England held in a drab 1-1 draw in Euro 2024 qualifier

 England held in a drab 1-1 draw in Euro 2024 qualifier

It had to happen sooner rather than later. There are only so many winning runs in international football that can be sustained over a specific length of time. England can count themselves ever so lucky that the opposition they have faced thus far has neither been testing or severe. Earlier on in these Euro 2024 qualifying round robin of matches England met and matched then just outplayed an Italian side they'd been beaten by in the Euro 2020 Final two years ago at Wembley Stadium. What goes around comes around as they say in the football vernacular.

Last night Ukraine came together in a moving communion, the face of defiance and solidarity that has marked all of their matches in the Euro qualifiers for Germany next summer. As a man and woman and child, their fans huddled together across the vast acres of a Polish ground that couldn't possibly have believed that they would be called upon to host an international football match at a time of grave crisis,  senseless murder of people and its precious property. This would not have been the idyllic setting for any global sporting contest but when needs must Poland lent a warmly sympathetic hand to their neighbours.

And so we witnessed a football match horrifically overshadowed by the tragedy of war, destruction, killing and a thick red mass of blood that has now spread over almost the entire population of Ukraine. The streets and roads are now broken and bereft, estrangement and displacement wherever you look, families irreparably ripped to shreds, a country now just reduced to a charred ruin and refusing to believe that their lives will ever be the same, a once proud nation almost wiped from the map of the world by savagery of the cruellest kind.

But last night there were the first buds of resilience in the heart of Poland because we have to move forward and stick the proverbial two fingers at the scene of the crime, the vicious violence, the continuous sequence of grisly death. And yet tonight was different, totally removed from the scars, wounds and bloodthirsty brutality, the bandages, shotguns, rifles and incessant bombing.

Here was a classic demonstration of a country determined to fight evil, the nefarious nastiness of war, its personal nature, the deep seated grudges and raw resentments. How the Ukrainians would love nothing better than to wake up in the morning and find peace, blissful contentment, a release from the agonising screams from neighbourhoods and communities far and wide. Football matches should never be the platform for a heartbroken nation, a nation expressing desperate pleas for an end to war but this time everybody had to bite their collective tongues.

And so it was that the Wrocklaw Stadium in the heart of Poland provided the backdrop to a game between Ukraine and England that must felt like a temporary home for the Ukrainians, awkward and uncomfortable, not right somehow. In years to come historians will come to look back on the past and wonder how Europe and the rest of the world ever came to terms with global wars, viruses, ailments, afflictions and constant setbacks.

Still it was business in Europe as usual. England boss Gareth Southgate was a beacon of diplomacy, a man with the finger on the pulse of events, weighing his words, assessing latest developments and still full of praise of his players. You'd hardly expect anything else. The groggy period including England's 4-0 thrashing by Hungary in the Nations League and then the eventful 3-3 draw against Germany underlined the cracks and deficiencies in Southgate's team. They are effectively through to next summer's Euro 2024 in Germany barring a total collapse in form. But you have to wonder whether they can reproduce their own brand of grown up and adolescent football on the big stage.

They will know though that last night's 1-1 draw against Ukraine will not be tolerated by the purists, the critical pundits who always expect perfection and those who just want England to win anything in tournament football rather than the catalogue of near misses and failures that have become the underlying narrative of their recent past. We want England to enjoy a Lionesses moment when the girls showed us exactly how to win major international Finals. 

For most of the first half England indulged themselves on the kind of possession football that may be vital should they get to Germany next summer. There was a glut of precise and intelligent passing amongst the England players which would have been regarded as most satisfactory and pleasing to the eye. Sadly though there may have been too much gluttony and gourmandising rather than the killer pass, the clinical finishing touch, the cutting edge, the guillotine's blade rather than the blunt instruments that always seemed to spoil their stunningly attractive approach work.

There was a time when England's football reminded you again of a luggage airport carousel, endless suitcases slowly going around and around until boredom sets in with a vengeance. You just want to get home because your dogs and cats are patiently waiting for you to come home. That was how it must have felt to all the loyal England fans. There were stately processions of passes that were spellbinding to watch but it was all horizontal, vertical, triangular, almost over rehearsed and perhaps contrived at times. Of course England should treat the ball with tenderness and care but this had no end product at all.

At the heart of England's defence the likes of Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker, Ben Chilwell and newcomer Marc Guehi were all still stern and forbidding defensive obstacles but there were the jittery moments during the game when everything became too elaborate and stilted. Walker still plays like the 100 metre Olympian sprinter who will never be beaten for pace. Then there was the elegant and authoritative Declan Rice now in the red of Arsenal, nipping shrewdly in between the yellow and blue Ukrainians and cleverly intercepting the ball as and when needed. Essentially though this was all about England's lacklustre attack.

In the heart of England's midfield, the evergreen Jordan Henderson is still a model of reliability and concentration at all times. His latest venture into the world of Saudi Arabian football was not what any of us were expecting but Henderson can still spray insightful long and diagonal passes into space so he can stay for a while. Then we looked over towards the gorgeous talent of Jude Bellingham, recently a Real Madrid acquisition and a player of such immense skill and craftsmanship that it is hard to believe that he is still in his early 20s. Bellingham was almost unmanageable and untouchable, tricking and playing hotch scotch with Ukraine.

Further forward there was at least the comforting sight of James Maddison a player with some of the most extravagant and silky touches you could ever wish to see in a white England shirt. His days of boyhood at Leicester City are now no more than history. Maddison came to the capital city of London and plies his trade at Spurs. Maddison is always forward thinking, innovative, quick witted and impulsive and last night he knew exactly where his colleagues were.  Bukayo Saka, who plays across the road to Maddison at Arsenal, was sensationally irresistible, fluttering and flitting past his opponents, cutting back sharply inside one helpless defender and then adroitly moving around the pitch like a playful butterfly.

However it was Ukraine who opened the scoring. Yukhym Konoplia, Illa Zalanyi, Vitaly Mykolenko and Arsenal's Oleksander Zinchenko who, in common with all of his yellow and blue shirted colleagues, knew just how much this game meant so much to their country. These were passionate players, sentimental players, tuned into the same wavelength and acutely aware of the game's significance. The goal fashioned by the home side was one to savour. A delightful daisy chain of passes around the edge of the England penalty area carved open Gareth Southgate's team and after a dashing overlap on the right, the ball was flashed across low to Zinchenko who steamed into the box and stroked the ball home ecstatically.

For the rest of the game England laboured, plodded, probed admirably and consistently, their football neatly illustrative, full of pictures and patterns but without the scalpel to cut open a stubborn Ukraine defence. The rest of the game looked as if it was ebbing away from England, all honourable intentions but little in the way of invention. Then England somehow discovered an equalising goal their football hardly deserved. Harry Kane, roving and roaming purposefully all over the pitch, took possession on the half way line. Kane's impeccably measured and long, floated diagonal ball was lofted over to Manchester City's Walker who latched onto the ball before running into the edge of the area and then ramming the ball firmly home for England's equaliser.

And that was really that. A nation that still grieves its dead and distressingly injured, drifted away from this small corner of  Poland, grateful for the escapism that football can still deliver. For as long as this wretched and deplorable war continues the greater the bitterness that must be seeping into the soul of Ukraine. But just for 90 minutes at least football came to their rescue, the perfect antidote to grief and suffering. It may not be much but it is something and the strength of support for the global game was readily apparent. There's something called lasting friendship and last night it extended its warm hand.