Havertz equaliser sees England held to worst run in 29 years | OneFootball

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·26 September 2022

Havertz equaliser sees England held to worst run in 29 years

Article image:Havertz equaliser sees England held to worst run in 29 years

England were denied a win after a late error by Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope halted a superb comeback and gifted Germany an equaliser in the Uefa Nations League clash at Wembley.

In a game of fluctuating fortunes, Germany looked on course for victory as two bad mistakes from the hapless Harry Maguire put Hansi Flick's side in control.


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England manager Gareth Southgate has remained fiercely loyal to the defender despite his struggles at Manchester United but the decision backfired badly.

Maguire lost possession then brought down Jamal Musiala to concede the penalty from which Ilkay Gundogan gave Germany the lead seven minutes after half-time then lost the ball and was left out of position as Chelsea's Kai Havertz curled in a superb second after 67 minutes.

England were facing a third successive defeat but showed great character and resilience to turn the game around and move within sight of what would have been a morale-boosting win in the last game before the World Cup in Qatar.

Luke Shaw pulled one back then a superb equaliser from substitute Mason Mount and a Harry Kane penalty, given after a foul on Jude Bellingham by Nico Schlotterbeck, looked to have capped an unlikely fightback in the space of 12 minutes.

Sadly for Pope, hoping to stake his claim as deputy to first choice Jordan Pickford, he fumbled a routine shot from Serge Gnabry with three minutes left, leaving Havertz to pounce and condemn England to their worst run of results since 1993.

Southgate later said: "It is an error and of course he's going to be down but the team has to be together and we have done that all week.

"Tonight, in the end, a couple of errors have cost us the goals but I'll focus on the fact they played with tremendous spirit and showed a belief that we haven't shown in the last few games. I thought the crowd saw that and rose to that."

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