Key events
“No idea why Maddison’s whingeing about the yellow,” says James Humphries. “That was yer classic ankle-scissor, and he even held on after the ball was clearly away. Cynical boy.”
I find the deluded entitlement of modern footballers and managers fascinating. You could have two identical incidents, one on each side, and I reckon 98 per cent of players would think that one merited much greater punishment than the other.
Half time: Ukraine 1-1 England
Peep peep! Goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kyle Walker enlivened a largely dull half in Wroclaw. England dominated possession without creating much, though they were more penetrative after the unwelcome shock of Zinchenko’s goal. See you in a bit for the second half.
45 min Saka’s deep cross is headed back across goal by Kane, but Bellingham slips and nobody else is able to get to it.
44 min “I’m really struggling to understand why Southgate has picked two defensive midfielders in Rice and Henderson and left out AGAIN the in-form Rashford,” says Rick Harris. “We have no threat down the left which was so predictable. Maddison is very similar to Grealish – impact sub at best.”
Well, Henderson plays as a No8 so he’s not really a defensive midfielder, though I know what you mean. Personally I think he’s right to have a look at Maddison, although I’d also like to see him try Foden as one of the No8s.
43 min Yaremchuck is booked for standing on Henderson’s foot. There was a check for offside on Walker’s goal but he was fine.
That was an excellent goal, and a delightful moment for Walker. Kane had time on the ball, near the centre circle, and considered his options. Walker’s aggressive run infield demanded a pass, and Kane curled the ball superbly over Mykolenko. Walker controlled it neatly on the half-volley, ignored the vertigo and flicked the ball past Bushchan from close range.
GOAL! Ukraine 1-1 England (Walker 41)
Kyle Walker has scored his first goal for England!
41 min “You wrote that Saka’s shot was blocked by ‘Stepanenko (I think),” says Scott Blair. “Given that I suspect most of us following the fitba’ on the Guardian website don’t have the game on the telly, I would just be brass-necking that. Stepanenko. Of course it was! Who else?!”
I’m just terrified of being cancelled (I think).
39 min Nothing much is happening. England haven’t been bad, just been a bit meh. Ukraine are doing a number of them. It’s a Mourinho masterclass!
37 min “Thanks, Shaun Tooze, very kind, but I don’t think I could cope with a Scotland v England final, so I’ll settle for us knocking England out during the group phase on our way there,” says Simon McMahon. “As for you James Humphries, you’ll be pleased to know that ‘Dundee’ beat Dunfermline 3-0 in the Scottish Challenge / IrnBru / Tunnocks Tea Cake Cup this afternoon. Jim McLean would have been proud.”
36 min Bellingham angles a superb through pass to Maddison, whose first touch on the edge of the area is unusually poor. Instead of taking it in his stride, which would have put him in on goal, he left the ball slightly behind.
34 min This is all a bit ponderous from England. Ukraine deserve credit, though – they’re well organised defensively and have given England very little room in the final third.
England are starting to get frustrated with a few refereeing decisions. Maddison, unhappy at not getting a free-kick, takes out Zabarnyi and is booked.
32 min “Enjoying the MBM as ever,” says Peter Allan. “Last night’s MBM of the Scotland game was great too. Oh wait- there wasn’t one. Or any coverage till well after the game. Still, as long as football’s coming home eh?”
If it was up to me we’d be retro MBMing Scotland 3-1 Czechoslovakia from 1977 right now. I don’t really have any editorial involvement (I work remotely, as a freelancer) but I do know they are very stretched at the moment. It’s not possible to do all the games we’d like to. For example I really want us to do every Brighton game in the Europa League, as it’s such a great story and the Guardian and Brighton share a love of foie gras, but we don’t have the resources.
30 min I thought it was Mudryk who put Henderson through a couple of minutes ago, but it might have been a very good pass from Kane; it’s hard to tell from the angle we’ve seen.
29 min Twenty seconds later, Henderson clips over the bar from the edge of the area. The first chance was the big one.
28 min Kane is tackled by Mudryk, who inadvertently plays a through pass to Henderson in the area. He could shoot – should shoot – but instead tries a square pass to Maddison, who is tackled.
27 min That was the first shot on target at either end.
That was a well-worked goal. Tsygankov found the overlapping Konoplia on the right side of the area, and his cutback was finished calmly by the onrushing Zinchenko.
GOAL! Ukraine 1-0 England (Zinchenko 26)
Well that’s made life interesting.
23 min Ukraine break when Konoplia nicks a telegraphed pass from Chilwell, but Zinchenko’s through pass to Yaremchuk is too heavy.
23 min Saka is limping. He was kneed in the thigh by Mykolenko a few minutes ago, so maybe the problem.
22 min Stepanenko is booked for taking a shortcut through Maddison.
21 min Mykolenko’s cross is miskicked towards his own goal by Rice, but Walker gets between Mudryk and the ball, which allows Pickford to come out and claim the ball.
19 min Bellingham’s inswinging cross is inadvertently headed towards his own goal by Matviyenko, giving Bushchan something to do. He saves comfortably.
17 min For all England’s possession, the keeper Georgiy Bushchan has had the square root of bugger all to do. England’s tempo hasn’t been great, though it is a very hot day in Wroclaw so maybe they’re playing the long game.
16 min At times when England have the ball their formation is 3-1-5-1, with Chilwell and Saka as the wide players and Walker in defence. Have you ever seen the like.
15 min Maddison strolls past Sudakov, who pulls him back and is a little fortunate to avoid a yellow card.
13 min A loose ball is chested down on the edge of the area by Saka, who hits a rasping drive that is well blocked by Matviyenko (I think). Moments later Bellingham plays a neat one-two with Henderson, only to leave the ball behind in the area.
12 min Henderson combines with Saka on the right but overhits his cross. England win the ball back quicksmart; they are very dominant at the moment.
11 min Ukraine enjoy their first extended spell of possession. The pace of the game is pretty slow, which might be related to the heat.
9 min Maddison turns Konoplia neatly and flips a pass out to Saka near the byline on the right. He plays it back to Walker and the attack loses momentum, but that was a confident bit of play from Maddison.
7 min Ukraine have barely had a kick. England’s shape is interesting, with Chilwell playing very high on the left and Walker sometimes tucking in as a third centre-back. The days of neat, symmetrical formations are long gone.
6 min “Not paid attention to England since the Euros,” says Graham Randall. “The whole Qatar thing didn’t sit right. Time to get back on the bandwagon I think.”
They’re in serious danger of winning Euro 2024. They were deceptively close to winning the World Cup as well.
4 min Bellingham walks past Stepanenko with disdain and slides a dangerous pass towards Saka in the area. He takes the ball in his stride but then runs out of room.
3 min Lots of early possession for England, albeit in harmless areas. Maguire is now playing to the left of Guehi, so I’m going to shut up about tactics.
1 min Harry Maguire is playing as the right-sided centre-back, with Guehi on the left. Maguire usually starts on the left for England, though not necessasrily for Manchester United anymore.
1 min Peep peep! Jordan Henderson gets the game under way, with England kicking from left to right as we watch.
Here come the players. It’s pretty warm, around 26 degrees, and the Ukraine fans are making a decent noise. This should be a good game.
A guide to Wroclaw
“It’s from a few years back,” writes James, “but my Guardian guide to Wrocław gives a bit of background to the place.”
“If I remember my MBMs correctly, isn’t Simon McMahon a Dundee fan?” says James Humphries. “Very surprising to hear such confidence, particularly considering <gestures broadly at the last 30 years of Scottish football in general, and Dundee in particular>. I’m still waiting to find out how we eff it up from 15 points out of 15, personally.
“Anyhow! Ukraine got a hope today, do we think, or is it another page in the long, sad history of England getting jammy groups?”
The Dundee part is correct, but you missed one small detail. As for today, it’s not beyond the realms but I can’t see it. I don’t think this is a particularly jammy group; England are just very good, and tournaments are getting bigger so it’s very hard not to qualify. I miss the days of an eight-team Euros. Look how tight some of these groups were, and the quality of the teams that didn’t make it.
Nick Ames on the bond between Ukraine and England
“Can you please assure Simon McMahon that there are very many (me included) from England wishing Scotland all the best,” writes Shaun Tooze. “Meeting in the final would be a bit special wouldn’t it*. But, you know, the French, Germans, Portuguese, Italians, Dutch…
“*understatement of the history of the universe.”
‘At Bayern you have to win every game… I’m enjoying those different emotions’
David Hytner’s preview
“Afternoon Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “When I read the line ‘They qualify without breaking sweat these days, and barring an astonishing collapse they’ll be in Germany next summer’ in your preamble, I assumed you were talking about Scotland. I have my lederhosen packed already and, rather than just being glad to qualify, am seriously hopeful that we could do some actual damage in the tournament itself. God knows we’ve waited long enough.”
It’s great isn’t it. The rebirth of Billy Gilmour makes me especially happy, never mind the emergence of Gerd McTominay.
James Maddison starts on the left of England’s attack
The state of play in Group C
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England P4 Pts 12
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Ukraine P3 Pts 6
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Italy P2 Pts 3
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North Macedonia P3 Pts 3
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Malta P4 Pts 0
The other game today is North Macedonia v Italy, which kicks off at 7.45pm BST.
Team news: Guehi starts
No big surprises in the England team. Marc Guehi replaces the injured John Stones at centre-back, Jordan Henderson starts in midfield and James Maddison is preferred to Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden.
Ukraine (4-2-1-3) Bushchan; Konoplia, Zabarnyi, Matviyenko, Mykolenko; Stepanenko, Zinchenko; Sudakov; Tsygankov, Yaremchuk, Mudryk.
Substitutes: Trubin, Lunin, Mykhaylichenko, Kryvtsov, Sydorchuk, Yarmolenko, Dovbyk, Buyalskiy, Vanat, Popov, Nazaryna, Karavaev.
England (4-1-2-3) Pickford; Walker, Guehi, Maguire, Chilwell; Rice; Henderson, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Maddison.
Substitutes: Johnstone, Ramsdale, Trippier, Colwill, Tomori, Phillips, Dunk, Eze, Rashford, Foden, Gallagher, Wilson.
Referee Georgi Kabakov (Bulgaria)
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Euro 2024 qualifier between Ukraine and England. If you’re looking for jeopardy, you’ve come to the wrong place. Tonight’s match is being played in Poland, which used to be where England qualified for major tournaments by the skin of their teeth: Peter Shilton touching a last-minute heatseeker onto the crossbar in 1989, Gary Lineker scoring a spectacular late equaliser two years later.
They qualify without breaking sweat these days, and barring an astonishing collapse they’ll be in Germany next summer. The most interesting thing about these games is the evolution of the team rather than the need for three points. Some players, like James Maddison, Marcus Rashford and Trent Alexander-Arnold when he’s fit, are trying to play their way into Gareth Southgate’s best XI for next summer; others, like Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson, are trying to stay in it.
It’s a bigger game for Ukraine, who are scrapping with Italy and North Macedonia for the other automatic qualification place. A result tonight would set them up for an even more important match on Tuesday: Italy away.
Kick off 5pm BST/6pm Wroclaw/7pm Kyiv
