Kane saves England for dismal win over Andorra

After a game that was so dismally lacking in spark, Thomas Tuchel had one message he clearly wanted to repeat, doing so in three different interviews: “We were playing with fire.”

- MIGUEL DELANEY

It says much that a Champions League-winning manager genuinely thought there was a chance that England might slip up to Andorra. Another comment after this dreadful 1-0 win said even more.

Tuchel was so alarmed by England’s “attitude” in the last 30 minutes of this match that he plans a meeting on Sunday to let the squad “know what we want from them”. That is what might make an otherwise completely forgettable game somewhat significant. Tuchel was furious.

And yet, through all of this, it was difficult not to think back to words the England manager said in March: “The Fifa June window is I think debatable if it makes sense.”

Tuchel was at the time talking about how some players won’t have played a game for four weeks but, given the amount of discussion about the calendar right now, it’s hard not to put that into a wider context. At Espanyol’s new stadium, England looked like what they are: a group of elite-league players who have had long seasons, and need a break.

Some of them instead have to go to the Club World Cup. They played as if they wanted to be anywhere but here.

And that is what most aggravated Tuchel. It was why he was completely unwilling to reassert his reservations about the June window. “No excuses,” he said. “The window is the window.”

In other words, they can all have arguments about what this international break should be but that doesn’t mean they should allow themselves to drop off in the way they did in the last halfhour.

Tuchel simply said he didn’t like it. “I think we lacked the seriousness and the urgency that is needed in a World Cup qualifier. I think we played with fire. I didn't like the attitude in the end. I didn't like the body language. It was not what the occasion needed.”