Perhaps, the fire that engulfed the TV gantry on Friday at this bizarre stadium was a foreshadowing. When the action began, it was Phil Foden who channeled his fury, producing a scorching performance that was just too much for Andorra.
NS England The midfielder called the tune from start to finish, steering the team with his easy balance and range of passing, one of his many highlights with a scoop for Bukayo Saka’s goal.
It was a good night for England on the famed synthetic carpet here, with Jadon Sancho impressing, especially in the first half, when he scored Ben Chilwell’s first international goal. He later provided another assist to take Tammy Abraham to a 3–0 lead.
Gareth Southgate’s demand for finesse and bravery was noticed as England added flashes of late to the scoreline that better reflected the gap between the teams. It was attack versus defense the whole time; Men against boys.
Jack Grealish, who entered as a substitute, won a penalty that was converted by James Ward-Prause in the second attempt – his opening kick was beaten by Josep Gomes. And it was Grealish who ran towards the end, showing the strength to hold his defender, before shooting home the low shot. work done. With flowering.
England had never played in Andorra before and it would be fair to say that they have rarely played at a venue like this. One side of the complex was completely overlooked by apartment blocks – whose balconies provided a sort of executive box feel – and, if you looked hard enough at the night behind them, it was possible to make out the silhouette of the Pyrenees. Was.
There were officially 900 England fans but it looked like there were more in the 2,285 crowd – 70% of the capacity. They were not only smashed behind one goal, but were dotted around the rest of the field.
They wanted to see England play with excitement and Southgate chose a line-up to do so. He spoke on Friday of needing his No. 10 – in other words, his more technical forward – to unpick Andorra’s defensive structure rather than his No. 8 and so from the start, Jesse Lingard, Foden, Saka and There were molds.
Southgate felt he could do without a specialist defensive midfielder; He started Ward-Prause in front of the last four and it was Lingard and Foden on either side of him, probing, looking for the seams of space, in particular, with the pinged diagonals open for quick switches.
An early exchange from Foden to Sancho on the left wing was a feature as Andorra drew lines for the siege, and it was this combination that produced the breakthrough. This time, Sancho had come to the field for the ball and it was a lovely piece of control and awareness from him. He checked back to tame Ben Chilwell, who smashed home from close to the penalty spot.
The goal was initially dismissed for offside, but VAR stepped in to advise Katerina Monjul – who became the first woman to referee a senior men’s England game – to eliminate. After a long wait, she did so and Chilwell could celebrate. This was the third time lucky for Chilwell, who had passed twice before, after Foden’s pass; Maybe he did better with a second chance. It was a goal that was fraught with personal significance, given how Chilwell had barely performed at Euro 2020 and struggled by the minutes at Chelsea in the opening season. There was a late call-up by the left-back Southgate, who was dropped in September.
This first half was weird. seemed afterwork-on-the-astro; One team is clearly better, the other looking forward to the beer later. The dominance of the English occupation was complete, with Foden at the center of the best stuff. It was hard to remember Andorra stringing three passes together and the only question was what England could make.
Abraham led the goalkeeper, Gomes, and John Stones high after a Ward-Prause free-kick when it should have scored. Foden made second for Saka with a lovely ball on the inner right channel, which ended with a vicious drive, and the biggest threat to England was Andorra’s desire to push the boundary that was acceptable in tackles.
There was an undercurrent of needles that kept Monjul busy, and no one in England was happy when Jesus Rubio unnecessarily left something on the mold in the stop-time of the first half. Southgate looked annoyed and Sancho had to hold back on his way to the interval, pointing to Rubio as if he wanted to continue the argument in the tunnel.
In the middle of the second half, Mark Rebess cleared Conor Cody with an elbow, which could have been a red card but was certainly a second yellow for the midfielder. Monjul let him go.
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Foden is a joy when he’s on song and it was his night. He enjoyed himself even more, demanding the ball, running with it, easily pasting the red shirt and bragging about with his delivery.
Sancho was good too, which was needed. When Southgate said the winger didn’t deserve to be picked in form, it sounded like a warning. Sancho had to perform. He has done. It was his cross from which Abraham had gone wide in 57 minutes and another centre-forward was converted from him two minutes later.