England got their Nations League campaign up and running in Prague with a 2-0 victory over Czechia, Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane providing the goals after the hosts were reduced to 10 men inside the first half.
The backdrop to the trip was uncomfortable. England had lost to Spain at Wembley on Saturday, which turned the temperature up on this fixture, and they have form for finding this compact stadium difficult — it was here in 2019 that they lost a European Championship qualifier 2-1. Czechia, meanwhile, were starting a new era under the Spaniard Santi Denia after their World Cup wash-out, and they dared to dream of another upset.
Thomas Tuchel shuffled his pack and made the surprise decision to leave Jude Bellingham among the substitutes. Trent Alexander-Arnold came in from the cold for only his second appearance under Tuchel, the first having come as a substitute against Andorra in the summer of last year. Only Marc Guéhi survived from the back four that faced Spain, with Ezri Konsa and Nico O’Reilly carrying minor injuries, so Trevoh Chalobah and Lewis Hall came into a completely untested defensive unit.
England lacked cohesion at the outset and were loose in possession, a little open at the back, and Czechia were the better team until the sending-off. Morgan Rogers, in for Bellingham, offered England’s best moment of the early exchanges on 16 minutes, spinning onto Gordon’s low cross after a fizzed pass from Myles Lewis-Skelly and sending a shot against the inside of the far post. Czechia had flickers of their own: Pavel Sulc almost got in after Elliot Anderson misjudged a high ball, Lukas Cerv hit a sweet volley past the post, and Sulc chose the wrong option when well placed and was crowded out by Guéhi and Chalobah.
Then everything changed. In the 23rd minute Sulc made a rash challenge on Anderson, late and high, albeit nothing overtly nasty. The referee, Umut Meler, showed the Czechia midfielder a yellow card, but the VAR was not satisfied, and when Meler was called to the pitchside monitor everybody knew what was coming next. The decision disfigured the contest. It was a devastating moment for Sulc, and not only because he did not have to jump into the tackle: it came in a non-threatening area of the pitch, he over-stretched in an effort to win the ball, and it did not feel crazily excessive in terms of force. There was no outrage from the England players around Anderson, but at the monitor Meler concluded it ticked the boxes for an upgrade to red — and, as always, it looked worse on the slow-motion replays. Tuchel was not complaining.
Czechia’s attacking ambition evaporated and England came to dominate the ball, though they did little with it before the interval. Kane took another incisive pass from Lewis-Skelly and extended Matej Kovar in the 45th minute, and that was about it. Tuchel finished the first half in an almighty funk at the fourth official after a decision had gone against Bukayo Saka.
The manager reset at the interval, sending on Eberechi Eze for Lewis-Skelly — who had been booked on 35 minutes for a lunge on Cerv, whose screams could be heard up in the press box — and switching to a 4-1-4-1. Tuchel could not take any chances with a booked player, even if the Czechs’ calls for a red card to even things up were wide of the mark.
England got the breakthrough almost immediately, and it was one for the Alexander-Arnold admirers. When Czechia coughed up the ball cheaply, he chased it down on the right, turned and delivered a whipped cross on a low trajectory that bounced once before sitting up for Gordon, whose headed conversion was marked by precision. It was deserved reward for Gordon, who was quick and urgent throughout and looked the player most likely to spark England.
England relaxed thereafter and were good. Hall began to surge up the line, shooting inches wide after getting a pass back from Gordon, while Ladislav Krejci turned a low cross from Hall against the far post. The Kane goal was inevitable, and it came when he drilled a loose ball into the far corner after a break into the box by Rogers, taking him to 87 England goals.
After all the focus on England’s defensive vulnerability, there was the bonus for Tuchel of a first clean sheet in seven matches, the team having conceded 13 times in the previous six. Tuchel also got Alex Scott on for his debut, and he did well, as did Rio Ngumoha off the bench. England might have scored more, with Kovar making a particularly fine save to deny Eze. Next up for them is Croatia away on Saturday.