With time running out before the start of the Euro 2016 campaign, England move on to their next friendly on Tuesday night, against Holland. Wembley is sold out for the game and if it wasn’t before the Germany match, it certainly would have been come the final whistle, as England stormed to a 3-2 win in Berlin.
Things were not looking good for Roy Hodgson’s men entering half-time, as they trailed 1-0 and were forced to make a change in goal, with Jack Butland injured. The Stoke City keeper has suffered suspected ligament damage and will definitely miss the meeting with the Dutch this week. German midfielder, Toni Kroos, took full advantage of the situation and with Butland struggling, the Real Madrid man fired the home team in to the lead.
Despite a spirited performance from the likes of Dele Alli and Danny Rose, England were lucky not to be 2-0 down at the break, with Mario Gomez having a goal wrongly disallowed for offside. In to the second half and Gomez finally got got his goal, as England were opened up by a simple, lofted ball in to the box. However, there was enough from England going forward, to suggest they could score and it wasn’t long before Harry Kane scored a great goal and substitute, Jamie Vardy did the same. Then, from a corner in the final minute, Eric Dier rose to claim the victory for England.
The energetic display and final result, led many fans and pundits alike to take to social media, praising the performance but also to remain calm. England have beaten Germany on their own soil many times before and still gone on to disappoint at the major finals. However, next up is a home match against Holland, a team who have been struggling and will not be in France in the summer. Their Euro 2016 qualification campaign was a disaster, as they finished 5 points adrift of third placed Turkey in Group A. The Dutch also have injury problems, with manager Danny Blind without several players initially selected in his squad. Having failed to qualify for the finals, Blind is now looking at the future and has a number of young, home based players in his squad, who will be looking to impress at Wembley.
For England manager, Roy Hodgson, the temptation will surely be to start with a similar XI to that from Saturday night. However, the manager is sure to give starts to a number of players who either came on from the bench or who did not feature at all in Berlin. Fraser Forster is set to start in goal and the likes of Ross Barkley, Jamie Vardy, Phil Jagielka, Kyle Walker and John Stones, will all be hoping to feature. If anything, it’s the defence which really needs to be looked at. Against Germany, Nathaniel Clyne was decent going forward but still looked uncertain defensively, as did the central pairing of Chris Smalling and captain, Gary Cahill. In fact, Danny Rose put in the best defensive showing from the four at the back, which highlights the problems facing Hodgson in that area of the team.
Still, no one will care how many goals the team concede, if they score more at the other end and that’s exactly what happened in Germany. A repeat of that entertaining and dynamic performance against Holland on Tuesday night, would be a very welcome sight indeed for the 90,000 fans set to attend the game.
