England 2-0 Finland (Kane 57′, 76′)
WEMBLEY — The paper aeroplane glided calmly through the light rain and landed on the Wembley turf. It was the first of the evening, just shy of 14 minutes into the game. Pockets of cheers went up around the stadium from those who had noticed.
Plenty of seats were empty. The atmosphere mostly flat and lifeless. England v Finland in the Nations League was not a sell-out draw.
There was a brief injection of adrenaline when Harry Kane smashed a shot in off the crossbar for his 67th goal on his 100th England appearance, but it had felt a long and testing 57 minutes to wait for an opening goal.
Fans flocked from the stadium well before the end.
What can one possibly learn from two Nations League fixtures against the Republic of Ireland and Finland with an interim manager in charge?
Trent Alexander-Arnold can hit lovely passes from right-back. Can he defend against a Kylian Mbappe or one of the other forwards from leading nations? The answer is probably still no.
Facing the 63rd and 58th ranked countries in the world enlightened us no further.
Jack Grealish is a great player, can fit nicely as a No 10. Will he play there for Manchester City? Probably not. Nor is he likely to play there for England when Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham are back.
Anthony Gordon out on the left wing offers a directness England have lacked in attacking areas for a while. Food for thought, definitely. If he’d managed to put in these last two performances against, say, Germany and Spain, we might have a clearer idea whether he can do it at a major tournament.
Angel Gomes, the surprise call-up in Lee Carsley’s squad, was handed a first start and looked sharp and composed and forward-thinking. Against a midfield of Matti Peltola, Rasmus Schuller and Glen Kamara, mind.
Lee Carsley – the interim who may or may not be in charge when the World Cup qualifiers begin next year – likes inverted full-backs, that was evident. Alexander-Arnold and Rico Lewis, trialled at left-back, could often be found deep in the middle, wanting to build-up play.
For all the good that it did: at half-time England left the field with the scoreline goalless, having had two shots on target. If it was a Gareth Southgate side they would almost certainly have been booed off. Carsley still, clearly, has some credit in the bank, unlike the former manager who led the country to successive European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final.
Halting the league season three games into it has felt jarring for some time, and it is times like these when it only feels more so.
Obviously, England have only themselves to blame for the level of opposition after being relegated from their Nations League group last time out. But has a competition that was intended to spark greater competition and interest than friendlies really set the public imagination alight?
Kane added a second with 15 minutes left. A nice storyline, sure – the 100-cap hero adding two more to his record haul. It was still Finland.
Kane receiving his golden cap before kick-off still sits behind Carsley not singing the national anthem as the biggest talking point from the break and that says it all.
The summer is for festivals of international football, and the interest in England at major tournaments remains intense, but from August to early June the season now belongs to the clubs, the Premier League, the Champions League. In some ways it’s sad, but it’s also true.
It was Arsene Wenger who floated the idea a few years ago, in his role as Fifa head of global development, of fewer, more condensed international breaks. In an age of a fixture schedule fit to breaking point, and breaking players, maybe it wasn’t the worst idea.
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