England manager Gareth Southgate has named defender Marc Guehi as a player that will have taken meaningful experience from Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Ukraine.
Kyle Walker cancelled out a surprise opener from Oleksandr Zinchenko as the Three Lions fought from a goal down to secure a draw in Euro 2024 qualifying.
Though they remain top of Group C and have almost secured a place in next summer’s finals, England surrendered their perfect start to qualifying and have now taken 13 points from the 15 available to them to this point.
England weren’t at their best in Wroclaw and were punished for playing without pace and rhythm, with Bukayo Saka going closest to a winning goal in the second half when he struck the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area.
Speaking to the press post-match, Southgate pointed to his side’s record in qualifying and noted how this is a match that will benefit younger players such as Guehi in the long run.
“The reality is we’re not going to win every game by fours and sevens as we’ve done in this qualifying campaign,” Southgate said.
“That was a really good test – away from home, very passionate atmosphere, quite a few changes forced from the last game.
“For people like Marc Guehi, for instance, his first experience of the game like that with England, which he came through really strongly.
“So, sometimes, especially with attacking play, it doesn’t quite click. We know that the patterns that we worked during the week are what we always do, so it’s not that we approach the game in a different way.
“We tried to refresh things to give them a different sort of problem but today our forward play bar the goal and probably Bukayo’s effort that hit the bar wasn’t at the level that it has been in our previous games.”
Guehi was one of England’s top performers in 90min’s player ratings, impressing with his front-foot defending and reading of danger.
The Crystal Palace centre-back was making just his fifth appearance for the Three Lions.
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