the times | Wednesday June 8 2022 2GM 65
Uefa Nations LeagueSport
Player ratings
By Paul Joycejordan pickford
everton, age 28
He might have done
better with
Hofmann’s(^6) breakthrough.
kyle walker
man city, 32
Good clearance from
Müller. Germany
targeted him. Saka
(^6) offered little help.
john stones
man city, 28
Denied the chance to
step out of defence
with the ball by
(^6) Germany’s press.
harry maguire
man utd, 29
He stepped out to
engage, leaving the
hole that Hofmann
(^5) exploited for the goal.
kieran trippier
newcastle, 31
Defended well at the
back post as Havertz
threatened in the air.
(^6) Quiet in attack.
kalvin phillips
leeds, 26
Suffered a heavy
blow to his right
knee/thigh after a
(^5) collision.
declan rice
west ham, 23
Made one early run
but offered little else.
Worked hard to win
(^6) back possession.
bukayo saka
arsenal, 20
Couple of shots in
first half but
generally struggled
(^6) to influence attacks.
mason mount
chelsea, 23
Brought a save from
Neuer. Little
creativity on his 61st
(^6) game of the season.
raheem sterling
man city, 27
Peripheral all night.
Fortunate that Kane
stepped up to
6 equalise.
harry kane
tottenham, 28
Brilliantly denied by
Neuer but brought
up his 50th England
7 goal from the spot.
England (4-2-3-1)
Total 65
England substitutions
Jude Bellingham (for K Phillips) 14min,
added some bite in midfield 7
Jack Grealish (for M Mount) 72
Jarrod Bowen (for B Saka) 80
Germany (4-2-3-1): M Neuer 8 —
L Klostermann 7, A Rüdiger 7,
N Schlotterbeck 6, D Raum 7 —
J Kimmich 7, I Gundogan 7 (L Sané 83)
— J Hofmann 7 (S Gnabry 65, 6),
T Müller 7 (L Goretzka 76), J Musiala 8
(T Werner 65, 6) — K Havertz 7. Booked
Schlotterbeck. Total: 78
Referee C del Cerro Grande (Sp)
these boorish visitors. It should be
stressed that it is a minority among
England’s travelling supporters who
engage in such antisocial behaviour. Of
the 4,000 or so fans in Munich, the vast
majority have quietly enjoyed all that
this beautiful Bavarian city has to offer.
But there was more concern for the
authorities because, with England’s
ticket allocation so limited at the
Allianz Arena, those unable to secure
one of the 3,466 available managed to
buy tickets among the home supporters
via the German Football Federation
website.
This became evident shortly before
the Nations League encounter. There
was an obvious England end, high up in
one corner of this magnificent arena.
But beyond that area there were plenty
of England flags on view, with English
fans peppered around the ground.
In the hours before the game the
local population had been forced to
endure more offensive chanting. “Have
you ever seen a German win a war?”
was one depressing offering. And while
the booming stadium sound system
made it impossible to tell if the England
fans took the opportunity to sing “No
surrender to the IRA” during the
national anthem, only four minutes of
this game had passed before we were
treated to another blast, with two more
renditions before the half-time interval
and one immediately afterwards.
Mercifully, that remained the extent
to which the atmosphere was spoilt.
In anticipation of potential problems,
the heavy police presence seen in the
city centre was much the same in the
stadium thanks to the 700 extra officers
on duty, among them large teams of
mounted police who patrolled the
perimeter of the stadium before kick-
off. Faced with that level of law enforce-
ment, anyone who did have an appetite
for trouble clearly thought better of it;
much like they had done the previous
evening.
Of course, it does not excuse the
scenes of drunkenness and loutish
behaviour, and more needs to be done
— not least by the right-minded major-
ity of England fans — to discourage
such conduct in the future. Only the
idiots will object.
Balogun’s predatory prowess
guides team into the finals
Euro Under-21 qualifying
Tom Roddy
England
Balogun 44, 66, Archer 77
Albania
3
0
That’s the easy bit done. England
Under-21 celebrated qualification to
next summer’s European Champion-
ship as group winners with a simple win
over Albania, but Lee Carsley will know
the true challenge begins now.
The win in Chesterfield means Cars-
ley’s side head to Kosovo this week
having dropped only two points in eight
games. However, whether every
member of this squad will be in Roma-
nia and Georgia remains to be seen;
Carsley suggested at least one of them
could sneak into Gareth Southgate’s
seniors for the World Cup in Qatar.
Emile Smith Rowe and Jacob Ram-
sey are obvious contenders, but Antho-
ny Gordon impressed again while
Folarin Balogun proved his ability as a
poacher. The New York-born striker is
the top-scorer in the squad and took his
tally to six goals for the campaign in a
game in which England showed plenty
of invention but little finish.
England and Balogun’s first was a gift
after Adolf Selmani lingered on the ball
too long and was dispossessed by Smith
Rowe, who supplied his Arsenal team-
mate. By half-time Albania had mus-
tered less than a quarter of possession
but remained in the game by virtue of
England’s wastefulness.
That was to change: Albania were
under pressure and diving in recklessly,
and they finished with ten men as Ar-
mando Dobra was sent off for a second
bookable offence as Gordon was sent
tumbling to the turf again.
England were already three ahead by
then. Balogun’s second came again
from close range after Morgan Gibbs-
White’s clipped cross was headed into
the danger area by Charlie Cresswell,
before Aston Villa’s Cameron Archer
turned in Gordon’s cross for his first
goal at under-21 level.
“I said the first time we all spoke that
it was going to be an achievement to
qualify and we shouldn’t take it for
granted,” Carsley said. “A lot of posi-
tives to take from not only tonight but
the campaign so far. We have to make
sure we finish it off properly.”
Chelsea’s new owners Todd Boehly and
Behdad Eghbali will represent the club
at this week’s Premier League annual
meeting — raising a question mark over
the long-term future of club executives
from the Roman Abramovich era.
Boehly and Eghbali will travel to Har-
rogate for the annual meeting tomor-
row and will meet chiefs of the other 19
top-flight clubs for the first time.
It had initially been expected that
Bruce Buck, Chelsea’s chairman under
Abramovich, and the club director
Marina Granovskaia would be kept on
by the Boehly consortium, but that now
looks uncertain. Club insiders told The
Times a decision still has to be taken on
whether they will remain as directors.
Boehly is the part-owner of the Los
Angeles Dodgers baseball team and
Eghbali is the co-founder of the Clear-
lake Capital Group — Boehly and
Clearlake will share joint control of the
club, with Boehly chairman of the
holding company.
Filings at Companies House on
Monday confirmed that Abramovich’s
Chelsea owners yet to decide
on future of key executives
long-time aide Eugene Tenenbaum
ceased being a director on May 30, with
Boehly and Eghbali appointed direct-
ors on June 1. A new company, Blueco
22, is now the “person with significant
control” of the club.
Blueco 22’s directors are Boehly and
Eghbali, their fellow Clearlake execu-
tives José Feliciano and James Pade, the
Swiss tycoon Hansjorg Wyss and Mark
Walter, the co-founder of Guggenheim
Capital. Apart from Wyss, the directors
are all Americans.
The Boehly consortium paid £2.5 bil-
lion for the club and secured approval
from the government for the takeover.
It brought an end to the 19-year
tenure of Abramovich, the Russian-
Israeli billionaire, during which time
the club won 19 major trophies, chang-
ing the face of English football for ever
with his investment.
Abramovich officially put the club up
for sale on March 2, amid Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine. The sale was
approved after the government was
satisfied that Abramovich — who has
been sanctioned by both the UK gov-
ernment and the EU in response to the
Russian invasion — would not benefit
financially from the transaction.
Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter
Matt Lawton Chief Sports
Correspondent
Ugly songs – if not scenes
England fans mix with home supporters at the Allianz Arena after buying tickets from the German federation website
After eight arrests the
night before, trouble at
stadium was limited to
unsavoury chants,
says Matt Lawton
Shortly before midnight on Monday
the reputation of England’s football
supporters appeared to be on a knife
edge.
Gathered on one side of a small
square here in Munich stood members
of the German riot place, calm but
armed and menacing. Facing them, and
edging ever closer, was a group of 300
England fans, goading the officers with
a chorus of Ten German Bombers and an
invitation, arms spread, to take them
on. The police had ordered the closure
of the Irish bar where they had been
drinking and this was their reaction.
For a moment the British police
officers present expressed some con-
cern that the situation could escalate
quickly. To the credit of the German
police, however, they remained
composed in the face of such mindless
provocation and eventually dispersed
the crowd with a series of tactical,
rather intimidating, advances.
Oblivious to the fact that officers had
also been deployed behind them, a
cowardly individual who launched a
beer bottle from the back of the crowd
was immediately apprehended. Three
other England fans were arrested for
making Nazi salutes, while one chap
was marched to a cashpoint and
ordered to pay an on-the-spot €700
fine (about £600) for abusing a police-
man.
Elsewhere in the city the toilets of a
bar were trashed and one bright spark
was arrested for setting off a flare in his
hotel room. His night fizzled out as fast
as his pyrotechnic device.
In all there were eight arrests on the
eve of this Nations League encounter,
and plenty of praise from members of
the UK football policing unit — here as
spotters — for the manner in which
their German counterparts managed
LEE SMITH/ACTION IMAGES VIA REUTERS