There are just nine months until Euro 2024, now established as the moment of destiny to top all the other previous moments of destiny for the Gareth Southgate years, and so the England manager will know that his team has to be more ruthless than they were here.
The first dropped points in five games of qualifying does not put England in any danger of losing that place in Germany next summer – although it does pull on some familiar anxieties. Southgate’s team has some of the best players in Europe, on form and reputation, and yet this was not a performance that quite aligned. They were dominant in possession, and controlled the game for the most part, but they never quite broke the spirit of a Ukraine team playing in a city where thousands of their compatriots live as refugees.
There were moments from England: a shot from Bukayo Saka brushed by the fingertips of goalkeeper Heorhiy Bushchan onto the bar, a first international goal for Kyle Walker, but not the killer moment with the game at their mercy. They had beaten Ukraine comfortably in March at Wembley and this time, in the September heat, in front of a big Ukraine support, there was not quite the edge.
England should have won it. Harry Kane, Saka and Jude Bellingham are all in form in the new season, and the team had enough of the ball. The late substitutes Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford suggested that Southgate shared the fears about a lack of urgency and variation in the attacking. They had looked so assured in the opening period of the game and then Oleksandr Zinchenko scored an unlikely goal that gave Ukraine and their supporters something to hold onto.
After the Scotland collision in Glasgow on Tuesday, Southgate will be obliged to look again at what makes this team one capable of becoming European champions. He stuck with Jordan Henderson in midfield and Harry Maguire in defence, although one has to wonder how long that can last. With Henderson playing in a league of dubious value and Maguire not playing at all, it will be hard to justify pulling both into this kind of intense game.
They play Australia in October, then Italy post Roberto Mancini in the last of three remaining qualifiers ending with Malta and North Macedonia. It takes them to Christmas with time to refine this team, although the tendency for Southgate in the past has been to wait for qualification to finish before doing that.
Ukraine had winkled out their first-half goal after an exacting first 20 minutes of the game. At times the possession needle had hovered around 83 per cent for Southgate’s players. The first part of the game was English dominance and while they did not create a lot, it was impressive.
It would once have been unrealistic to imagine an England team keeping possession for such long periods away from home against a capable opponent, yet now we have come to expect it.
They were confident on the ball and that in turn unsettled the Ukrainians, although they hung in stoically. Bellingham joined Kane whenever he could and England tried to squeeze their opponents back. When Ukraine were on the ball it was ragged at first and always hectic, but they seized their chance magnificently. Their best attacking player was Yukhym Konoplia, playing as a right winger and much more effective than Mykhailo Mudryk on the opposite side.
It was Konoplia, of Shakhtar Donetsk, who made up the most ground when Viktor Tyshankov got him away down the right on 26 minutes. Konoplia had a few options but he picked the best, weighting his cross back into the path of Zinchenko who finished sweetly. The goal was opportunistic. England were turned and then, when the ball was played into the box either Henderson or Declan Rice had lost Zinchenko.
There were English frustrations with the Bulgarian referee Georgi Kabakov. James Maddison got himself booked, justifiably, and then seemed to be daring the referee to give him another card. Bellingham had something to say about every decision. The Ukrainians were physical. Vitalii Mykolenko of Everton was late on Saka early on. Bellingham would later chase down a tackle by the touchline and when the Ukrainian coach Serhiy Rebrov tried to help him up, the young Englishman shrugged off the assistance.
By then England had equalised. A brilliant ball from deep from Kane to Walker breaking down the inside right channel. This was Walker’s first international goal in 77 caps, the longest an England goalscorer has waited for his first goal. England should have won the game in the second half but they never quite had the energy in the intense heat and on a pitch of poor quality. The shot from Saka was as close as it got.
