England needed an 85th minute Harry Maguire winner to get past Poland 2-1 at Wembley in their World Cup qualifier after a calamitous John Stones error previously gifted the visitors an equaliser.
It was in fact Stones who set-up Maguire’s winner, heading a Phil Foden corner back across goal for his centre-back partner to power home past Wojciech Szczesny.
Previously, Stones had got too comfortable on the ball inside his own box and presented it to Brighton’s Jakub Moder. The Poland midfielder interchanged nicely with Arkadiusz Milik in the box before firing past Nick Pope with his left foot.
The goal by Moder was the first Pope has ever conceded for England, having previously kept six consecutive clean sheets.
Harry Kane had put England in the lead after 19 minutes, rifling a penalty down the middle of the goal after Raheem Sterling was challenged. Kane has now scored 10 of the 12 penalties he has taken for England. No one has scored more from the spot for the Three Lions.
Additionally, scoring on Wednesday night means Kane becomes just the second player to score on every day of the week for England after Frank Lampard.
England were average but managed to win
The first-half penalty was reward for England’s dominance in the first half, as they looked to unsettle Poland and cause problems from the off.
However, Poland, who were missing star striker Robert Lewandowski through injury, introduced Milik at half time and looked a changed outfit from then on.
It was a largely lacklustre second half from England but winning ugly is a trademark of all successful sides.
Many will wonder why England boss Gareth Southgate left it until the Three Lions regained the lead to make changes as there seemed to be a lack of urgency and direction in their play despite the scores being level.
One player who did catch the eye in an otherwise distinctly average England performance was West Ham midfielder Declan Rice.
Rice, 22, looks more assured with every game he plays and Wednesday night demonstrated his capability to both break up and start new attacks from the heart of midfield.
Poland will feel hard done by to come away with nothing as they were the better side for large parts of the second 45.
Yet, they can feel proud of the way they responded after a despondent showing in the first half.
England sit top of Group I
With all the teams now having played a trio of games, England are top of Group I with nine points, while Hungary lie in second place just two points behind the Three Lions.
England’s next World Cup qualifier is not until September 2, when they travel to Budapest to take on Hungary.
Albania and Poland are third and fourth with six and four points respectively, while Andorra and San Marino are yet to pick any up.
England have friendlies against Austria and Romania in June to look forward to next before a rescheduled Euro 2020 rolls around.
It is job done as far as Southgate is concerned but he’ll know there is still work to be done following the hot and cold display in their last competitive fixture before his side’s Euro 2020 campaign begins against Croatia at Wembley on June 13.
