Southgate yet to decide who will replace Alexander-Arnold in squad A free-kick by Ward-Prowse was met by Calvert-Lewin with a superb, powerful header from just inside the penalty area that beat goalkeeper Florin Nita and crashed back off the cross-bar. In between, though, England struck the cross-bar twice. Then, on half-time, England were undone as Sorescu Deian Cristian broke down the right and collected Andrei Ivan’s return pass only for Johnstone to divert his shot with his right boot. Firstly Romania quickly worked the ball through midfield and it was cut back to Razvan Marin who shot weakly. For some reason the striker opted to allow the ball to run out for a corner.Įngland were then, alarmingly, cut apart twice. It was disturbingly sloppy from England at the start with Mings allowing a simple pass from Rashford to run beyond him with Denis Alibec stealing in. That was strangely unprofessional from him.Įngland gave up chances also against the 43rd ranked nation in the world, who did not qualify for Euro 2020, and were indebted to goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, on his debut, who looked assured and also made one remarkable save to deny Romania an equaliser soon after Rashford’s strike. Even then Henderson insisted on taking it when he should have deferred to Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Instead of just a penalty from Rashford, who captained a makeshift side and scored his 100th goal for club and country, it could have been a far more comfortable victory with England striking the cross-bar three times and missing another spot-kick. The protest at the players taking a knee continued but there were also boos at half-time after a frustrating performance that was rectified with a win. Also, England have been booed going out of a tournament on more than one occasion but this was the first time they were booed going into it. The manager now has a handful of training sessions to sort it out but also he, finally, has a full squad apart from deciding who will replace the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold – surely Ward-Prowse? – and with Maguire still sidelined. So disrupted have been the preparations that having selected four-rights backs in his 26-man squad Southgate had to use a centre-half, Ben Godfrey, in that position, with another stand-by player, Ben White, alongside him in defence. It felt like the spot was there for Tyrone Mings to take but bar a superb block which prevented a Romanian equaliser he appeared dangerously rash at times.
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