Kieran Trippier helps get England over the line | OneFootball

Kieran Trippier picking up his latest England cap.

Up against Italy in Naples in this Euro 2024 group qualifier, the Newcastle United player an 81st minute sub.

Coming on for Phil Foden directly after Luke Shaw was sent off for his second bookable offence.

The Newcastle United defender helping to get England over the line in a match that they threatened to throw away, when in reality they should have had it sewn up by half-time.

Declan Rice and a Harry Kane penalty had put England in control, only for Gareth Southgate to, as per usual, go all defensive instead of keeping the team competitive up the pitch.

This combined with poor defending from Harry Maguire (no surprise!) gave Italy a second half route back into the match via a 56th minute Retegui goal.

Kieran Trippier though helping to steady the ship and help guide England to victory, the 10 men seeing out the final stages including six minutes of added time.

Whilst this was obviously more difficult than the usual easybeat bunch that England normally get put in a group with in qualifying for tournaments (though winners AND runners-up from each group will qualify for the Euro 2024 finals anyway), in reality Italy are a pretty average team these days.

They failed to qualify for the Qatar World Cup, lost their most recent match 2-0 to Austria, whilst the Italians had only won seven of their most recent eighteen internationals, make that now seven from nineteen.

A good performance nevertheless from England and if Jack Grealish hadn’t missed an open goal in the first half, this would have been far more comfortable.

However, yet again you can’t help feel that a better manager could be doing far better with this group of England players. They were totally dominant and leading 2-0, yet once Gareth Southgate got them in the dressing room they then came out looking like a different and very defensive team, not playing to their strengths. Speaking of which…how on earth Harry Maguire continues to get into the squad, never mind the team, is beyond belief.

Thursday 23 March

Italy 1 England 2 (Euro 2024 group qualifier)

Kieran Trippier an 81st minute sub, coming on for Phil Foden directly after Luke Shaw was sent off with England leading 2-1 at the time. The Newcastle United defender helping to get England over the line in a match that they threatened to throw away, when in reality they should have had it sewn up with Rice and Kane goals before half-time. Poor defending by Harry Maguire allowing Italy to pull it back to 2-1 in the 56th minute.

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Sunday 26 March

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