England’s Qualifiers In Focus: Villa Park Victory And Belgrade Demolition
England had quite the interesting international break, with the Three Lions securing victory over Andorra at Villa Park as well as a dominant 5-0 win against Serbia in Belgrade, where the goals were flowing and the football was so beautifully fluid. But how did they really get on? This is England’s qualifiers in focus!
England 2-0 Andorra
It was yet again another comfortable game for England against a lower-ranked side in Andorra. The victory back in June, 1-0, from a performance perspective was very underwhelming and lacked rhythm. Whilst there’s clearly still some way to go, there was improvement from that game in June to this one last Saturday at Villa Park.
There was an improvement in rhythm, the tempo was better, chances were being created and to some extent the pockets of space were being utilised fairly well. Naturally on a few occasions, particularly after 10-15 minutes in the 2nd half, that rhythm and tempo dropped and it became quite static. Thomas Tuchel made changes after an hour to try to inject that rhythm back into his England team and that worked.
Andorra sat in a very deep and well-organised 5-4-1 shape so having that intensity and dynamism was important to try to break through. Noni Madueke in the 1st half was someone that had good moments in the first half. Whenever he received the ball in a dangerous area, he looked to drive at the Andorra defenders and that consistent directness eventually led to a goal when his cross was flicked on and into the back of the net by Christian Garcia. England managed just 11 shots from 83 per cent possession, which is a bizarre stat.
In the 2nd half, as mentioned before, it did become static and that tempo decreased and Thomas Tuchel made good changes at the right time to change that walking-pace feeling. Just before those changes, Reece James provided a moment of excellence with a superb cross into the box for Declan Rice to head home comfortably. In terms of the performance after that, it wasn’t perfect but there was a bit of intensity that was better than what was seen prior to the 2nd goal. Anthony Gordon and Livramento in particular made a difference when they came on, even though it didn’t result in a 3rd goal.
Serbia 0-5 England
Serbia had quite a good start in the opening 20 minutes or so. They were well organised and compact, they pressed fairly well and they also had a couple of chances. After that good early spell, however, England were able to get control of the ball; they were creating chances, they were having opportunities and after 33 minutes, they found a goal from a set piece with Harry Kane scoring from a free header.
The rest of that 1st half was very, very good by the Three Lions, as it was clear they got into a good groove. The 2nd goal followed soon after, fantastic movement by Noni Madueke to give and go sharply and with that forward intent. Elliot Anderson played the ball into Rogers, who flicked it on brilliantly for Madueke to run onto, where the Arsenal man was able to finish it off in a composed manner.
Morgan Rogers was someone that grew into the game and his influence became greater in the 2nd half when he was getting on the ball on the half turn, where he was able to use such brilliant agility to get away from Serbian players. He didn’t get a goal but it was a good performance in that no. 10 role.
The 2nd half in general for England got better and better as each minute passed. They had total control in every defensive, attacking and physical aspect. The ball was moved with a purpose; an intensity and aggression was there with and without possession; the general rhythm was very good; chance creation was superb; and the goals scored were all fantastic in their own way.
Serbia looked totally out of ideas; they were toothless going forward, defensively got ripped apart, Nikola Milenkovic was sent off and they gave away a late penalty as well as conceding a total of five goals in front of their home crowd. It was an absolute disaster of a night for them. As for Tuchel’s men, it’s what you call a statement win and also in a sense, a middle finger to those who criticised Thomas Tuchel so heavily before.
Final Thoughts
The September international window couldn’t have gone any better for England, considering how underwhelming the June camp was. A decent and comfortable win over Andorra at Villa Park was followed by such a dominant display in a hostile environment away in Belgrade against Serbia. You can’t really ask for a better start in terms of competitive games, really: five games, five wins, no goals conceded with a total of thirteen goals scored. No England in history has had such a start to qualifying from a defensive perspective.
The key thing to take away from this qualifying campaign up to now is that Thomas Tuchel is building a good foundation to get results no matter the circumstances, a great base to have when you’re hoping to become world champions at the World Cup next year. This is far from the best of Thomas Tuchel’s England, his side will become even stronger.
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