England supporters caused more controversy in Middlesbrough when a sizeable portion of the 10,000 crowd booed their players taking a knee in support of anti-racism.
Gareth Southgate had canvassed his players’ opinion ahead of the 1-0 win over Romania, his last friendly before Sunday’s European Championships opening group game with Croatia at Wembley.
Fans had booed throughout the knee taking, performed by players at the same stadium before beating Austria on Wednesday, but chose to continue the gesture.
Despite pleas from the England manager that the action was not political and for fans to show their backing, a large proportion of the ground booed before kick-off last night.
A section of supporters tried to drown out the jeering and there was a considerable amount of backing for the players.
But with the tournament starting at Wembley on Sunday, the danger of fans booing the anti-racism gesture threatens to cast a cloud over England’s preparations.
“It is something that we cannot control,” said England’s captain for the day Marcus Rashfrord. “For sure, we believe it is the right thing to do so we will continue to do it.”
At least Southgate ended his warm-up week with a second 1-0 victory, thanks to Rashford’s second half penalty, despite being without Chelsea and Manchester City players who are still on leave.
It was a fitting way for Rashford to mark becoming England’s youngest starting captain – at 23 years 218 days – since Michael Owen at the same ground 18 years ago.
“It is definitely a great moment for me,” said Rashford. “It is something you dream of when you are a kid. Today I accomplished that.”
Rashford struck with a composed and leisurely penalty run-up and conversion after man of the match Jack Grealish had been tripped by Romanian sub Tiberiu Capusa.
Jordan Henderson, who played his first football since February as a second half substitute, should have doubled the lead after 77 minutes when Vlad Chiriches, who had survived a first half penalty appeal after clashing with Rashford, brought down Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
With Rashford having been replaced, Henderson’s poor penalty was well saved by keeper Florin Nitra diving to his right.
“We had Marcus Rashford on penalties then James Ward-Prowse but both came off,” explained Southgate. “We expected Dominic Calvert-Lewin to take it and I was expecting Hendo to go over to him and let him take it. We will pull rank next time.”
England could have had an even more comfortable evening, striking the bar twice in the first half.
Calvert-Lewin headed against the woodwork from a brilliant Ward-Prowse free-kick after 31 minutes before Jadon Sancho curled an audacious effort against the bar seven minutes later.
Calvert-Lewin should also have netted just after the restart when he volleyed against the keeper from six yards after yet another superb Ward-Prowse set-piece delivery.
England’s makeshift back four did look exposed on occasion, however, and debutant keeper Sam Johnstone made a superb late save from Andrei Ivan to preserve his clean sheet.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3ge4SP9
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