf Zaha is, he’s hanging out near the tunnel in a Gucci denim jacket. No football for him tonight.
The teams!
The two teams have been confirmed, and here they are. The only player to start both this game and Saturday’s against Switzerland is ... Arsenal’s Ben White. The only player to start neither this game nor Saturday’s against Switzerland is ... Arsenal’s Emile Smith-Rowe (and Fraser Forster, if you count late call-up goalkeepers). Ten changes, and Raheem Sterling captains.
England: Pope, White, Mings, Maguire, Mitchell, Bellingham, Rice, Ward-Prowse, Sterling, Watkins, Grealish. Subs: Shaw, Forster, Henderson, Guehi, Coady, Walker-Peters, Foden, Mount, Kane, Gallagher, Pickford, Smith Rowe.
Ivory Coast: Badra Ali Sangare, Kamara, Deli, Bailly, Aurier, Seri, Kessie, Gradel, Cornet, Pepe, Haller. Subs: Cisse, Diallo, Konan, Agbadou, Boly, Kouassi, Coulibaly, Kone, Ibrahim Sangare, Akouokou, Konate, Boli.
Referee: Erik Lambrechts (Belgium).
Here it is... your #ThreeLions! 👊 pic.twitter.com/qck4VgJXsQ
— England (@England) March 29, 2022
Hello world!
History! That’s what we’re witnessing this evening, as England and Cote d’Ivoire play for the first time ever. This seems surprising, with Ivory Coast having qualified for three of the last four World Cups, won their first Afcon title in 1992, and generally being an established international force, but then England don’t play African teams very often: Ivory Coast will be only the ninth African nation to have played England in all of history (after Cameroon (four matches), Egypt (three), Nigeria (three), Tunisia (three), Morocco (two), South Africa (two), Algeria (one) and Ghana (one)), the fifth to play them in England and the fourth to visit Wembley. England have never lost to an African side.
We don’t know much about what team Gareth Southgate is likely to pick, but we know it won’t be the same one that played against Switzerland on Saturday. “We’ve got a good squad, we want to give people opportunities and to see things across the week to see if people can play at the level,” he said in the build-up. “We want to keep all of the squad involved. I think that has been a strength for us. Players who come in perform well at the level and the team march on.” I would expect Harry Maguire, Tyrone Mings, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice to come into the side, while Ollie Watkins might replace Harry Kane, but that’s only informed guesswork, and I use the word “informed” entirely to make myself feel better.
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