London, Sept 5: England’s Adam Lallana scored his first international goal with the last kick of the game as the visitors beat 10-man Slovakia 1-0 in their World Cup Group F qualifier Sunday to get new manager Sam Allardyce’s reign off to a winning start. It was however, a nerve-wracking beginning to England’s 2018 World Cup campaign.
In another game played on the night, defending World Champions Germany rode on Thomas Mueller’s brace to carve out an easy 3-0 win over Norway at Oslo.
With the referee checking his watch at the City Arena in Trnva, midfielder Danny Rose sent a hopeful low ball into the area for Lallana, who jinked left past a defender and struck a low shot through the legs of Slovakia goalkeeper Matus Kozacik for his first England goal in 27 games. However, for much of the lacklustre contest it looked like England would be frustrated with a re-run of the goalless draw the teams shared in their last clash during the group stage at Euro 2016.
England struggled to shrug off familiar problems, controlling the game without looking like winning it even after Slovakia defender Martin Skrtel was dismissed for stamping on Harry Kane in the 57th minute.
His departure signalled a period of intense pressure from England with Lallana hitting the post, and substitute Theo Walcott seeing a scrambled effort ruled out for offside, before the Liverpool midfielder snatched the last-gasp winner.
“We didn’t panic, that was the main thing,” said captain Wayne Rooney, who played in his 116th international to become England’s most capped player ahead of David Beckham. “We stuck to our plan and kept our shape. Adam scored the goal to get us off to an excellent start.”
Meanwhile Mueller put his Euro 2016 goal drought behind him with two opportunistic strikes against Norway.
He took advantage of shoddy Norwegian defending to give the title holders an early lead and headed the third goal on the hour of the European Group C game. In between, he produced a superb pass to set up Joshua Kimmich for his first international goal. Germany enjoyed 68 per cent of the possession, spent nearly the entire game inside the Norway half and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, given the captaincy in place of Schweinsteiger, did not have to save a single shot on target.
“We controlled everything, we didn’t allow Norway to get into the game and we didn’t allow them any scoring chances,” said manager Joachim Loew. “I’m happy. It was good for Mueller to get the goal and good for us.” Reuters
