England vs Malta Livestream: Watch Football in the Euro 2024 Qualifier From Anywhere
The first-half performance of the Al-Ettifaq midfielder was lackluster, and as England prepares for Euro 2024, he should be benched.
Although England vs Malta fired first, it was England who took the lead after Phil Foden raced down the right flank, cut the ball back, and somehow found a way for custodian Henry Bonello and defender Enrico Pepe to put it in the back of their own net.
Harry Kane was brought down by Bonello in the area, and the Three Lions should have been awarded a penalty, but the referee strangely booked the Bayern Munich striker for a dive. Amazingly, VAR stayed out of the way.
With a laborious 2-0 home victory over Group C heavyweights Malta, which will not stick in the minds of an underwhelmed Wembley crowd for long, England secured a top seeding at Euro 2024.
Enrico Pepe’s early own goal kept 171st-ranked Malta apart from Gareth Southgate’s lackluster team until the 75th minute, and they had some nervous moments in between.
After some excellent work by Bukayo Saka, Captain Harry Kane finally doubled England’s lead with his 62nd goal for his nation. Declan Rice’s attempt was then disallowed for offside.
However, there wasn’t much to be excited about as a number of England benchwarmers squandered the opportunity to send Southgate a message of intent.
Whatever happened in North Macedonia on Monday, England’s victory over Malta guaranteed them a spot in Group C, and they had already qualified for the finals in Germany the following year.
Trenta Standing, Alexander-Arnold looked around. He watched Marcus Rashford run, and the pass was exquisite—it cut across the ball and floated into the space from right to left. However, what happened next looked like it was taken straight out of a cartoon, depicting how difficult it would be for England to defeat Malta at home. Alexander-Arnold controlled the situation and drove forward in one motion as Malta cleared and Rashford’s run into the box was stopped. However, Alexander-Arnold collided with Rashford because it was too much. Mumbled Wembley. Rashford hobbled away.
That kind of night it was. With more paper airplanes landing on the Wembley pitch than England vs Malta managing shots against the team ranked 171st in the world, the paper airplanes quickly overtook England for the lead. From the upper reaches of the stands, those crumpled pieces of A4 may have been a more entertaining sight than Gareth Southgate’s team, who labored and struggled, only managing an own goal in the eighth minute through Enrico Pepe. To put it succinctly, that was insufficient to appease the masses.
The 74th minute was when England vs Malta finally started to gel. Surging past a midfield challenge, Alexander-Arnold finds space to pass to Kyle Walker. Harry Kane slid into position to tuck away England’s second and final goal of the evening with just their second shot on goal after Phil Foden found Bukayo Saka with a clever slide pass. Declan Rice curled in a nice third shortly after, but VAR disallowed it because Kane was standing offside. More frustration for Kane, who was sent off for simulation following a lackluster first half in which he was tackled by Malta custodian Henry Bonello.
It’s very difficult to pick it up if you don’t start games well, and we didn’t,” said Gareth Southgate in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live. We are aware that our current level could and should be higher.
