England striker Jermain Defoe made a scoring return to the international stage and substitute Jamie Vardy added a second goal as the hosts laboured to a 2-0 victory over Lithuania in World Cup qualifying Group F on Sunday.
Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free
Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter
Veteran Defoe, making his first appearance for nearly 3-1/2 years, fired lacklustre England ahead in the 21st minute at Wembley but Gareth Southgate's team struggled to finish off a Lithuania side who are 93 places lower in the FIFA rankings.
England survived a couple of worrying moments and had to wait until the 66th minute to double their lead when Defoe's replacement Vardy finished neatly shortly after coming on.
Relive England's routine victory below...
Which players impressed at Wembley?
England vs Lithuania player ratings
Show all 13
England's next four fixtures...
vs Scotland (A). June 10. World Cup qualifier. vs France (A). June 13. Friendly. vs Malta (A). September 1. World Cup qualifier. vs Slovakia (H). September 4. World Cup qualifier.
3 mins: Hmm, perhaps Southgate isn't doing his best Pep impression after all. The 4-1-4-1 formation that most people anticipated having seen the team sheet actually looks more like a conventional 4-3-3 at the minute, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Dier both operating in a central role.
Lallana's quick feet take him past a couple of men out wide on the left, but he cuts inside and loses the ball.
5 mins: Great diagonal pass from Dier to Walker out wide on the reft. He rolls the ball past Novikovas and tries to skim him on the outside, but rather shoves his man out of the way to get the ball, and Lithuania get the free-kick.
6 mins: Ahead of the match Southgate identified Lithuania's wider players as their most talented, and Novikovas, their left-winger, certainly looks lively. He springs forward with the ball and runs at Stones, but his lay-off is intercepted.
Lithuania commit a couple of bodies forward in support of him and England look to punish them on the counter, but Setkus catches Dier's optimistic cross-field pass.
7 mins: Free-kick in a decent area for England, 35 yards out on the left. Alli rolls the ball past Zulpa, shuffles past him, and is booted in the heels. Lallana to take the set-piece.
8 mins: Whoops. Lallana takes it short and Alli tries to flick it into the path of an onrushing Bertrand. But he gets too much on his stabbed pass and Setkus watches it out.
9 mins: Good last-ditch defending from the away side. Walker intercepts a pass in the middle of the park and spring forward into space, but his through-ball to Defoe - which would have set the veteran striker racing clear - is intercepted by a lunging Klimavicius.
12 mins: For all the talk of their solid bank of six defends, Lithuania have lined up in quite an expansive formation. Their wingers are pushing up to support Valskis whenever he has the ball up front, and they're alive to playing on the counter.
Lallana runs around a couple of tackles and plays in Alli who is shrugged off, and Lithuania break in just that fashion. Bertrand gets back and puts in an impressive tackle though, and the England attack whirs into action once again.
13 mins: Chance for England! The superb Lallana wriggles into space and hangs one across the box looking for Walker at the back post, but Klimavicius gets across him and nods it out for a throw.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments