It ended England 2 Spain 3 at Wembley on Saturday night.
The first match since the World Cup finals for Thomas Tuchel and his players.
A contest that could have been a replay of the 2026 World Cup final, if the Three Lions had seen the win out against Argentina back in July.
Saturday night was the team that finished third in that tournament against the winners.
One thing for sure, this match at Wembley had far more in common with England’s 6-4 victory over France in the third place play-off than with the woeful World Cup final when Argentina tried to cheat and bore everybody to death to try and fluke the trophy.
The most bizarre thing about the third place play-off match was that France ‘only’ scored four goals as they wasted so many glaring chances.
Spain last night at Wembley wasn’t quite on the same level but in truth they could and should have scored five or six, rather than ‘only’ the three they did score to take the win.
From an England point of view this defeat to Spain was very much a case of the good, the bad and the very ugly.
I have seen predictable pathetic headlines from the English media wanting to make this into a Thomas Tuchel throws away another victory due to tactics and substitutions BUT the only way anybody could believe that is if you didn’t watch the match on Saturday night.
Two things stand out for me when it comes to the daft completely over the top nonsense blaming Thomas Tuchel…
Firstly, once the players cross the white line and make poor decisions and execute them so poorly, it is totally beyond the manager’s control.
Secondly, who are all these obvious brilliant alternatives that the England boss should have played instead?
As ever, the Premier League is so hyped by the media and especially when reporting on the English players who play in it, there is a quite ridiculous portrayal of these players as far better than they are in reality, in most cases. The reality for me is that these England players when playing for their EPL clubs, are generally made to look far better than they really are, by the top quality players from other countries that they play alongside.
The three worst players on the pitch for England last night in terms of woeful defending, play for Manchester City and Arsenal, the top two Premier League teams currently. Guehi, Konsa and O’Reilly.
Inside two minutes Marc Guehi made an appalling error to gift Lamine Yamal a one on one with Trafford and it was 1-0 down for England.
The England goal then led a ridiculously charmed life as Spain could and should have been at least 4-0 up at the break. Ferran Torres could have had a quickfire hat-trick as only poor finishing, decent goalkeeping and an offside conspired against him.
Somehow though it was England 2-1 up at half-time.
Thomas Tuchel’s side had, in between the defence creaking alarmingly time after time, managed to start playing some good attacking stuff of their own.
Anthony Gordon was easily England’s best player and caused problems down the left and when he roamed inside. An excellent break saw Bellingham release the former Newcastle United player and the defenders were never going to catch him as gave the keeper no chance on 36 minutes.
Amazingly, four minutes later England were ahead. Unai Simon in the Spanish goal thought Cucurella was going to clear Kane’s header but hilariously the one-time Chelsea defender simply deflected it into the goal.
England then had a glorious chance to potentially put the game beyond Spain, a penalty when Bellingham was fouled soon after the break. The ultra reliable Harry Kane slipping though as he took the spot-kick and it hit the crossbar.
All too predictably another huge error soon made it 2-2 rather than the 3-1 England lead it could have been. Alex Baena took advantage of Nico O’Reilly’s appalling mistake to equalise.
On 74 minutes it was game over as Mikel Oyarzabal finished off a classy team move.
After the match Thomas Tuchel explained that he hadn’t wanted to risk Lewis Hall in this match because an injury scare had resulted in the United left-back missing training sessions. Apart from him though, who else should Thomas Tuchel be playing at the back? O’Reilly and Lewis-Skelly are clearly not great defenders and like playing further up the pitch, so that left-back spot is there for Hall’s taking surely if he can stay fit and in the form he is capable of.
Quansah actually did okay last night playing out of position at right-back and was England’s best defender, though that isn’t saying much! Who was Tuchel supposed to play at right-back? With Tino injured the England boss had Alexander-Arnold and he can’t defend to save his life, he for sure only wants to play going forward.
In the middle of defence Konsa and especially Guehi look not up to the job BUT who else is there? Maybe if Branthwaite can stay fit he could maybe solve one spot but that is an unknown as things stand.
On the plus side England have got some very good players in midfield an up front, against Spain it was Gordon, Anderson and Bellingham the stand out performers.
Harry Kane can still be very effective just so long as he doesn’t have to run. Who knows who should be the replacement for him as we move forward?
If anybody thinks the big problem for England is Thomas Tuchel, they are so wide of the mark.
England have some excellent players but just not enough of them to fill a team.
Final score: England 2 Spain 3
England team v Spain:
Trafford, Quansah, Konsa, Guehi (Branthwaite 89) O’Reilly, Anderson, Lewis-Skelly (Garner), Saka (Gibbs-White 83), Bellingham, Gordon (Rogers 70), Kane (Calvert-Lewin 83)
Unused subs:
Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Hall, Scott, Chalobah, Eze, Steele
Thomas Tuchel named his England squad eight days ago but then lost five of the players – Tino Livramento, Kobbie Mainoo, Cole Palmer, Marcus Rashford and Declan Rice.
At the same time as naming five withdrawing, The FA named two that had been added, James Garner and Morgan Gibbs-White.
Next then for Thomas Tuchel and his players it is the Czech Republic v England on Tuesday 29 September, with a 7.45pm kick-off. Followed by Croatia v England at 5pm on Saturday 3 October. Finally, it is England v Czech Republic at 7.45pm on Tuesday 6 October.
Instead of having three international breaks each for a fortnight in September, October and November, the football authorities have combined the September and October 2026 ones in just one that lasts three weeks. The November 2026 break remains the same, lasting two weeks.
The England squad (see below) after the five dropped out and the two came in:
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jason Steele (Brighton & Hove Albion), James Trafford (Leeds United)
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Real Madrid), Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Trevoh Chalobah (Como), Marc Guéhi (Manchester City), Lewis Hall (Newcastle United), Ezri Konsa (Arsenal) Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), Jarrell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen)
Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Manchester City), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Alex Scott (AFC Bournemouth)
Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds United), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Anthony Gordon (Barcelona), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Rio Ngumoha (Liverpool), Morgan Rogers (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)