At times during the opening half‑hour of England’s slow‑burn 2-0 defeat of Ukraine the only real football on show was that very modern kind of non‑football: the things that happen in the strange, dead time while everyone in the stadium waits for the assistant referee to raise the flag for offside. This was the only real entertainment on show: invalid entertainment.
There was one of these moments shortly before England’s opening goal as Harry Maguire chased back to retrieve a loose ball, then just seemed to stop. Except it wasn’t that. Maguire hadn’t actually stopped. There he was, still going, still turning like a fully-laden container ship easing its way grandly out of port. We’re still on. This was just Maguire attempting to sprint.
