England secured top spot in their Nations League group in dramatic fashion on Sunday night with a famous 3-2 win over world champions Spain in Madrid.
The Three Lions produced a magnificent performance over the first hour to race into a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Harry Kane, Ezri Konsa and Ben White.
However, Elliot Anderson‘s red card turned the game on its head. Goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and Nico Williams dragged Spain back into it, and La Roja came close to completing a terrific comeback, only for James Trafford to deny them.
England’s flying start
England made a hugely impressive start. Spain wanted to dominate possession, and Thomas Tuchel‘s side matched them by going man-to-man with a high press all over the pitch. It led to chances.
Jude Bellingham and Anthony Gordon forced mistakes and turned the ball over in dangerous areas, even winning set pieces from which England looked particularly threatening. Bellingham probably should have put them ahead early on from a Declan Rice delivery, only to see his close-range volley brilliantly saved by Unai Simon. England’s second goal came via the same route, with Konsa finding space to head home Rice’s set piece.
Even when Spain managed to play through and push England back into a mid-block, Rice continued to lead the press superbly, triggering it against his Arsenal team-mates Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino.
In the build-up, Tuchel described this trip as a ‘proof of concept’ game against the best team in the world, and after the start England enjoyed, there could hardly be more proof needed. Within the first 20 minutes, England had registered four shots, four chances created, five completed take-ons and 18 final-third passes.
Kane’s penalty on the stroke of half-time was more than deserved, as were the goals from Konsa and White early in the second half. Until Spain’s first goal, it was a genuinely near-perfect display from the Three Lions both in and out of possession, and it will give the squad plenty of confidence heading into next year’s quarter-finals.
Rotation options state their case
With more than 18 months to go until the next major tournament, there are still places in Tuchel’s best XI up for grabs, and a few players made a strong case for a starting spot here, not least Trafford.
The Leeds goalkeeper has been rotated with Jordan Pickford since the World Cup, and after an hour he had barely been tested. But concentration is key, and he came up clutch in the closing stages to take England over the line.
After a handful of well-executed stops, his crowning moment came in the first minute of stoppage time, when he produced a stunning double save to deny Fermin Lopez and Aymeric Laporte. He finished with six saves, all of them in the final 30 minutes, while Pickford, bizarrely, was booked for dissent on the bench.
There are still questions for Tuchel to answer at full-back too, but Lewis Hall and White may have supplied some answers. Hall was involved throughout, taking the second-most touches for the Three Lions after Rice, completing five take-ons, creating one big chance and doing his part defensively with seven clearances.
White, on the other hand, will make the headlines with what proved to be the winning goal, and a well-taken one at that. The Arsenal man also made a superb tackle late on to snuff out a developing Nico Williams chance. He was less involved than Hall overall, but produced two eye-catching moments that will live long in the memory.
Game management pays off
Such was England’s dominance in the opening hour that Spain’s first shot on target was Oyarzabal’s 65th-minute penalty. But when Anderson brought down Lamine Yamal and was sent off, the game turned completely on its head.
The main question mark hanging over Tuchel since the World Cup has been his game management. England lost control in their semi-final defeat to Argentina. The German adopted a safety-first approach to protecting a lead, which had helped his side over the line against Mexico and Norway, but that game against La Albiceleste proved one step too far.
Here, the trouble started when Jarell Quansah was dispossessed, with Anderson then bringing down Yamal to concede the penalty. That seemed to set off a chain of events that put England on the back foot once more, and there were familiar patterns after Oyarzabal converted from the spot.
The man-to-man press became impossible with ten men, and England’s block understandably got lower and lower. That was partly down to defence-minded substitutions too. Myles Lewis-Skelly replaced Kane, and Bellingham was withdrawn shortly afterwards, much to his obvious annoyance.
More mistakes in possession crept in, including the one from Gordon that led to Spain’s second goal, and Tuchel’s approach needed to work. Had England thrown away such a comfortable lead, given what happened in the summer, he would have faced serious scrutiny.
Instead, thanks to their excellence earlier in the game, England clung on to secure a famous victory, condemning La Roja to their first defeat in 43 games and their first in Madrid for 39 years.
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