Gareth Southgate warned of the need to temper expectations after England’s 100 per cent record in group C of Euro 2024 qualifying came to an end with a 1-1 draw against the Ukraine in Wroclaw.
England trailed to a 26th-minute strike from the Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko on an emotional evening at the Tarczynski Arena in Poland, before Kyle Walker equalised with his first international goal, on his 77th appearance for England.
Walker admitted England “lacked a cutting edge” in a game where the side’s attacking threat was nullified for large spells. Southgate agreed but warned that his players could not always produce free-flowing football and that it was a “very important point”.
“The reality is we are not going to win every game by fours and sevens, as we have done in this qualifying campaign,” said the England head coach. England beat Italy 2-1 away and Ukraine 2-0 at Wembley in March before wins over Malta, 4-0 away, and North Macedonia, 7-0 at Old Trafford, in June.
“That was a very good result away from home in a very passionate atmosphere. We had quite a few changes forced from the last game. For people like Marc Guéhi, it was his first experience of a game like that with England and he came through really strongly.
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“Sometimes, especially with attacking play, it doesn’t quite click. We know the patterns we worked during the week are what we always do. It’s not as if we approached the game in a different way. We tried to refresh things to give them a different problem.
“Our forward play, bar the goal and Bukayo [Saka] hitting the bar, wasn’t at the level of our previous games, but given the circumstances and the and the importance of the point in terms of qualification, it’s a very important point for us.”
The draw keeps England six points clear of Ukraine at the top, having played a game more. England are also ten points clear of Italy, who have three games in hand. The European champions visited North Macedonia later on Saturday before hosting Ukraine on Tuesday, with England taking a break from the campaign to travel to Scotland in a friendly.
“We have played certainly the best two ranked teams in the group away from home and we have four points,” Southgate added.
“Without a doubt going through that experience is good for the players. The only easy way to learn and grow as a team is to have this expertness. To go behind is a challenge but we stayed calm.
“I think Ukraine made it difficult to find space in midfield. Credit to them. They defended in a very compact way.
England players celebrate Walker’s first-half equaliser
GETTY IMAGES
“That helped with us having control but we turned over too many balls, which we don’t normally do. I wouldn’t expect that to happen again.
“I’m not sure it was a case of digging in but we had to defend counterattacks well. The experienced players were really important for the team.”
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James Maddison, who started for the third time in four England games but endured a frustrating night, added: “We weren’t good enough with the ball. We need to be cleaner with the ball. We should have done better in the attacking part of our game.”
Zinchenko spoke of the “unbelievable atmosphere” with a crowd of more than 40,000 vociferous Ukrainians away from their war-torn home country in the stadium. The noise to celebrate his opening goal was phenomenal. “We felt the emotion,” he said. “It is an amazing result for us.”
