This wasn\u2019t a bad performance, but it wasn\u2019t a good one either \u2014 just an earnest, unspectacular exercise in putting a small but incredibly resilient opponent away.<\/p>\n
The almost empty stadium when England did their lap of honour round Villa Park told one story, but the absence of booing or paper aeroplanes (for the first time in Tuchel\u2019s reign) told another. The fans were on the fence and real judgment will come when the Three Lions play their toughest game of qualifying, away to Serbia on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A step-up in performance will be required there, and Tuchel seemed to be contemplating just that while he sat pensively on a water bottle trunk throughout most of the second half.<\/p>\n
He had promised we\u2019d see more hallmarks of the football he wants to stamp upon England and we did, in the form of quicker passing, better pressing, penetration from wide. But only sporadically. At other times, England\u2019s energy and confidence dropped and they were dangerously becalmed.<\/p>\n
The winners and losers? Well, maybe Tuchel has found a No6. On debut Elliot Anderson was outstanding in how crisply he moved the ball and how tenaciously he won it back, though caution is required. He was playing against semi-pros and will need to show he can reprise those qualities against much superior opposition, but this was a fine start to his international career.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a very, very good football player. He has physicality, loves passing, very mobile. It was a pleasure to see,\u201d Tuchel said.<\/p>\n
![\"World](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/ed06e0d4-04af-4f06-a84a-ce6657d27bd1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
England\u2019s bright attacking play had faded somewhat before Rice\u2019s header<\/p>\n
MATTHEW CHILDS\/REUTERS<\/p>\n
Noni Madueke was excellent (even if Tuchel criticised some of his counterpressing), jinking and jagging past opponents and playing with a courage of which England need more.<\/p>\n
Marc Gu\u00e9hi had little to do defensively but was smooth on the ball and played the pass of the game to instigate England\u2019s opening goal. However, Harry Kane made his 108th international appearance one of his worst and, at No10, Eberechi Eze missed chances and, Tuchel said, didn\u2019t bring the same creativity he had showed in training sessions to the real thing.<\/p>\n
Tuchel expects Serbia to be both different and the same. More muscular and direct and with far more quality in the front line but similarly inclined to let England have the ball. England\u2019s two goals showed what to do against teams settled in their block: move the ball cleverly to make them lose a little of that shape then penetrate from the flanks. The crosses from Madueke, to force a 25th-minute Andorran own goal, and from Reece James, for Declan Rice to head home in the 67th minute, were brilliant. <\/p>\n
But there were not enough sequences of true quality like these \u2014 and there is something wrong in the balance of a performance when your striker (Kane) ends with 12 touches and your centre backs (Gu\u00e9hi and Dan Burn) a combined 263.<\/p>\n
![\"06.09.2025](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/3006ac57-fe48-4de8-9f24-701af092db1b.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
England\u2019s dominant first half was rewarded when Garc\u00eda headed into his own net to put the hosts in front<\/p>\n
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER<\/p>\n
In fairness to Eze and Kane, England didn\u2019t get the ball to them enough. It\u2019s true that a stampede of bulls coming towards them wouldn\u2019t shift Andorra from their 5-4-1 and Eze was in the area most congested with yellow shirts. It\u2019s also true that there was a calculating element to how Andorra kept leaving Burn in possession. He did OK on the ball, though \u2014 and his fellow Geordie, Anderson, made a difference.<\/p>\n
Anderson\u2019s smart passing forced a mini-opening for Kane on the edge of Andorra\u2019s box early on, but Kane\u2019s shot rolled tamely into Iker \u00c1lvarez\u2019s gloves. When Eze was finally in a good situation, it was after a swift interchange involving Anderson and Madueke, but Marc Val\u00e9s jutted out a foot to get a nick on the ball and take power off the shot, giving \u00c1lvarez a routine save. <\/p>\n
Eze lacked conviction with his shot when Rice pounced on the loose ball after an \u00c1lvarez parry to cut back to him. Max Llovera blocked and James\u2019s cross just evaded Madueke and Kane.<\/p>\n
But then it came, an outbreak of clever, patterned and telling football Tuchel was brought in to author. Marcus Rashford switched play inside to Anderson, who helped the ball on to James, who then passed back to Gu\u00e9hi.<\/p>\n
Gu\u00e9hi\u2019s ball to Eze was exactly what England needed: something bolder and more precise than what came before. It was lovely, a straight pass fizzed down the centre, through the marking, to Eze, who played back to Anderson. He found Madueke, who bent in a cross and Christian Garc\u00eda, worried about Kane, threw his head at the ball \u2014 diverting it into his own net.<\/p>\n
That should have been England\u2019s platform but, as Tuchel said, the 15 minutes that ensued were his team\u2019s most careless. Not enough players took Gu\u00e9hi\u2019s lead: there was a lack of bravery in the passing.<\/p>\n
England allowed the game to drift until right before half-time, when \u00c1lvarez palmed out a Madueke cross and Garc\u00eda cleared just before Eze could convert. Tuchel betrayed his growing angst by smacking his palm in frustration.<\/p>\n
He sent England out with more intent and the 25 minutes at the start of the second half was their best period of the game. However, the finishing remained meek. Madueke jagged past his man after a fine switch by Myles Lewis-Skelly and cut back to Eze, but the midfielder was slow with his shot and \u00c1lvarez saved. Rashford curled the follow-up wide.<\/p>\n
Anderson snapped in to win possession as Andorra played out and all Kane needed to do was play him a simple square pass but Kane played the ball behind him and Anderson couldn\u2019t quite adjust. \u00c1lvarez \u2014 the Andorra manager\u2019s son \u2014 made a very good save. Then, Eze leant back horribly to yank a Rashford centre into the stand.<\/p>\n
![\"England](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/1df65b65-0221-4004-b7ed-6fcfd72748b9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Anderson impressed in midfield on his full debut<\/p>\n
CARL RECINE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
Andorra even had a shot \u2014 hit high over the bar by Ian Olivera, who simply wears \u201cIan\u201d on his shirt. You would rather like him to line up with the Brazilian, \u201cKevin\u201d who has just signed for Fulham.<\/p>\n
How relieved Rice looked to give England a second goal. It came when Burn fed Gu\u00e9hi, who spread to James, and the right back bent one of his caviar deliveries to the far post, where Rice, arriving with a good run, nodded down past \u00c1lvarez. As Tuchel said, England should have won by three or four.<\/p>\n
A step in the right direction, was his conclusion and in the context of what came before, it was. <\/p>\n
England (4-2-3-1):<\/b> J Pickford \u2014 R James (M Rogers 68min), M Gu\u00e9hi (E Konsa 76), D Burn, M Lewis-Skelly \u2014 E Anderson, D Rice (T Livramento 68) \u2014 N Madueke, E Eze (M Gibbs-White 78), M Rashford (A Gordon 68) \u2014 H Kane. Booked<\/b> Burn.<\/p>\n
Andorra (5-4-1):<\/b> I \u00c1lvarez \u2014 B Borr\u00e0, M Llovera, C Garc\u00eda, I Olivera, S Nicol\u00e1s \u2014 A Rodrigo (Dacu 81), P Babot (M Reb\u00e9s 91), M Val\u00e9s (J Guill\u00e9n 59), J Cerv\u00f3s (C Rubio 91) \u2014 Cucu (G L\u00f3pez 59). Booked<\/b> Babot.<\/p>\n
Referee<\/b> M Al Emara. Attendance<\/b> 39,202.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some ski resorts, three towns and a bit of duty-free shopping. Your boys took a hell of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-404335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115161064300530905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}