Well, that was played at a higher intensity than I imagined. England probably deserved the win. Turkey were competitive, quality opponents. England could have been better on the ball – and there is definitely room for improvement in their defence – but Hodgson will be pleased the Premier League’s two top strikers both scored despite the fact that they can both play better. He’ll also be happy that England found a way to win having changed formations. The narrow victory should keep the hypometer on the low end of the scale too. I like the look of Turkey too. They could cause their more illustrious rivals in Group D a few problems. Thanks for your emails. Bye.
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Full-time: England 2-1 Turkey
PEEP! That’s that.
90+3 min: Hart races off his line and punches clear after Turkey played a long ball forwards. Alli gives away a free-kick. It’s clipped into the far post but can’t be brought under control and goes out for a goal-kick.
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90+2 min: England break with five men but the ball into the box from Henderson is cut out by Babacan. This is a racy finish.
90+ 1 min: Hart makes an incredible stop, showing sharp reactions to shift his feet and throw out a right hand to deny Olcay Sahan who had connected sweetly with a right-footed volley directed at the far post.
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90 min: Drinkwater Leicesters a long ball over the top to Vardy. He gathers the ball and bears down on the defence menacingly before sliding the ball to his right for Kane. The Spurs striker should perhaps shift it and hit it sooner than he does. He delays and by the time he switches it on to his right foot he’s lost balance and hits it just wide.
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89 min: Turkey have been stung into action once more. Tosun tries to score with an overhead kick from 18 yards out. Nope. And then a cross from the left causes a bit of bother in the England defence but after their usual dillyying and dallying, they finally clear it.
86 min: Erdinc is on for Turkey. I didn’t see who he replaced I’m afraid. Sue me. “As an American and English national team hater, I think this squad will be a lot of fun to watch,” trills Rob Coughlin. “With Vardy’s diving, Alli’s inevitable red card and Harry Kane’s shoot no matter attitude, it should be a spectacle for sure.”
84 min: In the leadup to that goal Henderson played a wonderful crossfield pass to pick out Vardy on the left. And it was Vardy’s cross to Kane at the back-post that led to the corner.
Goal! England 2-1 Turkey (Vardy 83)
It’s a poacher’s goal all right. Cahill leaps highest to head on goal after England had won a corner on the right. Babacan can’t hold it and as he tries to get up Ismail gets in Babacan’s way and stops him from clutching it. Vardy steals in and sidefoots home, with the ball flattening the keeper’s nose on the way into the goal. Kane and Vardy on the scoresheet. I suppose it’s no surprise really.
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79 min: Turkey’s history-maker Calhanoglu is replaced by Sahan, who plays for Besiktas, so the internet tells me. Kane tries to dribble his way through the Turkey defence but is halted. He wants a free-kick … so he can take it himself. But the referee is having none of it.
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77 min: I should add that Alli was fortunate not to be booked for a late tackle on Calhanoglu a few minutes ago. England have had a few decent attacks in the last few moments. Walker uses his pace to beat his marker and drive a dangerous ball into the near post that Vardy can’t divert on goal. And then Rose is penalised as he controls the ball with his left arm instead of his chest on the left wing.
74 min: “Ah, Jamie Vardy doing Jamie Vardy things,” writes Hubert O’Hearn, alluding to a ‘dive’ for the penalty. I thought it was a penalty at first viewing but on second viewing he did go down a little easily. “And Harry Kane doing England things. Welcome to the squad!” England have been more disjointed in this second half. The neat buildup play in the first half has been replaced by scattergun forays forwards.
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73 min: Kane hit that with a bit of Beckham bend then too. Way too much Beckham bend. Meanwhile, it’s peak substitution time. Erkin and Ozyakup are replaced by Koybasi and Tekdemir. Drinkwater is on for Sterling.
Kane misses!
72 min: The Spurs striker whips it towards the left-hand post with his right foot but it’s just wide and grazes the post before arrowing into the advertising hoardings. Oh Harry.
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Penalty to England!
71 min: Vardy is shoved to the ground by Topal after the Turkey captain was caught dawdling on the ball before being thrust into a foot race that the Leicester striker was always going to win. Topal’s booked. Kane to take it …
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68 min: Kane and Rose take a quick free-kick that is far too clever for any England or Turkey player to preempt. Pity that. Needed another Spurs brain and that could have created a decent chance.
64 min: Wilshere is fouled by Sen. It’s his last action. He’s done OK. Always wanting the ball. That’s one of the positives about this England squad. Most players want the ball. Jordan Henderson sprints on, like an enthusiastic and naive puppy, to replace him. The free-kick doesn’t amount to anything other than a foul by Cahill on the Turkey keeper Babacan.
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62 min: Erkin wins a header on the near post - reacting quicker than Stones – and tries to find the far post with it, but it spins wide and is then played back in but Rose clears for another corner. That one is dealt with far more efficiently by England’s defence. Sterling breaks and pops a ball into the box but Turkey clear. Henderson is about to come on.
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61 min: England appear to need three attempts to make a clearance that should be completed in one touch. Every time Turkey play a cross into the box, it’s wafted away half-heartedly. Turkey win a corner.
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59 min: Wilshere has been booked for a cynical trip. This is a very even game. England have switched formation. It now looks like Vardy and Kane are going up front together with Sterling in the No10 position.
56 min: England win a free-kick on the left. Harry Beckham trots over to take it. And he doesn’t do a bad impression of England’s old captain, as he whips a lovely inswinging ball into the penalty spot, where Rose is just put off enough to connect poorly with the ball.
53 min: Tosun goes close for Turkey twice. The first effort is a header, unmarked, at the near post after a lovely delivery from Calhanoglu. The second is a fantastic bit of centre-forward play, in which he controls a vicious pass into his feet, 15 yards out, dummies to go one way and wrongfoots Stones, before turning sharply on to his left foot and driving a shot this far wide. The Turkey fans are making a rare old racket.
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52 min: Dier tries to pick out Wilshere with a low pass that misses its target and lands at Kane’s feet. The striker has only the keeper to beat but he’s flagged offside, rightly.
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50 min: “On a serious note,” begins seriousness’s Hubert O’Hearn. “How are tournaments won? Are they won by accentuating strengths (in England’s case a wealth in attack) or by minimising deficiencies (again with England, a back four as flimsy as a drunk husband’s excuses). Which do you focus on? Stick or twist?” I personally think many coaches probably just have to be reactive … and just run with whatever they think happens to work after their first game.
48 min: Erkin plays a direct diagonal ball towards Calhanoglu but Rose deals with it expertly, chesting it back to Hart under a wee bit of pressure. That was decent, calm-headed defending by England. I know?
47 min: Dier makes a meaty interception by sliding in to clear as Calhanoglu was lurking with intent. He catches the Turkey player as he makes the clearance. Looks painful. No free-kick given, though. England pick up possession and Alli has a shot from the edge of the area that is deflected and trickles through to Babacan.
The second half
45 min: Turkey’s players keep England waiting as they congregate in the tunnel for a chinwag before finally bothering to come out. I quite like that. They emerge to jeers. And then PEEP! We’re off. “I take it Kane has been watching YouTube clips of ‘Him’ and figures if he can win the golden boot, he can do that knuckleball free-kick thing too. He can’t,” writes Adam Yates. Nope. His efforts have been more of the Bobbleball variety.
This England team isn’t boring. That’s something, I suppose. Mistakes and moments of genuine skill. That’s interesting if not necessarily reassuring if you’re an England fan.
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Some emails
“To answer your question: England are as likely to win Euro 2016 as England are to win Eurovision,” predicts Shane O’Leary. “The usual quarter-final disaster is the best that can be hoped for.” Usual Shane? Not these days. “Roll on the domestic season, I’ve got Bournemouth at 50 zillion to one and no bugger is laughing.”
“Is it too early to say ‘same old, same old England’?” asks Mike MacKenzie, presumably about to answer his own question. “Defensive screw-ups, lots of possession but few chances, people played out of best position (Vardy) and oddities like Kane taking free-kicks?”
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Well, that was a lightning fast start by England but after the goal Turkey grew into the game. England’s defending was suspect - and then some – for the goal they conceded but the pass behind Rose was still a beauty. Perhaps I didn’t make enough of the fact that Calhanoglu scored Turkey’s first-ever goal against England. Quite something to shout about if you’re a Turkey fan/player. Well done. England should still have the beating of Turkey, mind, but they’ll have to watch themselves if they commit too many players forwards. There is talent in the Turkey ranks.
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Half-time
45 min: Vardy has a speculative crack from 25 yards that goes well over. Peep. And that’s that.
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42 min: Calhanoglu whips an inviting ball into the box from the right after Turkey won a free-kick. Topal leaps for it, but he can’t get over it and it bounces off his noggin at a fair pace and goes out for a goal-kick. Calhanoglu is lauded and coveted for his free-kicks at Bayer Leverkusen. Here’s why.
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40 min: Stones finds his way into the Turkey penalty area and lays the ball off to Vardy on the left. But his cross is overhit by just the 20 yards. Stones does sprint back into position, I might add. He doesn’t always do that.
38 min: “I see from your photo below that Roy Hodgson’s trying to replicate Claudio Ranieri’s successful ‘dilly-ding, dilly-dong’ methods. But clearly Rooney & co. need something a little louder to get their game faces on,” honks Justin Kavanagh. It’s become very disjointed in the last few minutes. Walker fouls Inan. Turkey take it quickly but give the ball away and then England break in the style of Leicester with Vardy haring on to a long ball and playing an unsuccessful dinked pass towards Sterling who had scampered up to the back post.
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35 min: There’s a cynical tackle on Wilshere a moment later. The England midfielder crumples to the turf but he has not shattered into a thousand pieces as you might imagine. Well done Jack. It’s getting a bit physical this.
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34 min: A bit of housekeeping. Oguzhan Ozyakup was booked for hacking down Raheem Sterling in the leadup to that Kane free-kick.
32 min: England win another free-kick, 10 yards outside the box on the wing. Kane stands over it. This is really weird. It’s not even a shooting opportunity and he’s a damn fine header of the ball. Surely Wilshere could have it and play it swinging in. Kane’s delivery is OK, but Alli commits a foul as it comes in and Turkey are awarded a free-kick.
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30 min: England are on top here again. They’re winning the ball back with ease and dominating possession. Kane has a low shot from the edge of the area but it’s one for the shot-on-target stats. Comfortably gathered by Babacan.
28 min: Wilshere whips in a corner with his left foot that is very, very good. I know, a good corner! What’s the world coming to? Dier nips in front of his marker at the near post but his header is just wide. He could’t quite direct it accurately enough as he leapt forwards.
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26 min: Sterling plays a one-two with Alli and advances to the edge of the box. He’s closed down sharply and tries to nutmeg a defender to send Vardy through on goal but the attempted pass is cut out and then a clearance is whacked at Sterling, bouncing off him and into the stand behind. That’s probably as busy as Sterling has been on this ground in the past six months.
24 min: Wilshere is having a busy few moments. He’s jinkin’ and scampering here and there. He overhits a left-footed pass intended for Rose but he’s showing decent levels of energy and looks like he wants to influence the game.
23 min: “Why is Kane taking the free kicks,” asks Andrew Lloyd. I don’t know Andrew. His two efforts so far have been odd. Also, isn’t he the most likely to pounce on a rebound?
21 min: Sen has gingerly got back to his feet and we’re under way again. Wilshere looks sharp as he drops his shoulder and skips inside his marker before drilling a left-footed shot from 20 yards towards Babacan’s left-hand post, but the keeper gets across to it and gathers it smartly.
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17 min: Sen falls to the turf after losing out in an aerial challenge with Rose. He implores the England team to put the ball out so he can receive treatment. The crowd isn’t happy with this. Meanwhile, Fatih Terim has just pulled up a replay of the England goal on his phone and showed it to the fourth official to prove it was offside. Lovely stuff.
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15 min: Well, England have reverted to keeping possession in deep, ineffective areas since the goal. And, yes, there have been a few long balls too. Kane has another go from distance with a free-kick but it’s another one that shows he still has some calibrating to do yet.
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Goal! England 1-1 Turkey (Calhanoglu 13)
What a lovely goal this is. Erkin, I think, picks up possession in midfield and makes Rose an irrelevance with a delightful pass behind him to the onrushing Sen, who cuts the ball back for the simplest of finishes from Calhanoglu. Rose was too far forward there, however. And Hart’s positioning wasn’t great either. Still, fine goal.
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11 min: Kane scuffs a weird low, hopping, effort somewhere between the goal and six-yard box. I have no idea what that was, but had someone got on to it it would have been a simple tap-in.
10 min: Vardy runs in behind the Turkish defence on the left after an incisive forward move involving three passes from front to back by England. He looks up, spies Kane in the box … but slices his cross out for a goal-kick. Ah well. Moments later, he makes a similar run and stretches the Turkish defence. Erkin cuts the ball out and then hacks Alli down just outside the box on the left-hand side. Kane stands over it …
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8 min: Well, Turkey seem to have treated conceding a goal as though the match has now just started. Given the way Turkey qualified, perhaps Tarim is happy to encourage his team to give themselves an incredibly difficult task before mounting a comeback.
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6 min: “England have yet to play a warm up game yet, let alone started the tournament, but already Alan Green is getting annoyed with Hodgson on the radio,” writes David Wall. “Is there a more self-important commentator on any television or radio channel at the moment? I know during the World Cup the Beeb offered the red button option of having television pictures with radio commentary but I wonder if, for those games when Green is on the microphone on 5Live, they might offer the television commentary through the radio. I imagine it’d be a popular option.” Indeed.
5 min: Turkey immediately come back at England and Walker makes a fine block to take the sting out of a shot on goal from inside the box. So are England going to win Euro 2016 now?
Goal! England 1-0 Turkey (Kane 3)
Kane is offside but it is given. Sterling picks the ball up 10 yards outside the box. Five Turkey players look at him but decide not to bother closing him down. He pops a little ball into Alli, who shuffles his feet quickly and stabs a pass through the legs of a defender to Kane, a half-a-yard offside, who controls and slots calmly past Babacan with his right foot.
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Peep!
1 min: England get this Euro 2016 warm-up off to a start. They’re wearing that really horrible home kit – with red socks? Kane immediately pounces on a loose pass from Turkey and slides a little ball into Vardy, who is just an inch away from getting a toe on it and diverting it past Babacan. Well, that’s an enthusiastic start.
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“When I read that Roy Hodgson said, “I believed that the team in 2014 would go far” at first I thought, ‘well you and who else?’” begins Hubert O’Hearn. “And then I considered the considerable (which is why I considered it) distance between England and Brazil. So I take my doubts back. Roy Hodgson: Speaker of Obvious Truths.”
The teams trot out on to the turf and line up for the national anthems. First up it’s the Turkish anthem, which is sung with gusto by the team and Turkish fans alike.
Then it’s the English national anthem. You know that one. You don’t need a video reminder. As you can imagine, Wilshere’s all over it.
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“Remember when England wasted a golden generation by repeatedly trying to crowbar Gerrard and Lampard into the same team even though they were much same style and didn’t compliment each other?” asks David Flynn. “Well say hello to the new needless pairing … Kane and Vardy!”
The Etihad isn’t full although hit’s still a bit fuller than it was when Manuel Pellegrini was saying his farewells to a couple of tumbleweeds in Manchester City’s last home game, mind. I’m not sure this first instalment of the England roadshow is going to be quite as atmospheric as when the England team travels on up to the Stadium of Light.
Roy Hodgson speaks: “From what I’ve seen [of Jack Wilshere] in training and from what he’s been doing over the past five or six weeks I’m confident he can get back to how he was.” He confirms he’s playing 4-3-3 but says he’s happy to change it as the match goes on and perhaps revert to a diamond or even something else suitable.” Roy giving it the big Total Football sell there. “I think everyone is very keen to go to the Euros and show they’re worthy of going there. It was good to see that my idea of having Rashford with us was not a stupid one. We’ll have to assess his knee injury and see what happens.”
A stat!
10 - England have kept clean sheets in all 10 of their previous meetings with Turkey. Unblemished.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 22, 2016
It’s going to be 0-0 isn’t it?
There’s just been a little segment on England going into this Euros without hype. There’s still time yet. Just you wait …
“Sterling?” splutters Dean Kinsella. “I cannot, for the life of me, understand Sterling’s presence. I don’t think he has played even one good game of football this year. Even Milner is miles ahead of him in terms of form. (That should set Raheem up nicely for a hat-trick).”
Full team news
England: Hart, Walker, Stones, Cahill, Rose, Dier, Wilshere, Alli, Sterling, Kane, Vardy. Subs: Forster, Bertrand, Henderson, Drinkwater, Barkley, Townsend, Delph, Heaton.
Turkey: Babacan, Gonul, Balta, Topal, Erkin, Ozyakup, Inan, Tufan, Sen, Calhanoglu, Tosun. Subs: Kivrak, Ozbayrakli, Yilmaz Calik, Potuk, Sahan, Tore, Koybasi, Malli, Erdinc, Tekdemir, Oztekin, Soyuncu, Mor, Tekin.
Referee: Deniz Aytekin (Germany)
Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy play up front together
England starting XI: Hart; Walker, Cahill, Stones, Rose; Dier, Wilshere, Alli; Sterling, Vardy, Kane
So it looks like Vardy will have to play in a wider role, with Kane down the middle in what is likely to be a 4-3-3.
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Hello. Football never stops does it? It’s just 19 days until the start of Euro 2016. England have three friendlies: this one, Australia at the Stadium of Light on 27 May, and Portugal at Wembley on 2 June. Roy Hodgson’s squad has a youthful and attacking look to it. Yes, a little light in defence but let’s not nitpick. The England manager is nothing if not predictable either. Whatever the leading English clubs are doing, he tries to do the same except usually not quite as effectively. One feels the lasting influence on the international team from the Premier League trends this season will be an incredible industriousness. Pressing and counterattacking? They’re very English qualities really. For all that various England managers over the years have talked up a desire to encourage and play possession football, England teams have usually been most effective when playing at a high-tempo. Perhaps that’s what we’ll see from Hodgson’s side at these Euros – particularly given the youthfulness and pace in his squad. And even if they do a Spurs-style collapse at the end, it will at least mean they were in the mix, something England haven’t been in for quite some time.
Whether we’ll see this match played out at a furious pace I’m not too sure. Turkey have a youthful look to their squad too. They came back from the dead to qualify at Holland’s expense and will come into the Euros with the confidence of a big-wave surfer who has just survived a near-fatal wipeout. But given that the European leagues have barely stopped twitching I expect this may be a more sedate game in which both teams work through the gears in a leisurely manner.
Hodgson has urged his England side to discard the baggage collected from previous tournament failings and he also dismissed a question asking whether his team will be found wanting in terms of tournament strategy.
“I don’t know what tournament strategy is. There are concepts that are thrown out there, but for someone to say to me that the Germans and the Italians are good at this and you’re not, I’d have to know what is meant by the term. As far as I am concerned you either win games or you don’t. Most football success boils down to winning games, and I don’t think tournaments are any different … tournaments have their own life, their own stories, it is three cup finals and you can be lucky, you can be unlucky. All we can do is prepare the best we can and make certain we reduce the chances of something hazardous happening to us. As far as I’m concerned 2014 was a very different set of players, much more mature and experienced as a group. I am going into this tournament with another group of players. I believed that the team in 2014 would go far and we didn’t. I believe this team will go far, so let’s wait and see.”
Is this a display of naivety from Hodgson or is he right? Is tournament success really just down to the players available at the time, preparation and luck? Mull that one over. I’ll be back with the team news shortly.
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