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Gareth Southgate talks to Sky. “We know they’re a good side and it was a great challenge for us. It was a really good test. We got stronger as the game went on. Declan Rice had a really big impact. Conor Gallagher is infectious, he can set the tone for the rest of the team, we see that with his club every week. He plays with ambition and turns a lot of ball over.”
As for John Stones, who felt something in the warm-up ... “We don’t think it’s anything too bad and it might even be possible for him to play the next game, but it wasn’t worth taking the risk.”
Gareth Southgate’s verdict is still to come ... but in the meantime, David Hytner’s report has landed. Here it is!
Harry Kane talks to Sky. “It was a tough game. A big year ahead, so it’s a chance for us to try some different systems, and see how we get on. We need as much variability as possible. It was a good performance, obviously there’s room for us to improve, but it’s a good win to start the year. Some new faces got their debuts, which was great. We don’t have a lot of time until the World Cup, so all this information is key. Really good to see the young players coming in and feeling confident. I’m super proud to be amongst the names [like Rooney, Charlton and Lineker] but we just look forward to the next one. A few more caps, a few more goals, we’ll see where it takes us.”
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While we’re on the subject of historical marks, that’s England’s 300th win on home soil. Kane’s penalty also moves him into joint second place in the all-time scoring chart, his 49 goals putting him alongside Bobby Charlton. He’s now just four shy of Wayne Rooney’s all-time record.
FULL TIME: England 2-1 Switzerland
Grealish clears the corner, and the whistle goes, Harry Kane notching the winner with the 100th successfully converted penalty in England’s history. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but that’s a hard-fought win against a very decent team.
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90 min +4: Mbabu works his way down the right and wins a corner. One last chance for Switzerland to salvage a draw.
90 min +3: In the third of four added minutes, Aebischer hoicks wildly over from the edge of the box.
90 min +1: Switzerland clear out for a corner, from which Coady sends a header goalwards. Omlin parries well.
90 min: Omlin suffers a rush of blood, racing off his line in an attempt to grab the ball off Mbabu’s toe. He only manages to confuse the full back, who ships possession to Bellingham. He shuffles around, making some space out of nothing, and dinks across the unguarded goal. There’s nobody close enough to ram home.
88 min: Kane won’t be reaching his personal half-century tonight. He’s replaced by Watkins, but departs smiling widely, sharing a joke with his manager.
87 min: Rodriguez, out on the left, rolls infield for Sow, who has the opportunity to shoot but turns it down. Then Rodriguez balloons one miles over the bar.
85 min: Kane barrels down the left and cuts back for Henderson, who can’t control on the edge of the box. England are finishing strongly.
84 min: Henderson sends in another cross from the right. He’s combined well with makeshift right-back White, who has impressed since moving out to the flank. The ball’s half cleared to Kane, who looks for number 50 with a fierce volley, but it’s blocked and it turns out Bellingham had been a bit bellicose in the challenge earlier in the move, and the whistle goes.
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82 min: White slips Henderson into space down the right. Henderson dinks across the face of the Swiss goal for Grealish, who shapes to volley only for Frei to take the ball away from him.
80 min: Bellingham comes on for Foden, while Embolo and Shaqiri make way for Gavranovic and Aebischer.
GOAL! England 2-1 Switzerland (Kane 78 pen)
Kane lashes into the bottom left. Omlin guessed correctly, but that was tight in the corner and the keeper was never getting that. It’s Kane’s 49th goal for England, and he’s now the joint second-best England scorer of all time, alongside Bobby Charlton!
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Penalty for England
77 min: The referee draws a TV screen in the air and points to the spot! It’s a soft penalty, though while Zuber had his back to Guehi, and was very close to the England defender, his arm was high in the air, deemed an unnatural position. So here we are.
77 min: The VAR dude has asked the referee to take a look at the monitor, though!
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76 min: ... but they lull Switzerland into a false sense of security, and suddenly White is found in acres out on the right. He tries to find Sterling with a low cross but the ball’s blocked out for a corner. That set piece leads to a shout for a penalty, Guehi’s header slapping Zuber on the arm. VAR will check, though this would be harsh on Switzerland, as the players were right next to each other, and Zuber had his back to Guehi.
74 min: England stroke it around the back to little effect.
72 min: White buys a ticket to the raffle from 25 yards. The ball sails over the bar.
70 min: Mitchell crosses from the left. Kane is free on the penalty spot, having lost Frei, but slaps a weak header straight at Omlin. Surprisingly poor. That was a decent chance.
68 min: Switzerland have settled a little better after the raft of changes, though the game has unsurprisingly lost a bit of shape.
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66 min: The fourth official gives his number board the once over, checking for melted buttons, burnt-out bulbs, jets of smoke, etc.
64 min: Switzerland respond with three changes of their own. Vargas, Steffen and Freuler are replaced by Sow, Zuber and Zeqiri.
62 min: England ring the changes. On come Sterling, Grealish, Rice and, making his debut, Tyrick Mitchell. Walker-Peters, Shaw, Gallagher and Mount make way.
60 min: Mbabu drives down the right and wins a corner. Shaqiri takes. A fine ball somehow whistles through a crowded box without hitting anyone.
58 min: Shaw loops into the Swiss box from the left. Kane can’t quite control under pressure from Frei and the visitors clear their lines. Slightly better from England, but that’s not stopped Gareth Southgate preparing a few subs. Change is a-comin’.
56 min: England started the second half briskly, but Switzerland are beginning to establish a level of calm control. They’re certainly seeing more of the ball at the moment.
54 min: Vargas worms his way down the left and wins a corner off White. Shaqiri takes. England clear. The sun goes down.
53 min: Gallagher dinks a pass down the right to release Kane into the Swiss box. Omlin stands tall to bat Kane’s chip out for a corner. The set piece is met by Guehi, whose header is always sailing wide left. Coady slides in, hoping to bundle home, but can’t get there in time.
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51 min: Shaqiri releases Steffen down the right with a crisp backheel. Steffen’s clear in the box but the flag goes up for offside against Shaqiri. Henderson might have been playing his old Liverpool team-mate onside, you know, but the decision goes England’s way.
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49 min: Kane and Shaw combine well down the left to win a corner. Foden takes. His delivery is way too deep and Switzerland tidy up easily.
48 min: Rodriguez bowls Gallagher to the floor, out on the right flank. Foden prepares to curl the free kick into the mixer. Everyone lines up on the edge of the box. But Mount takes it instead, and his outswinger is easily cleared by Switzerland.
47 min: Kane drops deep to quarterback. He nearly finds a willing runner in Foden, but the pass down the right channel doesn’t reach his man.
England get the second half underway. No half-time changes.
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Half-time entertainment. As football welcomes back Non-League Day after a Covid-19 enforced two-year hiatus, we take a look at the work of photographer Colin McPherson, who has chronicled non-League football in England as it wrestled with restrictions and battled on in the face of almost impossible odds.
HALF TIME: England 1-1 Switzerland
On the balance of play, Switzerland will wonder how they’re not at least a couple of goals up, but here we are.
GOAL! England 1-1 Switzerland (Shaw 45+1)
Out of nowhere! Walker-Peters intercepts Frei’s poor pass out from the back. The ball’s rolled right to left across the face of the Swiss box by Gallagher. Shaw, racing in, creams a drive from the edge of the area into the top left! It took a deflection on the way, but Shaw cares not. Wembley makes some noise at last!
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45 min: Shaqiri continues to toy with the England defence. A pirouette, then an insouciant roll down the inside-right channel for Embolo, who enters the box and should get a shot away, but over-elaborates before running the ball out for a goal kick.
43 min: England stroke it around the back. They’re going nowhere right now. The crowd are pretty subdued as a result.
41 min: The best form of defence for England may well be attack, and Gallagher rolls a pass down the right for the effervescent Walker-Peters to hare after. A low drive is blocked, but that’s another decent effort by the debutant. In a parallel universe somewhere, the Saints full back has himself a brace.
39 min: Shaqiri takes the corner from the right. Kane, guarding the near post, leaves it, and the ball cannons off the post! It breaks to Rodriguez, whose pearler is parried well by Pickford. The rebound falls to Embolo, who tries to steer a shot into the bottom right, but drags it wide. It’s fair to say England are rocking here.
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38 min: Steffen is sent scampering down the right by Shaqiri, whose wily ways are a constant danger to England. Steffen curls towards the top left. White is forced to eyebrow over the bar. Corner coming up.
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37 min: Widmer can’t continue. He’s replaced by Mbabu.
35 min: Mount slips Foden free down the left. Foden rolls into the middle. Walker-Peters romps in from the right and hammers a shot off the right-hand post. Kane can’t control the rebound and Switzerland clear. Then the flag goes up for offside. Foden was a good yard off. Even so, that’s better from England, and rattling the woodwork will give them hope.
34 min: Vargas blazes down the left and for a second looks to have the beating of Walker-Peters. The debutant stands his ground.
33 min: Switzerland stroke it around. At the moment, they’re in control of this. England have achieved nothing since going behind.
31 min: Widmer is good to continue. Not long after the restart, Shaqiri very nearly releases Vargas into the England box with a cute roll down the inside-left channel. Switzerland look dangerous every time they get into England’s final third.
29 min: Widmer goes down, the price for picking the ball off Foden’s boot. Foden was in the process of shooting, and didn’t see his opponent arrive, kicking Widmer’s ankle instead. Accidental, but that won’t stop it hurting.
27 min: That burst of action from Switzerland has shaken England, for whom passes are no longer sticking. “That was poor defending. Where’s Harry Maguire when you need him?” Jonathan McKinley there, because somebody had to say it.
25 min: Switzerland are so close to going two up! Shaqiri drives towards the England box and aims for the top left. The shot is deflected out for a corner on the left. The set piece is hit long, and Frei creams a half-volley towards the top right from 12 yards. It’s heading in, and would surely rip the net from its moorings, but Pickford makes an outrageous reaction save, sticking up a hand to deflect the shot onto the crossbar and away. Wow. Top-drawer football all round!
24 min: There was a brief check for offside, and Widmer looked to have gone too soon, much earlier in the move. But there were a couple of phases of play in between, and the goal stands.
GOAL! England 0-1 Switzerland (Embolo 22)
Switzerland suddenly pick up the pace. Xhaka has a shot from distance. His low drive towards the bottom right is blocked by Pickford. England fail to clear their lines. Widmer tries a cross from the right. Blocked. Shaqiri has another go. His perfectly weighted looper finds Embolo at the far post. Embolo rises highest and guides a header across Pickford and into the bottom right. Lovely goal!
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21 min: ... and now it’s Switzerland’s turn for some sterile possession.
19 min: England are enjoying the (three) lions’ share of possession at the moment. Switzerland appear happy to let them stroke it around the middle.
17 min: Akanji comes sliding in at 101 mph on Mount, who was making his way down the left. Hard, fast and fair, a tackle in the old-fashioned style. Everyone enjoyed it.
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16 min: Gallagher is everywhere. At this particular moment, he’s standing on Embolo’s foot. Embolo isn’t very happy about it, and lets the ref know his feelings. Gallagher has the chutzpah to claim it wasn’t even a foul. A nice competitive feel to this friendly.
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15 min: White pearls long for Foden, who combines with Kane to set Gallagher scampering into space down the right. He cuts into the box and aims a curler towards the top left. Widmer flicks a header over his own bar. He may well have denied Gallagher a goal in doing so, because that effort was on target and Omlin wasn’t necessarily getting there. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
13 min: ... so having said that, Pickford, under no pressure whatsoever, shanks a pass straight out of play.
11 min: Foden swings it in. Embolo heads clear. Switzerland pour up the other end. Embolo threatens to get close to the England box so Henderson knocks him over. The keepers are bystanders at the moment.
10 min: Embolo high-kicks Gallagher in the centre circle. Then Freuler clatters Mount down the left flank. The Swiss not messing about here. But it’s a free kick in a dangerous position. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Switzerland box.
8 min: Shaqiri dinks a pass into space down the inside-right channel. Good idea, bad execution. He overhits it, and Steffen can’t stop the ball going out for a goal kick. England would have been in a spot of bother had Shaqiri found his man.
6 min: Freuler comes in hard on Mount. Both teams appear full of energy and commitment.
4 min: Vargas probes down the left but there’s no way past Walker-Peters. England counter, Kane driving towards the box only to lose control on the edge of it.
3 min: The teams take turns to stroke the ball about a bit. Both are pressing hard.
2 min: Both of these teams are going to the World Cup this November. England’s choice to wear savoy blue is practically trolling Italy.
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Switzerland get the ball rolling ... but only after the knee is taken. Applause rings around Wembley. There’s no room for racism.
The teams are out. A beautifully sunny day at Wembley. A mosaic of support for Ukraine in the stands. Captains Kane and Xhaka hold the Ukrainian flag with the word PEACE emblazoned across it. Both teams congregate to show solidarity. England play in blue, Switzerland in white. Second colours all round. We’ll be off in a minute.
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Should Harry Kane knock one in today, he’ll become the joint second all-time England record goalscorer. Two and he’ll have second place all to himself. Six, and ... well, let’s not get silly, but you get the general point.
53: Wayne Rooney (120 caps)
49: Bobby Charlton (106)
48: Harry Kane (67), Gary Lineker (80)
44: Jimmy Greaves (57)
41: Michael Owen (89)
A late change to the England XI. John Stones has picked up an injury in the warm-up and will be replaced by Ben White.
Gareth Southgate talks to Sky Sports. “Every England game is important. It’s a great opportunity for the three making their full debut, and for the rest of the team to keep that cohesion and build on what we’ve done for the last two or three years. There has to be a realistic expectation of what they will provide in the immediate term and what they will provide over a longer distance. But there’s competition for places, and they’ve fitted in perfectly. It means we’ve got strength in depth.”
A bit more on England starter Conor Gallagher? Why not.
Pre-match entertainment. As football welcomes back Non-League Day after a Covid-19 enforced two-year hiatus, we take a look at the work of photographer Colin McPherson, who has chronicled non-League football in England as it wrestled with restrictions and battled on in the face of almost impossible odds.
Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi and Southampton right-back Kyle Walker-Peters make their senior England debuts. Guehi, who captained the under-21s in November, lines up alongside John Stones and Conor Coady in a back three. His club colleague Conor Gallagher makes his first start.
Casual observers of the Premier League will spot a couple of familiar names in the Switzerland starting XI. Granit Xhaka of Arsenal wears the captain’s armband, while erstwhile Liverpool powercube Xherdan Shaqiri, now with the Chicago Fire, serves as second-in-command.
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The teams
England: Pickford, Coady, Stones , White, Guehi, Walker-Peters, Gallagher, Henderson, Shaw, Foden, Kane, Mount.
Subs: Pope, Forster, Maguire, White , Mings, Grealish, Rice, Bellingham, Watkins, Sterling, Ward-Prowse, Mitchell.
Switzerland: Omlin, Rodriguez, Akanji, Frei, Widmer, Freuler, Xhaka, Steffen, Shaqiri, Vargas, Embolo.
Subs: von Ballmoos, Kobel, Mbabu, Elvedi, Okafor, Zuber, Sow, Lotomba, Comert, Gavranovic, Zeqiri, Aebischer.
Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden).
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Preamble
Italy are out of the 2022 World Cup. Portugal still haven’t booked their place. One of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane won’t make it. Wales, Scotland and Ukraine are in limbo until June. Meanwhile England and Switzerland...
Kick off is at 5.30pm. It’s on!
