Lallana scored England’s victor last night, but was the best player on the park overall.
Advertisement
England struggled to shrug off familiar problems, controlling the game without looking like winning it even after Slovakia defender Martin Skrtel was dismissed for stamping on Harry Kane in the 57th minute.
In fact, it took them over ninety minutes to find the back of the net as Adam Lallana scored an impressive left-footed goal in the final minutes of the contest to seal the points for his side.
He wrote: “For the majority of the match I couldn’t help but think of Glenn Hoddle”.
It was, however, a victory they merited and the standard of opposition in Group F is so moderate it does not feel wildly premature to imagine England’s participation in the World Cup is a near-certainty. In fact they parked a double decker – we hit the post, several shots on target, some saves, then Adam scores his first goal for England in the dying seconds.
Before Slovakia went down to 10 men, there was not much difference in England’s play against Slovakia, from the days of Roy Hodgson’s English reign.
“Wayne played wherever he wanted to”, said Allardyce. “You can’t forget how hard it is to play in Slovakia, but we dominated the game”.
Reigning champions Germany kicked off their qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup in impressive fashion as they cruised to a 3-0 win over Norway. But what he needs to be very careful about is crossing the line into indulgence and by doing so weakening his own value and position as manager.
Buoyed by that late chance England started the second half positively, and they found themselves with a man advantage just before the hour.
Wayne Rooney has become England’s most-capped outfield player in history.
Bayern Munich’s youngster Kimmich got the second and his first worldwide goal following a brilliant solo effort from the right.
And with the attacking talent at his disposal, Allardyce admits England must improve their conversion rate in front of goal.
Advertisement
Chris Brunt is in contention for a return to first-team football with West Bromwich Albion next month after a long injury layoff, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.
