England 2 – 0 Finland Match Review

Lee Carsley’s Three Lions secured a comfortable and deserved victory in the Nations League to end the first international break on a high.

Following that superb opening Nations League victory against Ireland at the weekend, where England were 2 – 0 winners, Lee Carsley’s Three Lions side came face to face with Finland at Wembley. It was an emotional evening, with all in attendance paying tribute to ex-England Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who sadly passed away in August.

The Three Lions looked to make it two wins in two against Finland, as they look to secure a spot in the next round of the Nations League from a group that also features Greece. In the end, England were able to make it 6 points from 6 thanks to a superb and comfortable 2 – 0 victory in the English Capital on Tuesday evening.

The game also saw the Three Lions’ all-time leading goal scorer Harry Kane earn his landmark 100th Cap for the Senior England National Team. He joins Billy Wright (105), Frank Lampard (106), Sir Bobby Charlton (106), Ashley Cole (107), Bobby Moore (108), Steven Gerrard (114), David Beckham (115), Wayne Rooney (120), and Peter Shilton (125) in earning 100 or more caps for England to date.

It was the aforementioned Frank Lampard who handed Kane his golden England Cap before the game to mark his 100th appearance for this country.

Onto the game itself, former Manchester United player Angel Gomes, now of Lille, was handed his senior England debut on what was a special night for the 24 year old.

He was in the starting line-up alongside Jordan Pickford (Everton), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Rico Lewis (Manchester City), Declan Rice (Arsenal), John Stones (Manchester City), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United), and Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa).

Several players from the substitute bench were also involved in the action on the pitch, and they were Chelsea’s Levi Colwill (61’) and Noni Madueke (66’), Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze (66’) and Marc Guehi (80’), and West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen (80’).

It was hosts England who had the opening opportunity in the game when Kane fed the ball to Bukayo Saka whose early effort on goal was cleared well by the Finnish defence (4’). There was almost a chance for Finland a couple of minutes later as a result of a stray pass in defence, but Jordan Pickford managed to deny forward Teemu Pukki any sort of opportunity on goal (6’).

The next chance for England came after just over twenty minutes had elapsed when Captain Kane managed to force a sensational save from Finland stopper Lukas Hradecky, who plays his club football for the reigning German Bundesliga Champions Bayer Leverkusen. Topi Keskinen then had an effort for Finland that only went very narrowly wide of the left post (21’).

Just a couple of minutes later, Bukayo Saka produced an effort that looked set to find the net via a deflection only for Hradecky to make the save to keep the score level at Wembley (23’). Just seconds later, it looked like Kane had given the Three Lions the lead via a header, only for the offside flag to go up to deny him a goal on his landmark appearance for this country.

The last big opportunity of the first half for England came when Trent Alexander-Arnold had a shot go very narrowly wide of the far post after receiving a lovely pass into his feet from Rico Lewis (42’). It remained goalless at the break, but England did look the more likely to take the lead in the second half.

The deadlock was finally broken by the home side early on in the second half when Harry Kane found the back of the Finnish net with a very powerful shot past a helpless Lukas Hradecky (57’). It came following a brilliant pass into his feet from Alexander-Arnold.

Just a few minutes after that breakthrough goal, Rico Lewis came close to doubling England’s advantage, only for his curling long range effort to go wide of the target by the smallest of margins (60’).

England then went on to score a superb second goal when a great move ended with a great pass from substitute Noni Madueke across the box found the feet of Kane, who promptly found the back of the net via the far corner to make it 68 goals in 100 Caps for England (76’).

There were a couple more chances that came the way of England in what remained of the game, but no further goals were scored so it ended in a 2 – 0 victory for the Three Lions from this crucial Nations League contest against Finland at Wembley.

Attention now turns back to domestic football, with the 2024/25 Premier League season resuming on Saturday 14th September 2024.