england, at half throttle, lethargically beat Malta 2-0 with another goal this season Harry Kane to pay gray homage to Sir Bobby Charlton, main protagonist of a rivalry with nothing at stake after the British team’s qualification for the Euro Cup the previous day.
With the ticket in their pocket for Germany after victory over Italy, England took the clash against Malta as an opportunity to pay tribute to Sir Bobby Charlton and to give minutes to some less common players.
Charlton, who died on October 21, received a well-deserved minute’s standing ovation before the opening whistle. The sound of cheering filled Wembley to remember the man who in 1966 led England to its only World Cup.
After sixty seconds of emotion, England wanted to pay their respects to one of their best players in history with what the English legend likes best: with a good game of football. He didn’t get it.
Gareth Southgate tried to create a show with some changes from the victory against Italy. He is without the injured Jude Bellingham and John Stones and has Kyle Walker, Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice on the bench. As new additions, Marc Guehi, Fikayo Tomori, Trent Alexandre-Arnold, Conor Gallagher and Jordan Henderson appeared on the pitch, finding a place in the starting eleven.
In that script, England had a tough fight in most of its phases. Even in the first half, they were unfairly ahead on the scoreboard thanks to an own goal by Enrico Pepe, who put the ball into his own goal after trying to clear a cross from Phil Foden.
That was the only chance for the British team in the opening 45 minutes, during which Malta had several clear chances to score. The first, less than a minute into the game, was for Teuma, who took a great left foot shot off his hat that skimmed the left post of the goal which was defended by Jordan Pickford.
Then, Harry Maguire’s error in clearing the ball ended with Paul Mbong’s dangerous shot going very close to the crossbar. In just ten minutes, Malta had done more than England in a disappointing first half.
In the second, Southgate was disturbed on the bench and the figure of Walker, Buyako Saka, Rice and debutant Cole Palmer appeared. The changes didn’t work either. Not least at the start, when Malta came alive again with a very dangerous cross from Ryan Camenzuli that Paul and Joseph Mbong failed to finish by millimeters.
Henry Bonello didn’t have to act until the 63rd minute to respond to Alexander-Arnold’s attempt, a prelude to the third and almost final English strategy. Kane, of course, hit the target to end a great collective move by Southgate’s men. The data of the Bayern forward is impressive: this season he has accumulated 21 goals for the German team to which he adds another seven victories with the national team in 2023.
Kane was able to bounce back from a bad game without much of a story. Only the tribute to Bobby Charlton, the minutes enjoyed by some of the less common players for Southgate and Kane’s umpteenth goal this season, caught the attention of the public present at Wembley, who saw more football in boots of the Maltese players rather than of their own choosing.
Data sheet:
2.- England: Pickford; Trippier, Maguire, Guehi, Tomori (Saka, min. 46); Alexandre-Arnold, Gallagher (Walker, min. 46), Henderson (Rice, min. 61); Foden, Kane and Rashford (Palmer, min. 61).
0.- Malta: Bonello; Joseph Mbong (Attard, min. 86), Steve Borg, Pepe, Jean Borg (Muscat, min. 79), Camenzuli; Yannick, Guillaumier (Kristensen, min. 59), Teuma; Paul Mbong (Jones, min. 59) and Reid (Nwoko, min. 79).
Goals: 1-0, min. 8: Pepe, own goal; 2-0, min. 75: Kane.
Referee: Luís Godinho (Portugal). He showed yellow cards to Tomori (min. 27) and Kane (min. 28) for England and Joseph Mbong (min. 23) and Guillaumier (min. 39) for Malta.
Incidents: match corresponding to the ninth day of group C qualifying for the German Euro 2024, played at Wembley Stadium in front of almost 75,000 spectators. A minute’s silence was observed in honor of Sir Bobby Charlton, former Manchester United and England player, who died on October 21.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
