November 18, (THEWILL) – The England national team secured a lacklustre 2-0 victory over Malta in a Euro 2024 qualifier at Wembley Stadium on Friday.
Despite already sealing qualification to next summer’s tournament, manager Gareth Southgate will be disappointed with the Three Lions’ performance, as they struggled to breakdown the minnows and were guilty of surrendering possession on several occasions.
The deadlock was broken on eight minutes when Phil Foden’s cross took a heavy deflection off Enrico Pepe and looped over goalkeeper Henry Bonello via the underside of the crossbar. Captain Harry Kane added a second late on after being teed up by Bukayo Saka.
In between, England were fortunate not to be pegged back by the visitors, with Teddy Teuma and Paul Mbong both going close to levelling the scores. Kane also had a penalty appeal turned down and a Declan Rice goal was chalked off.
The fact that there was nothing to play for may have been responsible for the underwhelming display by England, but they will need to improve considerably if they are to challenge for the Euro 2024 title in Germany next year.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
