One more warm-up match to go, then, against Romania on Sunday. After which, it’s just a matter of waiting for the big one against Croatia the following weekend. We’ve waited so long, but Euro 2020 is finally on the horizon. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
His interview with ITV continues: “I thought we started very well, I thought we used the ball well in the first hour. We were playing against a very good team with some very good players, Alaba, Sabitzer, who get in between the lines. After that, we needed to make a lot of changes and got a bit disjointed. We were hanging on at the end, but that was understandable given the amount of changes we needed to make.”
Gareth Southgate reports on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury: “We’re going to have a little look. It’s obviously not good to see him come off in the way he did. We’re just going to have to assess him in the next 24 hours. I think it’s a thigh injury, but the medical team are assessing him. We just have to see. It’s not a good sign to see him walk off as he did, but will know more in the next 24 or 48 hours. Let’s see how Trent is, and we’ll go from there. We don’t know the full extent.”
Gareth Southgate will hopefully be talking to ITV soon enough. But in lieu of that, here’s David Hytner’s match report, hot from the Riverside.
There were also the usual injury worries for Jack Grealish, who sat in the dugout with an icepack on his leg after coming off. But he looked much more comfortable, happy even, and he tells ITV that, yes, it was a pre-emptive measure. “It’s been a great few days. Being announced in the final squad was what I’ve worked for all season. That was my aim. I’ve had an injury recently so to get 70 minutes under my belt was a perfect week. It’s not shin splints, it’s a bit of stress on my shin, a different type of injury. I’m not concerned. I still need to keep on top of it, to heal it after the games, so that’s why I put the ice on it.”
Trent Alexander-Arnold had played pretty well up until that point, showcasing plenty of defensive resilience, as well as his trademark range of passing. But that looked like he’s pulled something, and he’s being helped down the tunnel very gingerly indeed. He looks distressed, and ITV are speculating that he muttered something along the lines of “it’s gone” to the physio. If that’s true, it’s a dismal way for this long-running will-he-won’t-he saga to end. England will be keeping the collective fingers crossed.
FULL TIME: England 1-0 Austria
One last chance for Gregoritsch, who heads harmlessly wide from six yards, and Bukayo Saka’s goal has decided it!
90 min +2: Pickford punches a high ball clear. Not particularly well, it has to be said. Grillitsch returns it with feeling. White has dropped back and clears off the line.
90 min +1: Alexander-Arnold, looking dazed and distraught, is helped around the perimeter by an England physio. It doesn’t look good for one of England’s four right-backs.
90 min: There will be three added minutes.
89 min: With England minds elsewhere, a ball’s whipped in from the right. Gregoritsch flashes a header wide from six yards. Meanwhile Alexander-Arnold finally hobbles off, holding his left thigh. Are his Euros over before they’ve begun? It could be a sad, premature end to this long-running soap-opera.
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88 min: Now he’s booked for ... well, what, exactly? Going off the pitch and coming back on without permission, possibly. Anyway, he’s still hobbling around.
87 min: Alexander-Arnold is in trouble here. He looks to have tweaked something while making a clearance.
86 min: Hinteregger is booked for giving the referee pelters over a nothing challenge in the middle of the park.
84 min: The slew of substitutions has seriously compromised this as a spectacle. Still, a warm-up’s a warm-up’s a warm-up.
82 min: The international rugby feel of this second half continues apace. Trimmel and Baumgartlinger replace Lainer and Schlager.
80 min: Some space for Friedl on the left. His low cross is no good. But Austria come again, the dangerous Sabitzer looking for the bottom right from distance. Pickford does well to get down and parry.
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79 min: Austria paint some pretty triangles, but go absolutely nowhere in doing so.
77 min: Calvert-Lewin drives down the right and looks for Watkins in the middle. Nothing quite comes off. White has a crack from distance, but there’s to be no fairytale for the debutant.
76 min: Grealish has some ice on his shin, though he looks pretty relaxed as he sits draped like a dandy over the dugout seats, the Riverside as chaise lounge.
74 min: Schaub whips the corner in from the right, high and hard. It misses everyone and isn’t too far away from nestling into the top left. The ball flies wide for a goal kick. Just. Calvert-Lewin, Godfrey and Pickford all left that to each other. The departure of Carlo Ancelotti must have hit everyone at Goodison very hard, if the last 12 minutes are anything to go by. Very strange.
73 min: Friedl brings a long Austrian passing move to an end by looking for the top right from the edge of the box. Deflected. Corner.
72 min: Austria respond by replacing Alaba and Kalajdzic with Schaub and Gregoritsch.
71 min: England make another change, swapping Grealish for White in order to shore up the old midfield.
69 min: Grealish grooves his way down the left and whistles a clever low ball across the front of the six-yard box. Calvert-Lewin is on the back foot, and can’t react in time. That was on a plate.
68 min: Tell you what, factor in the Mings challenge on Kalajdzic, and England have got away with a couple here tonight.
66 min: Here’s another Everton sub nearly meeting a date with infamy. Calvert-Lewin is booked for a wholly preposterous challenge on Dargovic, leaping so high into the air he plants his knee on his opponent’s ear! You’d see many a referee brandishing red for that.
65 min: Amid all that kerfuffle, Austria made two subs, replacing Baumgartner and Laimer with Grillitsch and Schaub.
64 min: England’s goal is again under threat, as Sabitzer, just to the right of the D, wedges a curler towards the top left. Pickford gets a light fingertip to it, and the ball caroms off the bar.
63 min: Godfrey’s very first touch nearly ends in high farce, as his heavy backpass, played blind, nearly deceives his Everton team-mate Pickford. It’s rolling into the bottom right, and the keeper does the young defender a huge favour by hooking clear.
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62 min: England make a quadruple substitution. Off go Lingard, Kane, Rice and the naughty Mings; on come Calvert-Lewin, Watkins, Ward-Prowse and Godfrey.
60 min: Austria aren’t taking this lying down, though, and Sabitzer has a crack from 25 yards. His effort, destined for the bottom left, is deflected wide of the post. England deal with the corner in a fairly fuss-free fashion.
58 min: Grealish, Kane, Lingard and Saka can all be very proud of that goal. A lovely sweeping move that ripped Austria in half.
GOAL! England 1-0 Austria (Saka 56)
England were huffing and puffing a bit, but suddenly they click into gear. Grealish picks up on a loose ball and sends Kane away down the inside-left channel. Kane slips back infield. Lingard tees it up for Grealish, who can’t quite get to the ball, sitting on the penalty spot, but the ball breaks left to Saka, who steers into an empty net. Lovely team goal, much of it about Grealish.
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55 min: Trippier’s flat delivery fails to beat the first man. Very poor. Austria try to launch a counter, but Friedl is stopped making hay up the left by Bellingham, who has covered plenty of grass tonight on debut.
54 min: Trippier barges his way down the left only to be checked. Another free kick, another opportunity to load the box. This is effectively take two.
53 min: Saka whips it in. With Coady winding his neck back, Lainer is forced to eyebrow out for a corner on the right. Alexander-Arnold takes long. Coady goes for it again, and once more comes off second best. Austria clear.
52 min: Saka makes good down the left and is cynically clipped by Lainer. Yellow card, free kick, and a chance to load the box.
51 min: As the post-half-time lull continues, here’s James Cox’s succinct verdict on the return of fans to England games for the first time since 2019: “NO BAND!!! YEY!” Speaking for many there, I’ll be bound.
49 min: It’s not quite got started, this second half, although Austria look slightly livelier too.
47 min: England buzz about in the performative manner, while the Riverside gives it plenty.
England get the second half underway. No changes yet. Mings is still on the field, incidentally, something that’s probably worth underlining in the wake of this first-half snippet ...
Wtf is Mings doing? 😂😂😭 pic.twitter.com/FWANYIkFmz
— Matthew Sowerby (@MJSowerby) June 2, 2021
Half-time capsule review. Ahead of the Euros, a heads-up for Euro Summits: The Story of the European Championship by Jonathan O’Brien, a Homeric 60-year odyssey across 15 tournaments. Breezy yet comprehensive, fun but authoritative, think of it as a perfect companion piece for Cris Freddi’s famous Complete Book of the World Cup, and I can’t think of praise too much higher than that.
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HALF TIME: England 0-0 Austria
England started brightly before slipping into neutral. Austria grew into it. For what it’s worth, the visitors will be the slightly happier of the two teams going off.
45 min: There will be one extra minute before the inevitable tranche of substitutions are made.
44 min: Bachmann takes his own sweet time over a garden-variety clearance, and is nearly closed down by Kane. He gets out of trouble by half-executing a drag back, throwing the shape but not connecting with the ball. Fortunately for the Austrian keeper, it’s enough to sell Kane a dummy and he can clear. But dear oh dear.
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42 min: Alaba curls the corner into the mixer. Pickford rises highest and punches away confidently. As he naturally falls back to the ground, he picks up a free kick just for being a keeper, you know how these things go sometimes.
41 min: Baumgartner is looking lively now. He sashays down the inside-left channel. Nobody makes a challenge until he reaches the edge of the six-yard box. Mings slides in as Baumgartner shoots. He tackles the ball up onto his own arm. The Austrian wants a penalty; he’s just getting a corner.
39 min: By way of illustration, Baumgartner finds a little space down the left and blasts goalwards. His effort is blocked. This little period of play has quietened the Riverside considerably.
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38 min: England have become a little scrappy in the last few minutes, giving the ball away a couple of times in midfield. Austria don’t punish them, but the mistakes are allowing them to slowly work their way back into the game.
36 min: Baumgartner wins a corner down the right. England clear the set piece easily enough, but Austria come back at the hosts, Kalajdzic having a dig from 25 yards. It’s straight at Pickford and nothing more than a hand-warmer.
34 min: Pickford blooters straight up the middle of the park. Bachmann comes out of his area and bangs it straight back. We’ve gone back to the 1980s. Throw in the European Championship being staged in 2021, but still being called Euro 2020, and the space-time continuum is in a rare old tangle right now.
32 min: Austria aren’t doing a whole lot in attack. England are dominating, though the visitors seem fairly comfortable sitting back and seeing how things pan out.
30 min: Saka and Grealish combine cutely down the inside left, releasing Kane into the box. Kane is one on one with Bachmann, albeit at a tight angle. He shoots straight at the keeper, who smothers, then takes Kane’s boot on the follow-through. The keeper’s up again soon enough, and Kane was probably a sliver offside anyway.
28 min: Alexander-Arnold’s effort is deflected high into the sky. Kane anticipates and meets it dropping to the left of the six-yard box. With his back to goal, he swivels and hooks cleverly across the face of it. Saka nearly pokes home at the near post, but Bachmann tips away.
27 min: Grealish is fouled twice in less than 30 seconds. It’s hardly breaking news, is it. The second of these fouls is made by Dragovic, and here’s a free kick just to the left of the D.
25 min: A lull, so the Riverside belts out the national anthem, then applauds itself for doing so. You have to make your own entertainment sometimes.
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23 min: Alexander-Arnold is finding plenty of space out on the right. He seeks out Saka at the far post, but his cross is deflected out for a corner. Trippier takes. Hinteregger heads back towards his own goal, and that’s an easy claim for Bachmann, who has been quite a bit more involved than Pickford so far.
22 min: A pocket of space for Grealish, 30 yards out. He feints to shoot, then tries to release Kane with a sliderule pass down the inside-left channel. Not quite. Austria clear. But lovely idea.
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20 min: ... too hard. Schlager comes sliding in on Saka, and it’s so poorly timed it’s a no-brainer of a booking. From the resulting free kick, Lingard flicks in from the right. Hinteregger’s header drops to Saka, who volleys from a tight angle on the left. Goal kick.
19 min: England are beginning to establish territorial dominance. Plenty of possession, though they’re not going anywhere in particular at present. Austria are pressing hard.
17 min: Saka takes, hitting long. The ball breaks to Bellingham, who tries to fizz one goalwards Lingard-style. The ball balloons up into the air. Bachmann goes to claim, only for Kalajdzic to attempt a striker’s clearance. He slices high into the air. Bachmann claims. The Riverside crowd scream backpass, but the English team themselves make no such preposterous claim. We play on.
16 min: Grealish does what Grealish does ... he gets fouled. Lingard tries to set him free down the left. Grealish gets to the ball first, only to be unceremoniously upended by Lainer. Free kick here, just to the side of the box.
14 min: Saka’s back up and good to go.
13 min: Saka is down having taken an accidental whack in the face. No VAR tonight, you’ll be pleased to hear.
11 min: Alexander-Arnold hits the corner long. The ball’s only half cleared. Lingard, meeting the dropping ball on the right-hand edge of the D, drives hard and low. Bellingham flicks precociously, sending the ball into the net. But he’s been penalised for some previous meddling with Bachmann. Shame, because that was a delicious finish.
10 min: Alexander-Arnold nips in from the right, starting a sweeping diagonal move that releases Saka on the other flank. Saka dribbles into the box and earns England’s second corner.
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8 min: Hinteregger nicks the ball away from Rice and Grealish, then Beckenbauers his way down the middle of the park, a swaggering run. The ball’s shuttled right to Baumgartner, who sends a rising shot inches over the bar. Pickford had it covered, but that was a very decent speculative effort. Both teams could easily be on the scoresheet already.
6 min: Austria respond with an attack of their own, Alaba causing bother down the left and looking for Baumgartner. Mings hooks clear. A lovely open feel to this game already. More of it, please!
5 min: Kane returns the favour, curling a fine diagonal pass to Alexander-Arnold, who is in acres down the right. The right-back - one of four in the squad, have you heard? - aims for the top right. It’s on target. Bachmann tips over. From the resulting corner, Bellingham heads straight at the keeper.
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3 min: Out on the right, Alexander-Arnold swings one of his trademark raking crosses infield. He nearly finds Kane in the centre, but Hinteregger reads the intent and heads clear.
2 min: Nothing much to report yet, other than Austria have started on the front foot, and seem to be prepared to fling a few players forward.
Austria get the party started ... but only after everyone takes a knee. Sadly the gesture of solidarity is met with plenty of boos, though happily applause drowns it out pretty quickly. There’s no room for racism. Challenge it. Report it. Change it. Kick it out.
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Here come the teams. England will play in their traditional white. Austria wear second-choice black shirts and teal kex. Time for the national anthems. The Bundeshymne der Republik Österreich is given a warm reception by the 7,000-strong Riverside crowd. “Land of peaks, land of rivers / Land of fields, land of steeples / Land of labours, future-bound!” To be fair, God Save the Queen goes down pretty well also. We’ll be off in a minute!
Gareth Southgate talks to ITV. “The squad are excited to get on with playing some matches. It’s been a break for most of the group since the Premier League season. What we want Trent Alexander-Arnold to do tonight is get forward from right back. We need to be aware of the sort of crosses and passes he can deliver. Jude Bellingham is not just in the 26 for the journey, he has impressed us all season. We’re looking forward to seeing him in the game, he’s trained with real maturity.”
Pre-match entertainment.
International football on Teesside, then. Any old excuse to wheel out the classics.
It’s an experimental team with England missing a big chunk of their Euro squad, the players from Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United getting some extra rest. Jude Bellingham makes his full debut at 17. Jack Grealish is back. Jesse Lingard gets a chance to shine, just in case someone drops out late. And there’s a start for Trent Alexander-Arnold, which will surely nip all that idle chatter regarding his relationship with Gareth Southgate in the bud. Eh? Kieran Trippier shifts across to left-back.
The teams
England: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Coady, Mings, Trippier, Grealish, Rice, Bellingham, Lingard, Kane, Saka.
Subs: Johnstone, Ramsdale, Calvert-Lewin, Godfrey, Phillips, White, Watkins, Ward-Prowse, J Henderson, Sancho.
Austria: Bachmann, Dragovic, Hinteregger, Friedl, Lainer, Baumgartner, Laimer, Xaver Schlager, Alaba, Sabitzer, Kalajdzic.
Subs: Pervan, Alexander Schlager, Baumgartlinger, Gregoritsch, Grillitsch, Ilsanker, Lienhart, Posch, Schaub, Schopf, Trimmel, Ulmer.
Referee: Lawrence Visser (Belgium).
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Preamble
England have only lost to Austria once on home soil. Toni Fritsch scored the deciding goal of a 3-2 win against Alf Ramsey’s ambitious side in 1965, but the game wasn’t transmitted live and his late winner was never shown on the ITV highlights show that evening, a powerful Wembley rendition of God Save The Queen taking its place. This was no nationalistic fit of pique, though. These were the early days of highlights packages, the show was cobbled together at the very last minute, and in the rush, an inexperienced editor selected the wrong strip of film. (The national anthem used to be sung after the game, which makes the error more understandable, if not particularly less egregious.)
Never mind, Fritsch got his plaudits back home. He was nicknamed Wembley-Toni for the two goals he scored that night, turning a 2-1 deficit into a famous win, only the fourth by a foreign team on English soil (after the Republic of Ireland, Hungary and Sweden). Six years later, he was signed up by the Dallas Cowboys as a place kicker, going on to get a Super Bowl ring in his very first season in the NFL. But we digress.
Austria’s last win over England was in Vienna in 1979. ITV showed this too, and were rewarded with a 4-3 thriller. Kevin Keegan, Steve Coppell and Ray Wilkins scored for Ron’s 11, while Austria’s 70th-minute winner was scored by Bru
... we joke of course. Bruno Pezzey got it, and as the game was transmitted live, his goal was there for the entire network to see, even those watching, presumably celebrating, in the Scottish, Grampian and Ulster regions.
The teams last met in Vienna in 2007, Peter Crouch scoring the only goal. Their last visit here was another 1-0 defeat, Frank Lampard scoring a penalty in 2005. Gareth Southgate’s side will be hoping to keep this nice little run going, having won their last six friendlies, though will be wary of the visitors, who have won eight of their last ten friendlies themselves, and were on a great unbeaten sequence of six wins and two draws in Nations League and World Cup qualifiers, before getting trounced 4-0 at home by Denmark in their last outing in March.
Tonight’s game kicks off at 8pm BST. A chance presents itself for Jesse Lingard to shine, in the absence of the Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United contingent, and maybe prove Gareth Southgate wrong for leaving him out of the final 26 for the Euros. It’s on!
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