Spain 2 England 3
Sterling 16 Rashford 29 Sterling 38 Alcacer 56 Ramos 90+8
——–
Wow! We took our chances instead of missing them.
When the third goal went in, Martin Tyler, said, “It’s a Monday night masterclass for Gareth Southgate and his team.”
Co-commentator Alan Smith sounded stunned, as if he could not believe what he’d seen.
Smudger said, ”Amazing. The Spain back four have been pushed and pulled. The movement off the ball from England has been fantastic.”
And I said, “How wrong can you be?”
When we went 2-0 up I said “Arise Sir Gareth! He has to be knighted now.”
Sevilla 2018 will be remembered as a classic game of two halves.
Under pressure in the second half, we still didn’t have the craft to hold the ball well enough. But we won the match because Luis Enrique’s reconfigured team started with a very high line, pressed fiercely whenever they lost the ball, and left acres of space between David De Gea and his defenders.
Their plan was to slice through England at high speed. But we sliced through them at high speed.
We dissected Spain with astute early passes to exploit the burning pace of Rashford and Sterling and we scored three beautiful and spectacular goals.
A dramatic and unexpected 3-2 victory by England.
VERDICT: Football is a game of two halves.
Last night’s second half was nothing like the first, possibly because both sides were shocked by what had happened up to that point. Nobody expected England to be 3-0 up in 38 minutes.
The starting elevens:
SPAIN: De Gea, Jonny, Nacho, Ramos, Alonso, Saul, Busquets, Thiago, Asensio, Aspas, Rodrigo
ENGLAND: Pickford, Trippier, Dier, Gomez, Maguire, Chilwell, Barkley, Winks, Sterling, Rashford, Kane
More later on England.
Arsenal v Leicester is the Monday Night Football on Sky.
I’m convinced that Emery’s Arsenal will be better after an international break than Wenger’s team was and I’ll explain that as soon as I can.
Chelsea v Man United is on Saturday.
It’s a 12.30 kick-off.
PS. Last night Mrs Palmer showed me a map of the Adriatic and pointed out Rijeka. It’s an industrial town way up north near the Austrian border and it’s where the Jadrolinija Ferry Company have their HQ.
Jan took this photo of one of their ships :