England 3-0 Latvia
by Layth Yousif
at Wembley Stadium

GOALS from Reece James, Harry Kane and Eberechi Eze sealed a comfortable victory for Thomas Tuchel’s efficient England against an obdurate Latvia side in front of 79,572 fans at Wembley Stadium. 

On a chilly Monday March evening, James’s first half free-kick for his first senior England goal put the Three Lions ahead on 38 minutes, prior to Kane slotting home Declan Rice’s low cross for his 71st England goal on 68 minutes. Crystal Palace substitute Eberechi Eze clinched Tuchel’s second win on the bounce as boss with 14 minutes remaining. 

Three Lions boss Tuchel made four changes to the starting XI that comfortably beat Albania 2-0 to launch the German’s reign.

Friday debutant Dan Burn and Kyle Walker dropped to the bench, replaced by Reece James and Marc Guehi, the latter being sold to Crystal Palace during Tuchel’s time as Chelsea boss.

Tuchel’s selections also ensured it was the first time no Manchester United, Manchester City or Liverpool players had made the starting line-up for an England game since Euro 1992 against France.

Villa boasted three players in total, including Morgan Rogers, who swapped with Curtis Jones, while the underwhelming Phil Foden was switched for Jarrod Bowen.

Arsenal’s precocious goalscoring debutant teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly kept his place, with Gunners colleague Declan Rice racking up six years in an England shirt.

There were 2,000 boisterous Latvian fans present at Wembley, a far cry from the 957 in attendance for their opening match in Andorra, which saw a 1-0 victory for Paolo Nicolato’s side in the Pyrenees last time out.

Despite being 136 places below England, Lativa nearly went ahead on 18 minutes when Guehi was involved in a mix-up with the onrushing Pickford. The pair contriving to allow Latvia’s No9 Vladislavs Gutkovskis a free shot at an empty goal.

Fortunately for Tuchel’s England, the angle was too acute for the Riga-born 29-year-old journeyman currently playing his trade at South Korean K League 1 club Daejeon Hana Citizen, and the effort flew into the side netting.

Stung, England swept forward, packing the box as Ezri Konsa’s powerful close range effort was superbly saved by Latvia keeper Krisjanis Zviedris. Moments later, Harry Kane’s header flew over the bar, when the England captain was well-placed.

With England dominant, VAR took an age to deliberate that despite the lively Bowen being brought down in the box by Zviedris, no penalty was to be awarded — much to the chagrin of the crowd and players.

On 34 minutes, Bellingham guided his header over the bar from Bowen’s ball into the box, as the battling side from the Baltic continued to keep England out.

Three minutes later the home side finally breached obdurate Latvia’s rearguard, when James lifted his free-kick over the wall and into the top corner, to put Tuchel’s side 1-0 ahead, with the first goal scored direct from a free-kick by an England player since the legendary Stuart Pearce since 1992, even if keeper Zviedris appeared to be too far over to his left to prevent the effort.

It was instructive to note that while England’s dominance saw a whopping 79 per cent possession after the opening 45 minutes, which featured 324 passes to the visitors’ 26, the only statistic that mattered was the tight 1-0 scoreline, credit to Latvia’s obduracy, rather more than the home side’s profligacy.

Talking of wasted chances, Kane should have doubled the home side’s lead just after the hour mark, but fired his low shot wide of the post when the striker really should have done better.

However, the Bayern Munich frontman is a class act, and made amends for his miss shortly afterwards, when slotting home Rice’s cross from close range, to make it 2-0 to England on 68 minutes.

England made it 3-0 with 14 minutes remaining when substitute Eze showed persistence to work space by jinking in the box, before firing home, which also had the added benefit of halting the infernal Mexican waves here at Wembley.

Shortly afterwards Tuchel made a flurry of substitutions, including swapping the redoubtable 18-year-old Lewis-Skelly — who had another good game — for Kyle Walker with the match won.