England 1-3 Senegal (Kane 7′ | Sarr 40′, Diarra 62′, Sabaly 90+3)
Was this some newfangled tactical approach from Thomas Tuchel? A clever ploy to outwit opponents on the way to winning the 2026 World Cup? Is playing without a defence the future?
Probably not, if this was anything to go by. England facing their first half-decent opposition in Tuchel’s four games – Senegal 19th in the world rankings – and the defence disintegrating before his eyes.
If the first goal conceded was defensively awful, the second was worse.
The game had a misleading gloss from England’s early opening goal by the time Senegal equalised in the 40th minute.
When the ball was clipped over the top and Nicolas Jackson gave chase, Trevoh Chalobah jogged across but seemed not to try overly hard to close down his opponent. Did he think the ball was bouncing out of play?
Whatever went through Chalobah’s mind, Jackson hooked the ball back into an almost empty penalty area. Ismailia Sarr attacked the space, sprinting towards the ball and easily out running the usually sharp Kyle Walker, who reacted too late, to send the ball past Dean Henderson.
You will rarely see a more it-had-been-coming goal: England may have led for most of the half, but Senegal had shaded possession and turned it into six shots on England’s goal.
And good ones.
Sarr completely free for a header in the 15th minute that Henderson did well to push wide. Idrissa Gueye completely free inside the penalty area when Iliman Ndiaye passed across, only a loose touch forcing a weak shot that Henderson blocked.
England’s defence split apart in the opening five minutes by Ndiaye skipping past Conor Gallagher and playing in Jackson whose low shot was blocked well by the England goalkeeper.
England had taken an early lead, but a fortunate one.
Eberechi Eze, in fairness, did well to press and nick the ball from Lamine Camara outside Senegal’s penalty box. The ball made its way to Gallagher, then Anthony Gordon. His shot was straight at Edouard Mendy, but the ball slipped under the goalkeeper and came back out, and Harry Kane was there to tap in.
The score level at half-time, Senegal continued to look the likeliest scorers in the second half, and made the breakthrough when England’s defence disappeared again, just after the hour.
Jude Bellingham’s equaliser was controversially ruled out (Photo: Reuters)A somewhat hopeful ball was clipped over England’s confused back line – less a line than a jumble of players, nobody seeming sure who was meant to be where or tracking who. Habib Diarra ran onto it. He ran, and ran, and ran. And when no-one came near, he slotted the ball under Henderson.
There was a telling moment in the 20th minute that summed up Tuchel’s frustrations with how England play. England were in possession in their own half, but a chasm had opened between midfield and attack, and the ball was passed listlessly about.
Tuchel screamed from the touchline at Gallagher, suggesting he was leaving too much of a gap, demanding he moved higher with sweeps of his arms.
Less than a minute later, Gallagher skipped around an opponent on halfway to spring an attack. Tuchel liked what he saw now, and applauded. But the attack quickly fizzled out when Gallagher passed right, when he had more options breaking at speed on his left.
Tuchel didn’t hide his irritation as he turned to complain to his staff in the dugout.
What must have been going through his mind in stoppage time when substitute Curtis Jones lost the ball, Senegal broke and Cheikh Sabaly scored a third?
The big-name head coach parachuted in to steer England to World Cup glory, after near misses under Gareth Southgate, looks further away from completing his mission than when he started.
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