FULL TIME: England 2-0 Switzerland
And that’s that! Wayne Rooney breaks Sir Bobby Charlton’s long-standing goalscoring record by notching his 50th goal for England. The first man to congratulate him on the final whistle is the Swiss captain Gokhan Inler. Switzerland were just about the better team in the first half, but England were much improved in the second and deserved their victory. And so that perfect qualification record is still on. Eight down, two to go...
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90 min +2: Switzerland see quite a bit of the ball, but go nowhere with it.
90 min +1: Everyone just waiting for the OK to go home.
90 min: Sterling, who has been quietly impressive this evening, earns a free kick down the right, his intricate play frustrating a frowning Seferovic into a lazy hack. The set piece is cleared easily enough. There will be three added minutes of this.
89 min: Kane bustles to earn a corner down the left. Milner takes. Barkley rises to meet the corner, but his header is blocked at source by Inler.
88 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain plants his studs on Rodriguez’s knee, as the Swiss full back scampers up the left wing. He should be booked for that, but it’s just a free kick, and one that’s easily snaffled by Hart.
86 min: Just before the penalty and the goal, Shaqiri had a dig from 25 yards. It wasn’t far away. But now it looks all over. Wembley is still rippling in appreciation of Rooney’s record-breaking feat.
GOAL! England 2-0 Switzerland (Rooney 84 pen)
Rooney steps up and lashes the spot kick into the top-left corner! Unstoppable! Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for England’s all-time leading goalscorer: 50-goal Wayne Rooney! He screams to the heavens in delight. Ah well, Sir Bobby, you had one hell of a run.
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Penalty for England!
83 min: A wonderful jink and pullback by Sterling, just inside the box on the left. It confuses Zhaka, who hangs a leg out and downs his man. The record could be on!
82 min: Shaqiri wins a corner off Smalling down the right. The ball honks into the assistant referee’s coupon, action which generates the biggest cheer of the evening. Corner leads to corner, but nothing comes of either set piece.
80 min: Behrami is replaced by Dzemaili.
79 min: Embolo battles Shaw down the inside-left channel. He’s manhandled off the ball. It should be a free kick, just to the left of the D, but the referee doesn’t blow his whistle. Embolo is highly affronted at the non-decision, and you can’t really blame him.
77 min: Klose embarks on a power dribble down the middle, a bustling, low-def version of Franz Beckenbauer. It nearly comes off, too, as the ball breaks off his shins and into the box. He bombs after it. Milner does enough to put him off, but for a second Hart was exposed there.
75 min: England are pressing here. Shaw makes good down the left again but can’t deliver an accurate cross. Sterling retrieves it, busies himself down the inside-right channel, and nearly presents Kane with a chance to shoot from the penalty spot. The striker can’t quite get enough purchase on the ball. “So if Kane gets a second tonight, who takes the last-minute penalty?” wonders Justin Kavanagh. “That would be quite a shouting match!” I’m sure by that point Hodgson will have replaced record-seeking Rooney with Jamie Vardy, thus avoiding any unnecessary potential controversies.
72 min: Before the free kick can be taken, Switzerland swap Stocker for Seferovic. Shaqiri then blasts a witless free kick straight into the England wall.
71 min: Embolo loops a pass down the right wing. Shaqiri chases. He links arms with Smalling, a good old-school tussle. Plenty of to and fro, cut and thrust. But eventually Smalling goes too far, clanking his opponent from behind. He’s booked, and this is a free kick in a dangerous position, just to the right of the D.
68 min: Stones comes on for Clyne.
GOAL! England 1-0 Switzerland (Kane 67)
So simple. Shaw is released into the area down the left by Rooney’s perfectly weighted pass. Shaw nears the byline, then pulls a low ball back into the centre. Kane, cutting in from the right, meets it first time and lashes a low, hard shot into the bottom right corner. A brilliant finish!
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66 min: A couple of long-range England efforts, both coming down the inside-left channel. Milner first: his is lashed well wide right. Then Kane skelps his one down Sommer’s throat.
64 min: Embolo’s first act is to miss an open goal from six yards, the ball rolling apologetically to the right of the right-hand post. To be fair to the young man, he knew the offside flag had gone up. Inler had slipped the ball down the inside-left channel to release Stocker, but Clyne stepped up to secure the offside decision. Smart defending. Stocker then rolled the ball to his right, taking Hart out of the action, for Embolo’s unfortunate prod.
63 min: Drmic, excellent in the first half but a little quieter since the restart, is replaced by the 18-year-old prospect Embolo.
61 min: Rooney loses the ball in the middle of the park. Schar powers down the field, exchanges passes with Drmic, and earns a corner when his shot cannons off Smalling and bobbles out for a corner on the right. From the set piece, Inler receives the ball 30 yards out. He has a dig, but it’s overly ambitious.
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58 min: A very disappointed Shelvey is replaced by Kane.
57 min: Rodriguez bustles to win a corner down the left. The same player takes the set piece, and whips a low one to the near post. Shaqiri stoops to poke a header towards the bottom left. Hart makes a song and dance of parrying it round the post. The second set piece comes to nothing.
55 min: Milner feeds Rooney down the inside-left channel. Rooney lashes a powerful rising shot towards the top left from 25 yards. It’s a fine, old-fashioned attempt, and has to be gathered well by Sommer. That shot was delivered with a lovely, sweet crack.
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54 min: England are on top in terms of possession right now, but can’t make any meaningful territorial gains.
51 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain bursts past Rodriguez down the right. He enters the box and reaches the byline, then dinks one into the middle for Rooney. The England captain winds his neck back and powers a header goalwards. But it’s not powerful enough, and Sommer plucks it from the sky easily. He should probably have left that for Sterling, as well. Sterling was loitering behind Rooney, waiting for the ball to drop so he could cream a volley home from 12 yards.
49 min: Shaqiri very nearly outmuscles Shaw down the right, but the young England defender gives as good as he gets, and just about holds his man off. Both teams have come out with a very positive mindset.
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47 min: But it’s England who craft the first opportunity of the half. Barkley lifts a ball down the left for Sterling, who momentarily looks like tearing clear into the box. He’s forced to check, and lays the ball back to Barkley, who attempts a curler into the top right from distance. It’s deflected out for a corner, which results in Rooney climbing all over Schar while contesting a header.
And we're off again!
England get the ball rolling once more. And it’s not long before the Swiss are stroking it around with great confidence. A lot of tasty triangles. Toblerone-taka.
Half-time entertainment: The Wembley pitch tonight carries a subliminal message from a popular high-street turf accountant, thanks to an ad which hasn’t been rubbed out properly in the wake of the recent Challenge Cup final. To celebrate this rank ineptitude, here’s a picture of Red Rum attempting to place a bet in a Stoke Newington bookie.
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HALF TIME: England 0-0 Switzerland
The Swiss once again causing England a few problems at Wembley. They certainly look capable of registering their first win here. Hodgson’s side need to up their game if they want to maintain their 100 percent record. It should be a fascinating second half. No flipping!
45 min: Stocker plays a cute reverse pass down the left to release Rodriguez into space. Clyne does well to hold him up. England could do with the half-time whistle here.
43 min: England are suddenly very ragged. Shaqiri dribbles down the left, glides inside, then rolls a diagonal pass across to the right of the D for the highly impressive Drmic. His shot’s not the best, dragged across Hart and out of play on the left of goal, but the striker’s movement has caused England no end of bother this evening.
42 min: A period of possession football for Switzerland. Suddenly Inler rolls a pass down the inside-left channel to release Drmic on goal. The flag goes up for offside, but he looked level. Lucky England.
39 min: A rare pocket of space for Oxlade-Chamberlain down the right wing. He loops a cross into the box, where Rooney rises eight yards from goal. Schar holds his position well, though, and ensures the England striker can’t plant his head on the ball.
38 min: Sterling burns Behrami down the left, reaching the byline and dinking a lovely high ball through the Swiss six-yard area. But nobody in white has kept up with play.
36 min: Milner and Sterling combine nicely down the left wing, the latter very nearly flicking a pass between two red shirts to release Rooney along the flank. But it’s deflected out of the England captain’s road. Wembley is pretty quiet right now, the Swiss fans and their drums apart.
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34 min: Shaw carelessly loses the ball down the left. Shaqiri romps into England’s half. He slides the ball forward for Stocker, to the right of the D. He holds the ball up well, then with his back to goal looks to backheel Drmic clear into the area down the right. It doesn’t quite come off. But England are a bit ragged right now. A few mistakes creeping in.
31 min: Drmic cuts in from the left and feeds Inler, who flicks forward along the channel to release Shaqiri into the box. He’s one on one with Hart! But the keeper is quickly off his line, and smothers bravely. Shaqiri was never in total control of that, but it was a fine save nonetheless. The nearest we’ve had to a goal.
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29 min: Shelvey loses the ball 30 yards from goal, a loose pass in the general direction of his defenders but no more. Shaqiri snaffles possession and opts to have a hoick from 30 yards. It’s not particularly good. Shelvey’s lost concentration once or twice already tonight, a surprise given his superlative form for Swansea so far this season.
28 min: Milner is booked for an impatient lunge on Lichtsteiner after miscontrolling the ball. He has a good old moan about it, but really shouldn’t be complaining.
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27 min: Switzerland have finally woken up. Rodriguez makes good down the left and fizzes a low ball into the area for Drmic, who shapes to shoot on the penalty spot but is denied at the very last second by an excellent Smalling challenge.
25 min: Shaqiri feeds Lichtsteiner on the overlap down the right. The right back bursts into the box but is denied by a determined challenge by the backtracking Sterling. The corner is eyebrowed away by Rooney. The ball quickly comes back at England, with Shaqiri only just caught offside down the right. Better from the Swiss.
23 min: Inler, in acres in the centre circle, rakes a long ball down the right for Drmic to chase. Hart is out quickly to gather on the edge of his box. Switzerland aren’t doing much up front. England are very comfortable. Though this does have the vague air of the friendly.
21 min: Rooney feeds Milner down the inside-left channel. Milner hits the target, but Sommer is never letting that in at his near post. Then there’s another phase of attack, and Shelvey finds himself in space 30 yards out. He can’t resist. He can’t get his effort within 20 yards of the goal, either. Wild, wild, wild. But England are on top here.
19 min: Lichtsteiner opens the legs down the right and whistles a low ball into the area for Drmic. Clyne steps in to sweep the ball away from danger. Drmic gives his team-mate the old thumbs up, but in truth he was never getting to that cross.
17 min: Rooney is definitely after that 50th goal. He bursts down the inside-left channel and attempts to curl a delicate one across Sommer and into the bottom right. Not quite, but top marks for ambition.
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15 min: Shaw, sent into space by Rooney, whips one in from the left. Oxlade-Chamberlain cuts in from the right to meet the cross, and attempts to flick one home with the outside of his boot from the penalty spot. Three rugby points, but that’s another visually pleasing move from England.
14 min: Milner, Sterling and Shaw triangulate nicely down the left, but the move breaks down when Milner attempts to flick the ball into the box for Rooney. He’ll need a better final ball for that landmark goal, though the build-up play was very pretty. “Whatever you think of Rooney, 50 international goals (assuming he scores tonight) from one player in little over a hundred games over the past decade is a decent effort, it has to be said,” writes self-flagellation’s Simon McMahon. “I’m not sure the entire Scotland team has scored that many in the same time period.”
12 min: Sterling jinks down the left. Lichtsteiner, just outside the area, hangs his arm out in the style of Ben Stokes. Free kick. Milner stands over it. England load the box. Milner delivers - and it doesn’t beat the first man. Highly poor.
10 min: Another corner for the Swiss, Smalling dealing with a wicked ball in from the left by Xhaka. From the set piece, there’s a small rumble on the penalty spot, but neither Drmic nor Schar can get a foot on the ball. England clear.
8 min: Drmic sees a long-distance rake deflected wide right for a corner. Barkley, quickly warmed up, is the man who deals with the ball in. Danger over. “Sad to see Delph go,” sighs Joe Deasy. “He didn’t put a foot wrong all game.”
6 min: Cahill, fearless in his bondage mask, powers a header towards the right-hand side of the Swiss goal from ten yards. His effort is parried by Sommer. It looks like it’s going out for a corner, but Rooney was sniffing around for that 50th goal and must have got a touch. Goal kick.
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5 min: A stuttering start after that Delph business. Shaw breaks the monotony by bursting down the left and winning an England corner.
3 min: On comes Ross Barkley. Poor Delph. Shades of Stuart Ripley against Moldova in 1997, though he lasted a bit longer, by a good eight minutes and 32 seconds.
2 min: And that looks like the end of Delph’s evening! That one burst down the left, and that dodgy hamstring has gone again. Has he been taught how to warm up? He’s off down the tunnel, but not replaced yet.
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And we're off!
Switzerland, decked out in red, get the ball rolling. They lose it within five seconds of play, and Delph attempts a rollicking run down the left. He’s soon bundled out of it by Xhaka.
The atmosphere is building at Wembley, with the teams out and the national anthems being played. And look at these dudes! Alpenhorns! That shows dedication, quite a few steps up from the old scarf and rattle. Imagine checking those things in at the airport. Imagine taking them on the Tube! Just as well the trains on the Metropolitan Line are set up as one long continuous carriage these days.
“If Wayne Rooney becomes England’s highest international scorer on the same week that Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britain’s longest serving monarch, will she give him the knighthood, do you think?” wonders Justin Kavanagh. “Surely it’s best to have him bow the head now, before the top of his bonce is as bald as Sir Bobby’s?” Poor old Rooney. Not even Andrew Neil gets this level of stick.
Ferenc Puskas. Pele. Gerd Muller. Sandor Kocsis. Ronaldo. Miroslav Klose. Didier Drogba. David Villa. Gabriel Batistuta. Samuel Eto’o. Cristiano Ronaldo. Jon Dahl Tomasson. Thierry Henry. Robbie Keane. And of course Iran’s 109-goal legend Ali Daei. Quite a roll-call of talent there. Just a few of the stars who have reached the 50-goal mark in international football. Would young Mr Rooney belong in such exalted company? Of course he bloody well would. Nothing wrong with a bit of iconoclasm, but there’s a time and a place for it.
As for Switzerland, it’s surely all about Josip Drmić, who started and completed his side’s astonishing comeback against Slovenia on Saturday. The Swiss were 2-0 down with ten minutes to go before the Borussia Mönchengladbach star did his thing. The 23-year-old is on something of a roll right now, as he also scored the equaliser against Lithuania in June, another match Switzerland went on to win. England want to watch themselves if they score first.
England make four changes from San Marino, then, as the first nation to qualify for Euro 2016 go looking for the point that’d seal the group - and the win that’d keep them on course for a perfect qualification. Chris Smalling, Gary Cahill, Fabian Delph and Raheem Sterling come into the side in place of John Stones, Phil Jagielka, Ross Barkley and Jamie Vardy. Wayne Rooney captains the team, his head no doubt swimming at the prospect of overhauling Sir Bobby Charlton at the top of the England goalscoring charts. Jonjo Shelvey, aka Brendan Rodgers’ Biggest Mistake, continues in the midfield.
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The teams
England: Hart, Clyne, Cahill, Smalling, Shaw, Delph, Shelvey, Milner, Sterling, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rooney.
Subs: Gibbs, Butland, Walcott, Stones, Jagielka, Vardy, Kane, Mason, Barkley, Heaton.
Switzerland: Sommer, Lichtsteiner, Klose, Rodriguez, Schar, Inler, Xhaka, Behrami, Stocker, Drmic, Shaqiri.
Subs: Burki, Hitz, Widmer, von Bergen, Moubandje, Lustenberger, Kasami, Fernandes, Inler, Stocker, Embolo.
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy)
The full teamsheets anon, but here’s the England starting XI, now featuring Manchester City star turns Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph: Hart, Clyne, Shaw, Shelvey, Cahill, Smalling, Milner, Delph, Sterling, Rooney, Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Preamble
Seven wins out of seven. Just three more victories, then, and England will be joining an elite band of five teams and four countries to have qualified for a European Championship finals with a perfect record in their group. France managed it first, ahead of stinking out Euro 92. The Czech Republic were next up, en route to Euro 2000. France did it again in the Euro 2004 qualifiers. And then, last time round, Germany and eventual winners Spain both clocked up ten out of ten. Not bad company.
Seven down, three to go - and hurdle eight, Switzerland at Wembley, doesn’t appear particularly high, on paper at least. Roy Hodgson’s side brushed the Swiss aside in Basel exactly one year ago today, the easiest of 2-0 victories, and one which set the tone for this frankly boring (not that it’s been England’s fault) campaign. England are now nine unbeaten against the Swiss, since Ron’s 22 lost 2-1 in Basel during the qualifiers for Espana 82. That match remains Switzerland’s only victory over England in competitive action. All signs on Roy’s eight-ball point to yes.
And yet the Swiss have a decent-enough big-match record at Wembley, even though they don’t have a victory to show for their efforts there. Tranquillo Barnetta scored twice here against Fabio Capello’s side during a 2-2 draw in the Euro 2012 qualifiers. The Swiss gave Alf Ramsey’s team a run for their money in the Euro 72 preliminary groups, securing a creditable 1-1 draw under the twin towers. And of course at Euro 96, Roy Hodgson’s side - well, he’d just buggered off to manage Internazionale, but it was still Hodgson’s side - could easily have pooped the party for Terry Venables, but despite being the better team, a draw and the plaudits was all they earned.
Vladimir Petković’s team also have their tails up right now, having recovered from 2-0 down against Slovenia on Saturday to win 3-2. As a result, they’d join England in France next summer with a win tonight, providing fourth-placed Slovenia draw at home with third-placed Estonia. England, on the other hand, will secure top spot if they avoid defeat. Oh, and Wayne Rooney’s looking for his 50th goal in an England shirt, which would give him sole ownership of the scoring record he currently shares with Sir Bobby Charlton. So while England might have already qualified, there’s still plenty to tantalise the senses. It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm just off the North Circular, 8.45pm in Switzerland’s Aranycsapat-jiggering de facto capital of Bern.
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