GROUP D
England 1-1 Scotland
Rashford 24
Griffiths 46
Duncan Gordon
Wembley Stadium, London, England
Friday 19th June
It is often the misfortune of others that creates the space for someone to succeed. The adage rings true in many walks of life and football is no different. While Harry Kane, so often England’s hero, laboured around the Wembley pitch, failing to have an impact on today’s match, Marcus Rashford stepped out from his shadow to announce himself as England’s star striker. The Manchester United forward was an injury doubt before the game, but he scored with a pin-point finish for the second game running as England battled to a draw against a dogged Scotland side.
It does not get much bigger than this. A major tournament clash at the Home of Football between England and Scotland, who contested the first ever international football match in 1872 on a cricket pitch in Glasgow. Around 80,000 Scotland supporters descended on London today, about 30,000 of them with match tickets, revelling in the occasion. The Tartan Army took over Trafalgar square while the press snapped the up-kilt shots of inebriated supporters frolicking in the fountains that have become customary on these occasions down the years.
Some of the Scots with longer memories would have been telling anyone who would listen about invading the Wembley pitch and stealing the goalposts after a 2-1 win in 1977, while the older red-and-white-clad England supporters were recalling the 5-1 victory over their rivals two years prior, against a team that included Kenny Dalglish. England fans were full of confidence, with their team beginning the tournament as joint favourites and coming into this game off the back of a heartening 2-0 vanquishing of a strong Croatian team.
The festival atmosphere in and around Wembley was disappointingly tarnished before kick off by booing and whistles during both national anthems, another custom of this fixture that does not want to disappear. Nonetheless, this was one ugly blemish on an otherwise fantastic occasion and excellent advert for British football.
England were dealt a blow in the pre-match warm-up as Liverpool’s Joe Gomez, impervious against Croatia, was injured during a heading exercise in the warmup. He was replaced by Manchester City’s John Stones, undoubtedly a talented defender, but one that can also be frustrating, as England, to their detriment, were once again reminded today. The Three Lions still started the brighter of the two sides, as Jordan Henderson controlled the game from midfield, drawing Scotland players towards him and creating the space for Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho to strut their stuff further forward.
With 10 minutes gone, Henderson pinged a ball over the top of the Scotland defence towards the left-hand side of the penalty area. Raheem Sterling outpaced Scotland right-back Liam Palmer to pluck the ball out the sky. As Palmer came rushing back to meet him on the corner of the box, Sterling lifted the ball over the defender’s outstretched leg with his right boot before planting his left leg and swinging his right foot through the ball. The spectacular volley had Scotland keeper David Marshall leaping towards the top left corner, but the ball rose just over the bar, to ooohs from the crowd.
One spectator who appreciated that moment of magic was Paul Gascoigne, architect of perhaps the greatest goal in this fixture, his Euro 96 lob over the blonde locks of Colin Hendry and volleyed finish at the old Wembley permanently etched into the memories of England fans. Gazza was sat in the poshest of the posh seats next to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the two shared a grin and puffed out their cheeks at Sterling’s improvisation.
After a brief flirtation with playing two strikers against the Czech Republic, Scotland reverted to the more defensive 4-5-1 formation that had seen them grind out two 0-0 draws in the play-offs against Israel and Serbia that led to their penalty shootout victories. Steven Fletcher made way for an extra body in midfield, in the form of John Fleck, who enjoyed a marvellous season as Sheffield United qualified for the Europa League. However, Fleck and his midfield counterparts John McGinn of Aston Villa and Celtic’s Ryan Christie struggled to get on the ball as the English players danced around them.
It felt like a matter of time before the Scottish resistance would break and after 24 minutes Sterling cut in from the left flank and slid the ball between the Scotland centre-back pairing of Scott McKenna and Grant Hanley. Marcus Rashford ran onto the through ball and took it well beyond the defence with his left foot. As he approached the box, Marshall tried to make himself look big, but Rashford opened his body up and curled the ball into the far top corner with his right foot.
Rashford wheeled away in delight, his teammates piled on top of him and half of Wembley went mad. Gareth Southgate turned towards the crowd and roared with righteous delight, one of the buttons of his waistcoat bursting into the stand.
At that moment it felt as though England would run away with it, as they did the last time these sides met at Wembley. England strolled to a 3-0 victory that day in a match that all but ended Scotland’s dim hopes of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.
But today’s Scotland are a different beast to what we have seen before. Although the last minute equaliser they conceded in the previous match showed that the mental fragility when trying to hold onto a lead is still there, the gritty draws in qualifying, especially in the fiery atmosphere of Belgrade, showed a steel to this team that hasn’t been apparent for a long time.
Scotland did indeed rally after the opening goal and made the rest of the first half an entertaining affair. McGinn and Fleck started to win a few 50-50s in midfield, while James Forrest caused English left-back Ben Chilwell serious concerns with his quick bursts of pace. Scotland’s best chance of the half fell to lone striker Leigh Griffiths who turned the lackadaisical John Stones on the edge of the penalty area but placed the ball just past the wrong side of the post. Stones got a rollicking from his defensive partner Harry Maguire for the lapse in concentration as they jogged upfield for the goal-kick.
A lot was made before the game of the contest between Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold. The two flying full backs have been key to Liverpool’s Champions League and Premier League successes over the past two years and they faced each other on the same flank for the first time today. The two came to loggerheads as Robertson went straight through ball and club teammate to put an end to a dangerous England attack, in a manner that Alexander-Arnold clearly felt was overzealous. The pair exchanged a few angry words with each other before they broke into laughter and made up with Robertson jokingly giving his mate a shove in the back. The teams went into the dressing rooms at the break evenly matched, with just Rashford’s precision strike separating them.
Seats made available to corporate sponsors sadly make up a greater percentage of the tickets sold at this year’s tournament than at any previous European Championships. Large swathes of these seats were empty when the second half started with a bang. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain played the ball back to Stones just outside his own penalty area who was chased down by Griffiths. Inexplicably, Stones decided to roll his foot over the ball and try to take it around Griffiths, rather than playing it to one of his teammates. Griffiths is a tricky little customer at close quarters and nicked the ball off him. He took a touch into the box before blasting it high past Jordan Pickford into the roof of the England net.
Griffiths’s eyes bulged with glee before he took off towards the corner flag, stopped dead, stood on one leg and placed both his hands over his right eye as if looking through a telescope. The Scotland players have reportedly taken to calling manager Steve Clarke ‘the Pirate’ in reference to him sporting an eyepatch due to the injury sustained in the missile-throwing incident against Serbia, and this celebration was an ode to him. Clarke was asked about the celebration in the post-match press conference, to which he replied, ‘I’m not sure what that was all about’, with a wink. Or was it a blink?
Two people who missed the goal were Johnson and Gascoigne, who were caught by the television cameras still enjoying a libation in the private box together when the goal went in. Gazza would have enjoyed that cheeky celebration as well.
England were rattled and the next 10 minutes were a frantic affair as space appeared and both sides had chances. England captain Harry Kane had hardly touched the ball in the first half and squandered the best opportunity to come his way as he headed well over the crossbar from a looping Alexander-Arnold cross. There had been some calls to drop the underperforming striker from the starting line-up, which Southgate did not heed. However, after 65 minutes Kane made way for Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham to warm applause from the England support. It was notable that no one seemed too upset with the decision.
For the last 25 minutes of the game England really piled the pressure on their old rivals as Scotland dug in. Marcus Rashford was let loose upon the tiring Scotland defenders and peppered Marshall’s goal with shots from in and around the 18-yard box. The Manchester United man looked a class apart on the big stage, despite apparently playing on painkillers after his awkward fall against Croatia. England supporters will be hoping he has not done himself further damage after today’s high-tempo performance.
Jadon Sancho also looked threatening, frequently taking on more than one defender before providing for a teammate or having a go himself. One particularly tasty effort looked to be creeping in the bottom corner before Marshall somehow flicked it away with his fingertips.
Not only Marshall, but several of the Scotland players performed heroics as they threw their bodies in the way of the ball to block a shot or intercept a cross. With seven minutes left of normal time, an exhausted John McGinn caught Abraham from behind with a nasty lunge. He was given a second yellow card, to add to his first-half handball, and took as long as was physically possible to wade off the pitch to whistles from the crowd.
Would it be another plucky performance ending in bitter disappointment for Scotland? It looked that way in the final seconds of injury time as a Henderson pass fed Rashford, who darted through on goal, but Marshall came flying off his goal line to slide in at Rashford’s feet and put it out of play. The referee blew the final whistle. The Scotland fans greeted a famous performance with bellows of relief while the England fans respectfully applauded their players after a difficult game. England will feel they did enough to win the game, if only they had been more clinical, but still sit in a strong position as group leaders. Meanwhile, Scotland are just happy to still be alive in the tournament after two games and will look forward to taking on the talents of Croatia in Glasgow.
Man of the Match: Marcus Rashford