England 2-1 Poland
If you had penned this headline before this World Cup 2022 qualifying encounter, you’d have automatically assumed it referred to England captain Harry Kane.
The Spurs sharpshooter did play his part in this Group I encounter, of course, netting his 34th international goal.
But the crucial moment arrived courtesy of his namesake, Manchester United captain Harry Maguire, who produced a strike five minutes from time that Kane would have been proud of.
That was one of the night’s World Cup 2022 highlights as England maintained their 100 per cent record in three matches and already it seems their opponents are playing for second spot.
Highlights of the game
Before kick-off, I questioned what England could really learn from this encounter against a Polish side missing their best player.
Whatever they learned – and I’m not convinced it was too much – they overcame the setback of a defensive error early in the second half to show character to regain the lead and ensure the SBOTOP World Cup 2022 betting odds were accurate.
Ben Chilwell replaced Luke Shaw in the only change for England from their win over Albania, while Poland – already missing the injured Robert Lewandowski – also had to make do without Mateusz Klich, Kamil Piatkowski and Lukasz Skorupski, who had tested positive for Covid.
Grzegorz Krychowiak did return but few expected Poland to prove too much of a challenge.
Indeed, the only time Poland have avoided defeat at Wembley in a competitive match was in 1973 – an infamous clash which cost England a place at the World Cup and promoted a famous quote about the Polish goalkeeper from the late great Brian Clough.
True, they had shown fighting spirit to twice come back to draw with Hungary in their opening qualifier last week before seeing off minnows Andorra with ease, but this was a different test.
Sure enough, they were behind here after only 20 minutes as Raheem Sterling’s heels were clipped in the box and Kane duly despatched the penalty.
The hosts were comfortably in control without ever being dominant, so it was a surprise 13 minutes after the restart when John Stones gave the ball away to Arkadiusz Milik, and the Marseille man set up Brighton’s Jakub Moder, who lashed the ball beyond Nick Pope.
It was to prove the Poles’ only effort on target all night, yet they came within five minutes of a point until Stone made amends, heading on a corner to his central defensive partner Maguire and the United man expertly slammed a rising shot into the roof of the net.
England may have made hard work of it but deserved the victory. As for supposed progress and improvement, we won’t know the answer to that key question until a major nation stands in their way at Euro 2020.
Such is the set-up of international football nowadays with expanded tournaments, that certainly isn’t going happen in qualifying.
Key statistics
Kane is now the all-time leading penalty scorer for England, netting 10 from the spot – one more than Frank Lampard.
He has been directly involved in 30 goals in 21 European Championship/World Cup qualifying matches (22 goals, eight assists), scoring at least once in each of his last 12 such appearances, stretching back to October 2017.
Excluding own goals, England have now scored 105 goals under Gareth Southgate, with Kane’s the 100th by players under 30 years of age; indeed, each of England’s last 81 goals have been scored by under 30s, since Gary Cahill netted against Nigeria in June 2018.
This was only Stones’ third assist in 324 senior matches for club and country.
England have lost just one of their 20 matches against Poland (won 12, drawn seven), losing 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier in June 1973 in Chorzow.
The Three Lions have won their past eight home matches against Poland, a run stretching back to 1989.
This was the eighth World Cup group stage qualification campaign to see England face Poland, the most of two nations in the history of European World Cup qualifying.
England have lost just one of their past 50 World Cup/European Championship qualifying matches, losing 2-1 against the Czech Republic in October 2019. At home, the Three Lions are unbeaten in 30 qualifiers (won 27, drawn three), winning each of their past 20.
What’s next?
Friendlies against Austria (June 2) and Romania (June 6 – TBC) are next for Southgate’s men in the build-up to their first Euro 2020 match against Croatia on June 13 – a re-run of the 2018 World Cup semi-final.
Poland have a friendly against Iceland lined up for June 8 before their Euro 2020 opener against Slovakia on June 14.
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