Euro Cup 2020: England drop to first qualification defeat in a decade

There have been many raw nights in the history of the England team. When the reality of the nation’s place in the game’s world order has been delivered with a jolt if Gareth Southgate’s side can learn anything from their ancestors’ failings it is that there may be time to fix it. Football fans can book Liverpool Tickets on our website on exclusively discounted prices.

Southgate says, very little of any good that his team could take out of this performance The kind of defeat that might curb a few England careers and certainly send the manager back to his Euro Cup 2020 planning. This was the night that England was supposed to go 5 wins from 5 in qualifying and sweep into the finals next summer. Instead of this, they find themselves with some vital problems in defense and midfield that need urgent attention. They have 5 five in the last 2 qualifiers.

If the warning signs were there against Kosovo in Southampton last month It got worst in Prague when Southgate’s players found themselves outplayed by a side they beat 5-0 at Wembley in March. An England team has not lost a qualifying game for a major tournament for ten years.

You have to go back to that terrible Wembley night against Croatia in 2007 for the last one they lost when something was at stake. That was the crushing finale for the Steve McClaren era and the failure to qualify for Euro 2008. The strange calibration of Euro 2020 qualifying means that although England look set to play their group games at Wembley.

They are now not assured of being a top seed in a home group. As for this night, the problems ran throughout the team. A failure to hold possession and then defend when they did not have the ball Once again, Michael Keane looked out of sorts and while it would be unfair to heap all the blame on the Everton man.

It is hard to see how Southgate goes into the tournament next summer with the Keane-Harry Maguire combination at center-back. It was a night when too many of Jordan Henderson’s passes did not find their mark and Declan Rice did little better.

These are problems that are not unexpected but to see them combine in quite such spectacular fashion poses the question once again. Is England really ready to break the 54-years-of-hurt curse? In November 2017, seven months before the World Cup in Russia was to come the following year.

Southgate made drastic changes to his formation. This was one of those nights when it felt his team was trying to tell him the same might be needed. Harry Kane scored a penalty in the first 5 minutes making it 5 goals from 4 qualifying games for the captain.

Yet the first half was considerably worse than that which followed after the break. Southgate readily admitted that he had got the formation wrong. Mason Mount making his first senior starts and lost in the black hole of the traditional No 10 position Possession was wasted by all but Kane alone.

He once again showed himself a tough passer of the ball in all situations, although mostly starved of chances to score. In the half-time, Roy Keane railed against Rice and Henderson and after the break Southgate switched from the 4-2-3-1 that had isolated Mount to more of a 4-1-2-3.

Rice sitting in front of the defense England did create chances but they always looked likely to give them up too. When the ball fell to the substitute Zdenek Ondrasek, the 30-year-old debutant who plays for FC Dallas in Major League Soccer could scarcely have had more time to score the winner.

The last time England lost a qualifier was against Ukraine in the final match for 2010 World Cup qualification. When a place at the finals was already in the bag and Fabio Capello was generally agreed to be a genius at qualifying come the end of the finals the following summer Capello was generally agreed to be a disaster at tournaments.

Although it would be hard to see the agreement shift quite so radically for Southgate International football has a strange way of exposing even the most capable coaches. Perhaps it is a natural passer that Southgate needs.

It was notable that in the first half the 21-year-old Spartak Moscow midfielder Alex Kral caught the eye for the Czechs. Flowing curls and a lot of time on the ball England rarely managed to connect up midfield and attack. Their best move coming in the fourth minute.

A ball into Kane from Mount was expertly turned around the corner and into the path of Raheem Sterling in full flight down the left-wing. He ran in on goal at an angle tight to the byline and slammed on the brakes. Defender Lukas Mahouts was coming in to block in anticipation of the shot.

Down went Sterling for an easy penalty for referee Damir Skomina to award and Kane had his 27th international goal in 42 caps. Only once again in the half would they build that kind of move again. A tackle from Maguire in the 33rd minute began a good passing sequence that ended with a chance for Kane.

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