England vs Andorra

Updated: Aug 4, 2023

Hi everyone,

Hope you are well.

England were back at Wembley for the first time after the EURO’s, and we managed to get tickets. This was a very late decision as we took my friends ticket who couldn’t go, because of this we didn’t have much time to plan the trip or book a car parking space. The game was England vs Andorra in a World Cup qualifier, and the kick off was at 5pm. I had my own football training before the match, so due to traffic and having trouble parking we didn’t make it into the stadium until 10 minutes before kick-off, thankfully we got in just in time to see the teams come out. We did end up parking in the red car park, which I do recommend to any driving fans as it’s only a short walk from the stadium. England’s previous qualifier was against Hungary in their own stadium, as a fan watching from home the scenes from the home fans was appalling with lots of racist remarks on show. UEFA had previously banned the fans from games, but because this was a FIFA match, they were allowed back in, to me this makes no sense, and you would think the organisations would come together for the ultimate aim to protect the players. The game did end 4-0, but it did highlight how there is still a lot to change before the players can go into a game fully confident, they won’t be subjected to racism.

Wembley had a completely different energy to it with all positive vibes projecting around the stadium, by the 67,000 England fans. Sweet Caroline echoed the stands before the game, taking us back to the great run we had in the EURO’s. Gareth started with a completely different starting 11 for this game, giving everyone a chance to play. Now we were practically guaranteed qualification Gareth was able to be a bit more experimental with his selection, including placing Alexander-Arnold in the midfield instead of his normal right back position. When the names were read out prior to kick off Bukayo Saka got the loudest cheer, and rightly so after his contribution in the EURO’s before his undeserved wave of abuse.

The knee was taken, and the game was off, with Andorra taking this first kick. The opening stages were completely dominated by England, which was to be expected, as we faced a team rated 156th in the world. Our seat was located opposite the dugout on the lower tier, so we had a perfect view, including when Bellingham did a beautiful skill in front of us getting past 3 players and finally putting the ball through the legs of an Andorran player, getting a huge cheer from the crowd. For an 18-year-old he has so much confidence on the ball, and he is such a joy to watch! An early chance for England as Lingard looked to be through on goal, after playing a 1-2 with debutant Bamford, but the goalkeeper was slightly quicker gathering the ball before Jesse could get there. Saka had a chance to put us in front in the 15th minute as the ball found its way into the box to Lingard, who was able to pull it back to Bukayo who’s shot was millimetres wide. Every England fan wanted to see his name on the score sheet after a tough aftermath he had to deal with. Tyrone Mings and Conor Coady were the centre back pairing, they both looked very confident with the ball and also in playing balls through the middle to start attacks. Once again Saka was in the action in the 18th minute, this time receiving the ball out wide from Jesse before taking it into the box, playing it back into the path of Jesse who was waiting in the box, he was able to calmly pass it into the near post making it 1-0 to England! The JLINGZ x SIUUU celebration came out, hopefully his Manchester United coaching team were watching this game, because what a performance from him! Coady went for the acrobatic attempted after Trippier whipped one of many free kicks in, which was headed into the path of Conor, but his shot went straight over the bar, although it was closer than expected. The rest of the second half was completely dominated by England but the score line didn’t change; because there wasn’t much action the fans on the top tier resulted to making paper aeroplanes and attempting to get them down to the pitch, this did provide more entertainment for us then the actual football in the closing stages of the half. The half ended 1-0 to us.

During half time we tackled the concourse so my mum could get some food, although it wasn’t as noisy as final day it was still extremely busy, and the queues were very long. While queuing we saw YouTuber Thogden with his dad Thogdad and got a picture with them. Due to the length of the queues we missed the first 10 minutes of the second half but when we returned, we were informed we thankfully hadn’t missed anything.

There were no substitutions in the break, but Reece James did swap into midfield and Alexander-Arnold went to right back. Early chance for Bamford to get his debut and birthday goal, but his attempt was straight over the bar into the crowd. Reece James used body well running through the middle before releasing a bullet shot, but it was kept out by the crossbar. There was some beautiful football on display throughout the whole game, the whole team playing the ball around nicely! A triple change came in the 62nd minutes, Mount on for Bellingham, Grealish on for James, and Kane on for Bamford. I was pretty surprised to see Jude be subbed cause he was having a great game. All 3 subs were involved in the next piece of action, Jack and Mason playing around the edge of the box, Grealish played the ball into the path of Mount in the box who cut around one defender, before attempting to get past the second but he was pushed to the ground... penalty to England. Of course Harry Kane stepped up to take it, and of course he buried it into the back of the net. 2-0 to England! It wasn’t long till England were on the attack again, in the 79th minute Saka picked up the ball in the middle of the pitch, he had so much time and space, played a ball out wide to Lingard who too had so much space. He found a perfect space outside the box and knuckle-balled the ball through the defenders into the back of the net, he has a brilliant shot on him and there can’t be much argument to keep him out of the United team now! Jesse hadn’t scored an England goal since 2018 but now he was on the scoresheet twice! 3-0 to England! Corner for England taken by Alexander-Arnold, played short to Lingard who had the time and space to lift the ball perfectly onto Saka’s head and he headed it back into the back of the net! What a moment for the young lad scoring his first competitive England goal on his 20th birthday, the crowd erupted even louder in celebration for this goal, no one deserved a goal more than him! Lingard had a late chance to get his hat trick, but his shot was annoyingly deflected wide. In the closing stages of the game we had a few shots of target testing the goalkeeper, but nothing came from any of them. The game finished with another 4-0 victory taking us up to 15 points in the group keeping our top position.

After the game we stayed in our seat for about 30 minutes to let the crowd die down, in this time the players did a lap of honour, as we as the unused substitutes coming out to do a mini warm down. Jesse Lingard obviously got MOTM after getting a brace, assist and showing an all-round great performance! When Saka came out for his interview, he was sung Happy Birthday too by the England fans. I also met my friend Ellie for the first time after as her seat was near ours. On the way back to the car we found where the team bus could have left the stadium, but after waiting there for a while until the road opened it did not come out so maybe left though a different exit.

Match stats:

• England had a total of 88.1% possession, Andorra had 11.9%

• England had a total of 20 shots with 6 on target.

• Andorra had 1 shots with 1 on target.