Harry Kane converted a 78th-minute VAR penalty to give England a 2-1 victory over Switzerland in a generally flat Wembley friendly on Saturday, taking the striker alongside Bobby Charlton on 49 England goals and behind only Wayne Rooney (53).
Breel Embolo gave the visitors a deserved lead after 22 minutes, with Luke Shaw equalising just before half-time in a rare England foray. Kane’s goal made it 10 wins and three draws against the Swiss since a World Cup qualifying defeat in 1981.
Both teams will be in Qatar for this year’s tournament though and neither coach will have learned a great deal from Saturday’s game, which was largely short of intensity and goalmouth action. England manager Gareth Southgate gave debuts to Marc Guehi and Kyle Walker-Peters and a first start to Conor Gallagher but it was otherwise a near full-strength starting side. The Swiss, impressive qualifiers for Qatar ahead of Italy, were at virtual full strength.
The visitors looked more organised and energetic in the first half and went ahead when England centre back Ben White, a late inclusion in the team after John Stones was injured in the warm-up, misjudged an excellent Xherdan Shaqiri cross and Embolo nodded in.
England keeper Jordan Pickford made two excellent saves to deny Granit Xhaka and Fabian Frei as the hosts created almost nothing until first-half stoppage time when Gallagher sent over a low cross and Shaw crashed home a superb shot.
The first 15 minutes of the second half passed without incident and then a total of eight substitutes — four for each team — came on, including another England debutant Tyrick Mitchell.
Neither side looked capable, or that motivated, to create much so it was no surprise when the decisive goal came via VAR a ruling that Steven Zuber’s handball, with his back turned, off Marc Guehi’s innocuous header was worthy of a pitchside look.
The referee eventually pointed to the spot and Kane slammed the ball home hard and low. “It’s big year ahead, a chance to try some different systems,” Kane said.
Spain win hearts
Spain’s Dani Olmo struck a stunning goal in added time to snatch a 2-1 victory against Albania in a friendly before a passionate crowd in their first game in Catalonia in 18 years.
Roared on at nearly full Cornella-El Prat stadium, last year’s Euro semi-finalists dominated from the start but had to wait until the 75th minute to open the scoring as Ferran Torres finished from close range from a pass by substitute Yeremy.
But a few minutes later Myrto Uzuni equalised with Albania’s only shot on target via a deflection off Eric Garcia’s face. As the game looked to be heading for a draw, Olmo received a short pass from Jordi Alba and curled a superb shot into the top corner from the edge of the box to secure the win.
Arguably the biggest headline about Saturday’s game was where it was played as Spain returned to Barcelona for the first time since winning a friendly 2-1 against Peru in February 2004.
More than 35,000 of the 40,000 tickets available for what would normally be a fairly low interest friendly were sold. After years of tension between the Madrid central government and Catalonia separatist movement there were concerns about how the crowd would react but any worry disappeared from the start.
The fans joined in with the melody of Spain’s national anthem, which has no words, and were fully supportive of their team. The political situation, less turbulent than in the recent past, helped ease the tensions but the make up of the core of the team also played a part, with four starters from Barcelona.
Goalkeeper David Raya also began his career with a team who trained five minutes from the stadium, while Spain coach Luis Enrique had success as player and manager at Barca, who he took to a Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Cup treble in 2015.
