Key events
What makes Bukayo Saka so good? The obvious answer is ‘everything’. But for a player who is so stylish and watchable, his greatest quality might be a quietly devastating efficiency. Even his goal and assist today – both extremely hard things to do – were made to look almost routine.
For a young attacking player, the final frontier is to develop from fantasy footballer to Fantasy Footballer, one who deals in the hard currency of goals and assists rather than YouTube reels. Few 21-year-olds do it as well as Saka.
Never mind Bukayo Saka, let’s get back to shirt numbers
“The conventional numbering systems come from the gradual change from 2-3-5 to 4-4-2,” writes Thom Scott-Phillips. “Numbers first appeared on shirts when 2-3-5 was common, so the two fullbacks were 2 and 3, three halfbacks were 4, 5 and 6, and the front five were 7-11, numbering from one wing to the other.
“Then the change. The middle of halfbacks, the 5, was moved back, along with one of the other two: either the 4 or the 6. The other stays in midfield. Meanwhile one of the inside forwards, either the 8 or the 10, moves back into the midfield, while the other sits just off the centre forward, who is 9.
“Now you have your classic 4-4-2 numbering: 2 and 3 as fullbacks; 5 and either 4 or 6 at centre back; a midfield pairing one of 4 and 6 with one of 8 or 10; 7 and 11 as wide players; 9 as centre forward with either 8 or 10 sitting off them.
“For the era, that Liverpool side were very unconventional with their numbering.”
Half time: England 2-0 Ukraine
England are in control thanks to two moments of brilliance from Bukayo Saka. His unplayable cross led to Harry Kane’s opening goal, and three minutes later he flashed a 20-yard curler into the top corner as if it was the easiest and most obvious thing in the world.
45 min Three minutes of added time.
44 min As my sometime colleague Steve Bradfield points out, there was a Messiesque inevitability to that Saka goal – he basically passed the ball into the top corner, at pace, from 20 yards.
43 min Mudryk pings well wide from distance. England have kept Ukraine’s attackers very quiet.
42 min Suddenly England are rampant. Bellingham stretches to intercept a pass, 30 yards from goal, and immediately shovels it through to Kane in the inside-right channel. He smashes a low shot from 15 yards that is well saved by the falling Trubin.
What a fantastic goal! Henderson rolled a simple pass towards Saka, who was 20 yards out, back to goal and with Matviyenko tight against him. Too tight, in fact: Saka rolled him with ease, moved infield and flashed a curling shot into the far top corner. Brilliant.
GOAL! England 2-0 Ukraine (Saka 40)
Bukayo Saka is going to be a superstar!
39 min That was a slightly odd goal. At first it looked like a routine finish from Kane, but I’m almost certain Karavaev knocked the ball against him. Either way, it was a devilish cross from the increasingly unplayable Bukayo Saka.
Harry Kane extends his England record, though he didn’t know that much about it. He started the move himself by booming a crossfield pass out to Saka on the right. Saka moved to the edge of the area, teased Mudryk and curled a wicked inswinging cross towards the far post.
Kane fought for the ball with Karavaev, who got there first and tried to poke it behind for a corner. Instead the ball hit the leg of Kane, who was in the act of shooting himself, and flew past Trubin.
GOAL! England 1-0 Ukraine (Kane 37)
54+1 = 55.
36 min Maddison leads a promising four on four break. The ball gets slightly stuck under his feet – this pitch isn’t great – before he eventually gives it to Saka. His cross is half cleared, then Maddison had a shot blocked, then so does Henderson. The last block was the best one.
35 min Maddison has been… okay so far, no more or less. In that regard, he is perfectly in tune with his teammates.
34 min Maddison heads Henderson’s cross straight at Trubin from eight yards, but again it wouldn’t have counted as he was offside.
34 min Derrick Cameron writes in to remind us about Ivan Zamorano wearing No18 at Inter: 1+8 = 9, which had been claimed by some no-mark.
33 min Mudryk shows scary pace in the inside-left channel before his cutback is well read at the near post by Maguire. No matter: Yaremchuk was offside earlier in the move.
31 min “Zerouali was a ray of sunshine during a particularly bleak period of Scottish football outside the Old Firm,” says Matt Thomas. “ Was worth the entrance fee. Which admittedly with student discount wasn’t much. Rest in peace Hicham.”
Bloody hell I had no idea he died so young,
30 min Another chance for Kane, who pokes a bouncing ball over the bar after a quick free-kick from Maddison. This time he was definitely offside, though, so it wouldn’t have counted.
28 min Kane might have been fractionally offside when he missed that chance.
27 min England are starting to pin Ukraine back. They haven’t created many clear chances, mind, and could use a bit more wit in the centre of the field.
25 min: Chance for Kane! Henderson, in a typical inside-right position, flips a first-time cross towards the far post. Kane, bizarrely unmarked, misses an attempted flying volley with his left foot. The ball runs beyond the far post to Bellingham, whose fierce low cross ricochets off a couple of players – one of them Kane, by now on all fours – before being cleared.
23 min “For some reason,” writes Joe Pearson. “Fox Sports thinks American viewers want to watch Liechtenstein vs Iceland. What!? And I’m not going to pay for their premium streamer, so please keep the updates coming thick and fast. TIA!”
He’s not in the squad this time.
22 min Malinovskyi’s shot from the edge of the area is blocked by his teammate Mudryk. He caught that quite sweetly.
20 min Chilwell, still over on the right following a corner, swings a very deep cross that is headed straight at Trubin by Kane. He had to scramble over a defender so it was a quarter-chance at best.
Tell you what, the normalisation of xG has done a right number on that most useful liveblog cliche, the half-chance.
20 min “Given we’re talking shirt numbers,” says Andy Flintoff, “maybe the best of all time would be Hicham Zerouali’s 0 for Aberdeen, for which he had to get special permission from the SPL.”
So that’s who the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were singing about.
19 min England are dominating possession, though their attacking play so far has been slightly pedestrian.
18 min Trubin is fine.
16 min Saka’s overhit cross is spilled inexplicably by Trubin, who then reacts well to smother Maddison’s follow-up. Maddison follows through into Trubin, who stays down after wearing a few of Maddison’s studs. It was a bouncing ball, nothing vicious from Maddison.
15 min Yaremchuk walks through on goal, obviously offside but allowed to continue. Stones stops playing, then thinks he’d better try to make a tackle just in case. It’s too late for that, but Yaremchuk shoots wide and then the flag goes up.
13 min That did look like a foul on Bellgingham just outside the D, but the referee isn’t interested. And that’s why: replays show Stepanenko made a good tackle.
12 min “Numbers?” says Gary Naylor. “Ossie.”
Ossie? 4.40pm.
11 min England are starting to play some decent stuff. Chilwell gallivants down the left and curls an inviting cross that just evades Kane at the far post.
8 min Kane wriggles away from Svatok on the six-yard line and goes over. He’s convinced it’s a penalty, but the referee is having none of it and the VAR went back for seconds at the carvery so they’re all fast asleep. Svatok certainly didn’t get the ball, though I doubt it qualifies as a clear and obvious error. You can’t, at least from the replays I’ve seen, be certain that Svatok tripped Kane.
8 min Nothing much to report. The game so far has been as flat as the atmosphere, but there’s plenty of time for both to change.
6 min “Xavi and Iniesta were 6 and 8 for Barcelona,” says Simon Frank, “but 8 and 6 respectively for Spain, which I found odd.”
IT’S BECAUSE THEY WERE THE SAME PERSON. (Yes, yes, I know their styles of play were actually fairly different, but I’m a sucker for a cheap line.)
4 min Sudakov threads a dangerous pass inside Walker towards Mudryk, but Walker does well to get between man and ball. Moments later, Yaremchuk’s shot from the edge of the D has the sting taken out of it by Maguire and Stones.
3 min Malinovskyi is fine.
2 min “Re: the heated debate about the number a midfielder should wear I’ll throw a spanner in the works and point out that Peter Cormack, Ray Kennedy and Ronnie Whelan all played in midfield for Liverpool but wore No5 shirts,” says Michael Smith. “I don’t recall any outrage against this disrespect for football tradition at the time but perhaps we need a retrospective condemnation?”
I’m here for you.
1 min Malinovskyi wins a header near the halfway line and is flattened by Chilwell. I’m not sure whether it was a clash of heads or whether Chilwell caught him with the arm. Either way Malinovskyi is down and looks pretty groggy.
1 min Peep peep! The 21-year-old phenomenon known to all as Bukayo Saka gets the game under way.
We’re slightly behind schedule. I don’t know why I said ‘we’ there, I’ve got bugger all to do with it. As I type, the players have gathered round the centre circle for a minute’s applause in honour of one of the boys of 66, George Cohen.
“Re: Liverpool ‘86,” begins Rich in south Wales. “They had form for this. Check out the ‘88 and ‘89 teams. Always going with the No2 and 6 centre-back pairing. Only team in the 80s FA Cup finals to do that, so… have we stumbled upon the real reason they dominated the decade? Seems suspicious to me.”
We’ve all heard of financial doping, but shirt-number doping sounds far more interesting. Not that I have a solitary clue how it might work.
As the players line up for the anthems, Ukraine’s players draped in their flag, here’s a reminder of the two teams.
England (4-3-3) Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Chilwell; Henderson, Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Maddison.
Substitutes: Trippier, Ramsdale, Guehi, Dier, Grealish, Phillips, Gallagher, Toney, Forster.
Ukraine (4-3-3) Trubin; Karavaev, Svatok, Matviyenko, Mykolenko; Sudakov, Stepanenko, Zinchenko; Malinvoskyi, Yaremchuk, Mudryk.
Substitutes: Lunin, Shevchenko, Sobol, Sarapii, Sydorchuk, Konoplianka, Dovbyk, Miroshnichenko, Buyalskiy, Tsygankov, Bondarenko, Pikhalonok.
The pre-match thoughts of Gareth Southgate
[Getting six points out of six] would put in a really strong position, but also we want to develop those habits of consistent performances and consistent results. That’s the message we’ve delivered this weekend.
[James Maddison] has earned this opportunity. He’s been consistent for his club, his training with us has been at a really top level, so I’m really excited to see him play now. We want him to have the licence to drift; that’s what he’s good at. He’s great at finding pockets of space so I don’t want to restrict him too much. He’s obviously got to do his work without the ball but when we’ve got the ball he’s got that freedom to go and hurt them.
It’s great to have [Ben Chilwell] back and in good condition. He’s excellent getting forward and running in behind, so we’re excited about seeing that pair [with Maddison] down that side.
We’re hugely respectful of everything that’s happening [in Ukraine] and there are lots of tributes here and a lot of sympathy and support. Equally, from our perspective, we have a job to do, and they want to knock us out. It is a game of football, there are a lot more important things going on in the world, but our focus has to be on this.
“Judging from the shirt numbers given out,” begins Nigel Moore, “it looks like Southgate has gone with a retro 2-3-5 formation which was de rigueur in the 1950s before all the professors started to stick their fingers into formations.”
I’ve been looking at England’s squad numbers for Italia 90. Neil Webb, a playmaker, was No4 and Terry Butcher No6. Then again, Bryan Robson was No7, so what do you say about that.
“Am I the only one,” says Jeff Sax, “who thinks Declan Rice is overrated?”
I believe your opinion is shared by two other titans of central midfield: Graeme Souness and Roy Keane.
“4 and 8 would be traditional English numbers for midfield,” says Dom Thomas. “5 and 6 would be the two centre halves. 6 is a holding midfielder in Spain/Argentina/Germany.”
And now in England, right? I wonder when it changed. Maybe when we all started to worship at the altar of “Pep”.
“You are, as ever, correct,” says Richard Hirst. “FA Cup final 1975 – Alan Mullery No4, Bobby Moore No6. Never to be forgotten!”
You say that, but I’ve just had a look at Liverpool’s team for the 1986 FA Cup final and I could barely be more wrong if Bruce Grobbelaar had worn No722.
This is the first time England have played Ukraine since the start of the war against Russia last February. It’s hard to think of anything original or profound to say about it, but it will always be part of the story of today’s game.
In recent months, Jude Bellingham has joined Gareth Southgate’s list of nigh-on guaranteed picks. He’s still only 19.
“Kudos to England for using sequential shirt numbers, 1 through 11 in the classical style,” says Peter Oh. “It looks like the numbers correspond to positions, with one exception. Unless Maguire (6) is meant to be holding midfielder today, shouldn’t he switch with Rice (4)? Regardless, I applaud the effort. I reckon Harry Kane will be working hard to add to his record-breaking scoring tally. Nine to fifty-five, what a way to make a livin’!”
I may have misremembered this, but when I first started watching football (1980s) it wasn’t unusual for the second centre-back to wear No6 and one of the central midfielders to be No4.
Just one small question, Harry: why are you trolling yourself?
H.E. Kane: 54 not out
Qualification for major tournaments has been a formality under Gareth Southgate, and England’s win in Naples on Thursday means they are already ahead of the game. It’s not the easiest group, actually – Italy, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Malta – but with two teams qualifying automatically and a third entering the playoffs, England have plenty of margin for error.
In fact, their brilliant record in qualifying predates Southgate. In the last 10 years they’ve won 37 out of 43 games, with a solitary defeat in Prague in 2019.
Team news: Maddison starts
Gareth Southgate makes three changes from Thursday’s win in Italy. James Maddison, starting an England game for the first time, Jordan Henderson and Ben Chilwell replace Jack Grealish, Kalvin Phillips and the suspended Luke Shaw.
This is Ukraine’s first game since they drew with Scotland in the Nations League last September. Their team includes three Premier League players: Vitaliy Mykolenko, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Mykhailo Mudryk.
For a variety of reasons, England are down to their last nine subs. The humanity.
England (4-3-3) Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Chilwell; Henderson, Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Maddison.
Substitutes: Trippier, Ramsdale, Guehi, Dier, Grealish, Phillips, Gallagher, Toney, Forster.
Ukraine (4-3-3) Trubin; Karavaev, Svatok, Matviyenko, Mykolenko; Sudakov, Stepanenko, Zinchenko; Malinvoskyi, Yaremchuk, Mudryk.
Substitutes: Lunin, Shevchenko, Sobol, Sarapii, Sydorchuk, Konoplianka, Dovbyk, Miroshnichenko, Buyalskiy, Tsygankov, Bondarenko, Pikhalonok.
Foden out due to appendix surgery
But why won’t you pick him, Gareth.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of England v Ukraine at Wembley. We do not, dear reader, live in a world that celebrates quiet achievement. This is a golden age of English football, at club level and country, but you wouldn’t always know it from the persistently negative mood around the national team. Even a win away to the European champions on Thursday wasn’t enough for many of Twitter’s finest.
The subject has been done to death by more talented, more engaged and more patriotic writers than me, so we don’t need to go into it again. Let’s just agree that, if England don’t beat Ukraine handsomely today, a dreaded hashtag will probably be trending by sundown.
Gareth Southgate isn’t beyond reproach, far from it, but future generations will surely wonder what happened to the collective English noggin in the late 2010s and early 2020s. They might ask one or two question about the football team as well, honk honk.
Some of the more intense criticism of Southgate involves his reluctance to change personnel, whether it’s mid-game* or match to match, so it was a pleasant surprise to read in your superb soaraway Observer that James Maddison is likely to start today. What’s Gareth up to here? What’s his angle?
Kick off 5pm.
* A surprise, this, given that his inspiration Terry Venables made two decisive tactical changes at half-time against Scotland and Spain. Only one involved a change of personnel, but the point stands.
