Friday night ended England 1 Uruguay 1 and Ben White made all the headlines.
The Arsenal player booed when he came on the pitch, scored a goal, then conceded the penalty which the visitors equalised from.
As always, it amazes me how they get 80,000+ people to turn up for these England friendlies, never mind pay for the privilege.
It was like pretty much every England friendly you have ever seen, endless passing sideways and backwards. Maybe if what happened in the final ten minutes had been the opening ten minutes, we might have seen something worth watching.
Thomas Tuchel calling up 35 players across the two friendlies and on Friday night playing an experimental eleven, with very few of them likely to be considered as starters when England kick off their first match at the World Cup finals.
Until the closing stages, only the useless referee and some not so friendly tackles by Uruguay players, were worth a mention.
A shocking challenge from Ronald Araujo on Phil Foden, should have been a red card for sure, yet not even a yellow AND VAR didn’t intervene.
The referee went on to book Man U’s Manuel Ugarte twice but didn’t send him off.
The thing I ended up reflecting on most after the final whistle, is how faint the line is between making headlines and ending up completely anonymous.
As we know ‘match reports’ and coverage in general of games these days, is all based on one or two incidents, more often than not who scores the goal(s).
With ten minutes to go a really poor corner from Cole Palmer was turned into a goalscoring one, as it eluded the Uruguay defenders at the near post and Harvey Barnes applied a really clever deft touch on the volley, that the keeper could only get the faintest of touches on. With no defender protecting the back post, the United winger’s effort was set to roll into the far corner off the post, only for Ben White to tap it in from inches out.
Harvey Barnes barely touched the ball otherwise, in his twenty minutes on the pitch. Yet his name would have been up in lights in the media regardless, if he had been the one getting the goal. He didn’t even get an assist due to the keeper’s faintest of touches. As it is, I haven’t seen Barnes get any mention whatsoever in the media, not even the fact that it was his touch which turned a terrible corner into a goalscoring one.
Just look on the highlights below at Harvey Barnes’ face when he sees Ben White steal his goal, the Newcastle United star then quickly recovering to join in the group celebrations.
The referee then topped off a dismal night by awarding a nonsense penalty against Ben White, after VAR intervened. It clearly isn’t the Premier League having an exclusive right to terrible use of VAR. How on earth the VAR felt it was essential to intervene on this (non-) penalty but ignore that assault on Phil Foden…incredible.
From a Newcastle United perspective, Tino Livramento played the full game (only he and Maguire of the outfield players did so) and did okay on the right. Whilst Lewis Hall came on for the final 20 minutes, at the same time as Harvey Barnes, and did similar on the left as Tino did on the right. Neither of them giving any reason for Thomas Tuchel not to take them to the World Cup finals,, as they surely were destined to do regardless.
As for Harvey Barnes, he needed to do something dramatic in this March get together to stand any chance of making the plane to the finals, his goal that never was, could maybe have led to more involvement in the Japan game than he is likely to get now.
Aaron Ramsdale was an unused sub, whilst Dan Burn and Anthony Gordon are amongst the eleven players who joined the squad later on, so will be in contention for that Japan match on Tuesday.
England 1 Uruguay 1
England:
22 James Trafford (Manchester City), 2 Tino Livramento (Newcastle United), 14 Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan), 6 Harry Maguire (Manchester United), 16 Djed Spence (Tottenham Hotspur), 21 James Garner (Everton), 8 Jordan Henderson © (Brentford), 17 Noni Madueke (Arsenal), 7 Phil Foden (Manchester City), 11 Marcus Rashford (Barcelona), 9 Dominic Solanke (Tottenham Hotspur)
Substitutes used:
20 Jarrod Bowen (West Ham United) for Madueke 38’, 4 Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace) for Henderson 45’, 10 Cole Palmer (Chelsea) for Foden 56’, 18 Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds United) for Solanke 57’, 19 Harvey Barnes (Newcastle United) for Rashford 69’, 15 Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United) for Garner 69’, 3 Lewis Hall (Newcastle United) for Spence 69’, 12 Ben White (Arsenal) for Tomori 69’
Substitutes not used:
13 Aaron Ramsdale (Newcastle United), 23 Jason Steele (Brighton & Hove Albion), 1 Jordan Pickford (Everton), 5 John Stones (Manchester City)
This is the March 2026 international schedule for Newcastle United players:
Wednesday 25 March
Bermuda 0 DR Congo 2 (Friendly)
Yoane Wissa scoring a 51st minute penalty, as DR Congo warm up for their all or nothing World Cup play-off match.
Thursday 26 March
Italy 2 Northern Ireland 0
A brilliant man of the match performance from Sandro Tonali, as he scored a quality volley to put Italy ahead in this World Cup play-off semi-final, then getting an assist for Moise Kean as his goal made sure of progress to a World Cup play-off final next Tuesday against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Denmark 4 North Macedonia 0
William Osula an unused sub as the Danes progress to the World Cup play-off finals, set to face Czech Republic on Tuesday.
Ukraine 1 Sweden 3
Anthony Elanga subbed off in added time having helped Sweden progress to the World Cup play-off finals, they will face Poland on Tuesday.
Friday 27 March
England 1 Uruguay 1
Tino Livramento one of only two outfield players to play the full game he did okay. Aaron Ramsdale an unused sub.
Lewis Hall got the last 20 minutes and did okay, like Tino. Whilst Harvey Barnes also got 20 minutes and was pretty much anonymous, apart from cheated out of his first England goal when he volleyed home a poor Palmer corner, only for Ben White to score instead when tapping it in from a few inches out.
Monday 30 March
Germany (Nick Woltemade, Malick Thiaw) v Ghana (Friendly)
Tuesday 31 March
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Italy (Sandro Tonali) World Cup play-off final
Czech Republic v Denmark (Will Osula) World Cup play-off final
Poland v Sweden (Anthony Elanga) World Cup play-off final
New Caledonia or Jamaica v DR Congo (Yoane Wissa) World Cup play-off final
England (Dan Burn, Harvey Barnes, Anthony Gordon, Lewis Hall, Tino Livramento, Aaron Ramsdale) v Japan (Friendly)