March 26, (THEWILL) – In an international friendly at Wembley on Saturday, England came back from a goal down to defeat Switzerland 2-1.
The game opened brilliantly for England. Ben White’s soaring ball ahead was touched back by Phil Foden to Harry Kane on the 14-minute mark, allowing Conor Gallagher into the channels and forcing Silvan Widmer into a goal-line clearance with his left foot.
At the other end, a long-range drive from Granit Xhaka forced a low save from Jordan Pickford, and Breel Embolo towered over White to head home Xherdan Shaqiri’s cross after England failed to clear the danger.
From the resulting kick-off, Switzerland should have actually scored immediately, but Pickford deflected Fabian Frei’s thundering shot onto the bar.
England had two golden chances to equalise through debutant Kyle Walker-Peters and then Kane, but a late offside flag denied them in both occasions.
Southgate’s side were put under further pressure as Shaqiri’s corner struck the post, before Ricardo Rodriguez forced another fine stop from Pickford and Embolo sent the rebound over.
On the stroke of half-time, England equalised when Walker-Peters’ effort assisted in winning the ball high up the pitch, and Gallagher’s cut-back was hammered into the net by Luke Shaw.
On the other side of the break, Gallagher came close to adding another assist when he looped a superb through ball for Kane to chase, but the captain’s effort was saved by Jonas Omlin’s face.
Guehi’s header from the resulting corner looked destined for Conor Coady at the far post, but the Wolves captain could not quite get a telling touch on it.
Kane’s cross from Tyrick Mitchell’s exquisite pass was a tame one, and White fired over from the edge of the box as the Three Lions gently turned the screw.
With a quarter-hour remaining, England was awarded a penalty after a lengthy VAR review. Guehi’s header had struck the arm of Steven Zuber, and the penalty allowed Kane score his 49th goal for his country.
Gareth Southgate’s team held on for the victory and will face the Ivory Coast on Tuesday. Since losing on penalties in the Euro 2020 final against Italy, Southgate’s team has gone undefeated in eight games and are playing with some flair.
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.
