David Hytner was at Wembley, and his report has landed. Here it is. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
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Thomas Tuchel gives his verdict to ITV. “Mmmm … we can do better … we have to do better … we started quite well … seven, eight minutes, 100 percent ball possession with a lot of passes … but the opponent was hard to wear down … they defended in a deep, deep block … the second half we were too slow … not enough runs off the ball to get often behind the line … Lewis-Skelly is an amazing player … an amazing personality … it is normal to fall in love with him … there is no doubt that Bellingham is a key player for us … a fantastic pass for the first goal … he is ready to take responsibility … we hope for more impact [from Rashford and Foden out wide] … more dribbling, less passes, more aggressive runs towards the box … this was in general missing … they were not as decisive as they can be.”
The comparatively ancient Jude Bellingham, 21, speaks to ITV. “It was pretty good … we had clear ideas … tried to stick to them … it was difficult against a team that sits so low and was so compact … the game takes you in a different way … we stuck to the plan really well … good win to start the new era … [his assist] was a really good run and I managed to find the path of the run … [Lewis-Skelly] finished it really well … really happy for him … an amazing first game … a really nice and well-taken first goal … he’ll never forget it … we wanted to help him enjoy it and it looks like he did! … it would be nice to finish games off early … there’s still so much to work on … the more we play together the more we’ll learn and get better over time.”
Myles Lewis-Skelly, with his Arsenal team-mate Declan Rice by his side grinning in avuncular fashion, talks to ITV. “I’m lost for words, really … I’m just so grateful for the manager to put trust in me … my team-mates trusted me … I had to put it in the back of the net but great pass from Jude … the fans made me feel at home … thank you to them.”
The 18-year-old full-back is then informed that he’s the third-youngest scorer for England, behind Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen. “Well that’s incredible!’” he responds, before cocking his head back and laughing hard, a glorious mixture of pride, surprise, excitement and glee. “That’s incredible!’” he repeats. “I got nothing to say, really, that’s amazing!” That’s such a lovely, heart-warming, infectious interview. Seek it out.
Rice adds in the deadpan style: “He is fearless.”
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It wasn’t particularly exciting or entertaining. But a win’s a win’s a win, and the result was never really in question. Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has only recently announced himself as an Arsenal player, announced himself on the international stage with a well-taken goal and an impressive all-round performance. Harry Kane missed a couple of chances before doing what he always does. Jude Bellingham swanned around the pitch and his assist for Lewis-Skelly’s opener was the pass of the match. The Thomas Tuchel era has started with a win, and England’s World Cup qualification campaign has started in a quietly effective manner.
As the full-time whistle goes, there’s concern for Gordon. The Newcastle winger is down holding his hip, and doesn’t look particularly happy.
FULL TIME: England 2-0 Albania
Budge up, Sam Allardyce! Thomas Tuchel is one from one as well!
90 min +3: A simple hoof down the middle of the park forces Pickford to race from his area and head back upfield with Broja lurking. “I have no idea what Kastrati is like as a keeper, but I imagine his natural position would be high up the pitch.” Andy Gordon, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the crispy prawn balls.
90 min +1: The first of five additional minutes passes by.
90 min: Lewis-Skelly is rewarded with a warm ovation as he leaves the pitch early. A memorable debut comes to an end as James takes his place.
88 min: England stroke it around the back in the time-management style.
86 min: This has become very scrappy all of a sudden. A sense that both teams would declare right now if they could.
85 min: Some admin: Pajaziti and Hoxha have replaced Laci and Asani.
84 min: Gordon takes a quick free kick to release Bowen down the right. Bowen curls into the mixer, but Ajeti is alert to the grift and heads clear.
83 min: Rice is replaced by Henderson.
82 min: The keeper switch is finally made.
81 min: The stretcher is brought on. It’s refused. Strakosha doesn’t need it to depart, but his replacement Kastrati isn’t ready. Gloves not on yet.
79 min: Strakosha is down again. On come the physios.
GOAL! England 2-0 Albania (Kane 77)
Kane has done very little tonight, bar missing a couple of chances you’d expect him to put away. He’s not missing three, though. Rice dinks a cross in from the right. Kane brings it down with a gossamer touch, sending Ajeti off to the shops, before spinning and whipping a low shot across the keeper and into the bottom right. What a lovely finish.
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76 min: Before the corner can be taken, Strakosha needs some treatment. England make a triple sub, replacing Jones, Foden and Rashford with Rogers, Gordon and Bowen. Then finally the corner, which leads to nowt. “Perhaps Tommy Toocool will turn out to be the next Sir Alf, after all,” dreams Justin Kavanagh. “Instead of Wingless Wonders we’ll get Flying Fullbacks with Myles Lewis-Skelly in the Alan Ball youngster man-of-the-match midfielder role in the final in New York. The VAR will break down due to a government closure in some department or other, giving England that dodgy deciding goal. And poor Greavsie Harry Kane, will be left on the bench from the quarter-finals onwards.”
74 min: Kane challenges Strakosha for a high ball. The keeper flaps. Ajeti looks to usher the ball out for a goal kick, but Kane cheekily nudges him in the back, causing contact that leads to a corner.
72 min: Broja beats Burn again, this time in the air. Asani nearly bursts clear down the middle. Konsa comes across to spare the blushes of Burn, who is suddenly all over the shop. Liverpool fans will wonder why this version didn’t turn up last Sunday.
70 min: Lewis-Skelly loops long from the left. Strakosha flaps under pressure from Bellingham, but the loose ball is blootered clear.
69 min: Broja already looks to have the beating of Burn. He spins the big man down the right, leaving him scrambling around on all fours, Bambi on stilts on ice. Broja looks for Asani in the middle with a low cross, but Walker senses the danger and intercepts cleverly. England in a spot of bother there for a couple of seconds.
68 min: In tonight’s other Group K game, Latvia have taken the lead in Andorra. Dario Sits with the 58th-minute opener.
66 min: Broja’s first act is to nearly get the better of Burn down the right flank. He enters the box but can’t get a shot away from a tight angle. Burn did just enough to stick to his man and put him off. Pickford claims.
65 min: Lewis-Skelly is going to be a star. He dribbles gracefully down the inside-left before slipping a pass forward to Bellingham, who can’t quite sort his feet out to return it.
64 min: The first change of the evening as Bajrami makes way for Broja.
63 min: Rashford turns on the jets to advance down the left, but this time runs slap-bang into Aliji. Rashford has been lively enough on his return to the fold, though.
61 min: Kane drops deep and sprays a diagonal pass towards Jones, racing into the box from the right. Jones cushions an instant cross towards Foden on the edge of the six-yard box. The ball rears up and hits Foden on the arm, so had he trapped, turned and scored, it surely wouldn’t have counted. As it is, the ball drops to Strakosha, who claims and makes the referee’s life a whole lot easier.
59 min: … then suddenly England burst into action. Rashford drives at Ajeti down the left but can’t get past. The ball breaks to Bellingham to his left. Bellingham dinks infield for Kane, who glances a header wide right. England’s best moment of the second half, and a second close-range chance of the evening passed up by Kane.
58 min: It’s all gone a bit shapeless.
56 min: Walker barges his way down the right and makes towards the box, but is penalised for skittling Asani en route. Not for the first time tonight, he considers telling it as he sees it to the officials, but reins himself in before any administrative damage is done.
54 min: England again with the possession.
52 min: Bajrami takes the ball away from the danger zone, and the many thousands of Albanian fans in Wembley are in raptures. By the sounds of it, they’re thoroughly enjoying themselves, despite the scoreline.
51 min: The ever-impressive Lewis-Skelly dribbles down the inside-left channel and purchases a cheap free kick. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Albanian box. Foden wedges the ball towards Konsa, but the defender can’t send it further goalwards.
49 min: Now Asllani’s down, Walker having accidentally stood on his hand. A painful start to the half for Albania.
48 min: To add insult to injury, Burn heads the resulting free kick away from danger. “Worked for many years at a very large cultural institution in central London which was a hotbed of left-wing agitators and fellow travellers,” begins Ian Burch. “One of them was a Millwall fan who through his contacts holidayed every year behind the Iron Curtain. While he was in Albania he was ‘accompanied’ to a football match in Tirana where the presence of the security services ensured an oppressive atmosphere at the game. He described it as just like being at the old Den.”
47 min: Burn high-kicks Uzuni in the face. Just a free kick out on the right touchline. That was a bit reckless, putting his opponent in danger, and Burn’s fortunate not to go into the book. A lot of blood coming out of poor Uzuni’s startled mouth.
England get the second half underway. No changes. Meanwhile Kimberley Thonger doesn’t appear to be particularly impressed with England under their new manager so far. “I can’t decide. Is Thomas Tuchel the new Ron Greenwood, Howard Wilkinson or Steve McClaren?” Too early to make that sort of comparison, surely, though if he’s caught in the hotel later tonight nursing a pint of Grape Drink and isn’t around for the Latvia game come Monday, we can widen the net and make some sort of definitive call.
Half-time entertainment. Curtis Jones was the first man on the scene to celebrate with Myles Lewis-Skelly tonight. So on that subject …
HALF TIME: England 1-0 Albania
It’s not exactly been a classic, which may explain why the referee blows for half-time on 44 minutes and 57 seconds.
44 min: Albania calm things down with a rare period of possession of their own. It ends with Asani larruping a wild shot miles over the bar from distance. Asani springs up and claims a corner, the ball seemingly flicking off the sock of Jones, but the referee’s not having it, and the Albania forward nearly talks himself into the book. He pipes down just in time.
42 min: One corner leads to another, and that man Burn does what that man Burn does, rising highest and planting a header goalwards. A combination of Strakosha and the crossbar denies England a second debut goal of the evening. Nothing comes of the third corner. We were so close to the completion of Dan Burn’s perfect week!
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40 min: Walker gets clear down the right and cuts back from the byline. Bellingham flies in, looking to Keith Houchen home with a spectacular diving header from six yards. Strakosha sticks out a leg to block brilliantly. The ball rebounds to Kane, who slams goalward and prepares to celebrate, only for Djimisti to arrive from nowhere, extend a leg, and deflect over the bar. Kane puts his head in his hands. Denied!
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39 min: Back at Wembley, England continue to boss possession. Albania continue to sit deep.
37 min: The game goes quiet. In lieu of meaningful action at Wembley, and having just clicked on that 2002 Berti Vogts-infused MBM, how about a game of On The Oche with David Narey? Ah the simpler, more innocent days of Guardian Unlimited Football. We made our own fun back then.
34 min: Bellingham enters the box down the left and tries to Lewis-Skelly the ball under Strakosha. The keeper smothers the attempted cute poke.
32 min: Djimsiti is booked for protesting the award of a free kick after a garden-variety foul committed by Asani on Bellingham. Kane running half the length of the pitch to make his own feelings known probably didn’t help the Albanian captain.
30 min: The England defence creaked alarmingly under very little pressure there. So despite the tilt of the game, nothing’s perfect under the new regime yet. “We’re all understandably more skeptical of the value of possession but I’m going to go stat nerd here and say Albania having 8% possession is bad for them.” A convincing argument there courtesy of Zach Neeley.
28 min: From that set piece, England get in a bit of a muddle, allowing Ajeti opportunity to shoot. His effort is blocked, and he claims a penalty, but the ball pinged off Burn’s backside. Then the flag goes up for offside.
27 min: Balliu feeds Laci down the right. Laci’s cross hits the outside of the right-hand post, Pickford flapping, then off Burns and out for the first corner of the evening.
25 min: Balliu blazes down the right, making Albania’s first determined run of the night. But he can’t get past the busy Bellingham.
23 min: Albania are now pressing further upfield. Not that they’re seeing any more of the ball. Whether opening up is a good idea remains to be seen. “All this talk of Tommy Tuchel is only ‘so much blether,’ according to a Scottish pal of mine,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “‘We had a German coach decades ago who won a Euros as a manager and a World Cup as a player.” I left it at that.”
21 min: Lewis-Skelly makes sure to enjoy his celebration with the crowd. Arms waving in glee. And why not? What a player. What an impact. And to hell with the fun police.
GOAL! England 1-0 Albania (Lewis-Skelly 19)
England stay patient. Then suddenly turn up the gasp. Bellingham spins into space in the middle of the park, and slips a pass down the inside-left channel for Lewis-Skelly, who enters the box, holds off Asani, and flicks under the out-rushing Strakosha for a goal on debut! What a season the young Arsenal defender is enjoying!
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17 min: Kane barrels down the middle of the park and into the box. He’s pestered from behind by Balliu and can’t get a shot away. Strakosha, finally put to work, smothers at the England captain’s feet.
16 min: Konsa shovels forward and nearly releases Walker down the inside-right channel. Albania clear. Foden whips in from the right. Albania clear again. Strakosha in the Albanian goal has had nothing to do so far, his defence well-drilled.
14 min: Jones slaloms elegantly down the right, reaching the byline and pulling back for Kane, but Asllani arrives just in time to hook clear. England slowly warming up.
13 min: Bellingham and Rashford combine again down the left, but a cutback for Rice is miscontrolled and a decent move falls apart.
11 min: Bellingham drops a shoulder as he advances down the inside-left channel, and suddenly England make ground into that final third. He tries a one-two with Rashford but it doesn’t quite come off. For a second, that looked promising.
9 min: This is all England in terms of possession – indeed Albania have hardly had a touch – but the visitors are holding their hosts at arm’s length so far. Nothing happening in the final third. Wembley has fallen a tad quiet as a result.
7 min: Walker goes dribbling down the right and tries to nip between a couple of black-and-red shirts. He falls over and expects a free kick, but he’s not getting one. Throw to Albania. Walker briefly considers engaging the linesman in a philosophical back-and-forth, but then thinks better of it.
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5 min: Konsa loops a pass down the middle and nearly finds Bellingham on the penalty spot. Ajeti extends a leg to trap and clear, though he needs two swipes of that leg to complete the first part of that defensive action. For a second, it looked as though he’d present Bellingham with a big chance, but no.
3 min: Albania sit back in a low block. Rice is seeing a lot of the ball during these early exchanges, prompting this way and that.
2 min: England quickly snaffle possession and pass it around the back awhile. Everyone finding their feet.
Albania get the ball rolling. This is England’s 20th World Cup qualifier in the new Wembley, and they’ve yet to lose one, or fail to score in one.
A minute to remember 1966 World Cup squad member George Eastham, who passed in December. The warmest applause for one of the greats.
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The teams are out! England in white, Albania black and red. We’ll be off once the national anthems are sung, or not sung, enjoyed or endured, whatever folk choose, however they see it, live and let live.
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Thomas Tuchel talks to ITV. “Big occasion … I’m a bit nervous … but more excited … happy to get the journey going … it was a very simple decision to bring [Dan Burn into the squad] … he had a huge final and impact here some days ago … we did not want to disturb his wave … he is on a good run … it could have been Levi Colwill but we opted for Dan … I can absolutely understand how everyone loves [Myles Lewis-Skelly] … a big personality ... a big character … he is ready to go … [Marcus Rashford] is a calm guy … we got some smiles out of him … he enjoys being back in camp … Anthony Gordon comes off the back of a red card and some missed games so it was a close race … bring the energy … we play on the front foot … aggressive and attacking … don’t lose the intensity … they have good football players … we need to be aware but we are ready to go.”
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Albania assistant coach Pablo Zabaleta, once of Manchester City and West Ham, speaks to ITV. “It’s great to be back in England, that’s for sure … we expect a very difficult match … they have a new coach … new players … new ideas … we focus … we are positive … play with belief … we have a good team … we are organised and don’t concede much at the back … we can have some chances … it’s going to be tough but we need to be positive.”
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… but now I come to think about it, it’s probably more relevant to relive the last time England met Albania, isn’t it. Here’s how they fared home and away during the qualifying campaign for the 2022 World Cup.
Retro MBM department. Walker’s first game for England was against then-world-champions Spain in 2011. Fancy reliving that one? A game decided by Frank Lampard’s second-half header from three inches out? No? OK, but the option’s there to click below if you change your mind.
Kyle Walker – who made his debut under Fabio Capello and has subsequently played for Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce, Gareth Southgate and Lee Carsley – talks to ITV. “It’s been good … it’s exciting … a new era … I fully enjoyed it under Gareth Southgate … many great memories … turn the page and start again … Tuchel wants a high-intensity game … energy … being smart as well … we don’t want it to be 6-6 … we want to win at the end of the day.”
Thomas Tuchel begins his reign as England manager by handing out two new caps. Man-of-the-moment Dan Burn, a scorer at Wembley five days ago as Newcastle slaked their 70-year domestic thirst, and Arsenal prodigy Myles Lewis-Skelly are the debutants. Marcus Rashford makes his first start for England since facing Malta in November 2023.
Albania are captained by Atalanta defender Berat Djimsiti. Kristjan Asllani of Internazionale and Rangers winger Nedim Bajrami also start. Armando Broja, currently on loan at Everton, is on the bench. Their manager Sylvinho, formerly of Arsenal and Manchester City, played at the old Wembley for Brazil in a 1-1 draw in 2000, and was assistant boss of the Seleção at the new Wembley in 2017, when England and Brazil played out a goalless draw.
The teams
England: Pickford, Walker, Konsa, Burn, Lewis-Skelly, Rice, Jones, Foden, Bellingham, Rashford, Kane.
Subs: Dean Henderson, Trafford, James, Guehi, Jordan Henderson, Colwill, Eze, Rogers, Gordon, Solanke, Bowen, Livramento.
Albania: Strakosha, Balliu, Ajeti, Djimsiti, Aliji, Laci, Ramadani, Asllani, Asani, Uzuni, Nedim Bajrami.
Subs: Kastrati, Sherri, Shehu, Manaj, Mihaj, Kumbulla, Medon Berisha, Muci, Ismajli, Pajaziti, Hoxha, Broja.
Referee: Alejandro Hernandez (Spain).
Preamble
It’s the start of England’s bid to win the 2026 World Cup. It’s the first game of the Thomas Tuchel era. It’s a showdown with Albania, who are zero-and-six against the Three Lions, England having rattled up an historical aggregate score of 19-1. On balance, then, this is intriguing rather than exciting, though it’ll be quite the story should the Kuqezinjtë – the Red and Blacks – break precedent and steal away from Wembley with a point or more. It’s number four in the Fifa rankings versus number 65. It should be a home banker. It kicks off at 7.45pm GMT. And it’s on.
