Switzerland

Switzerland remind Southgate that international football is about control | Jonathan Wilson

27-Mar-2022 11:00:24 | The Guardian

England won out in the end but encountered familiar problems in defence and in the space beyond Harry Kane

Imagine that was a league game. England found a path to victory. They were better after half-time. They had the strength of character to come from behind. It’s a sign of a title-winning team that they can still win when nowhere near their best. A lot of the squad players had a run-out. The friendly win against Switzerland, in that sense, was a satisfactory evening for Gareth Southgate.

But this was not a league game. It was international football, so everything is heightened, hysterical and overblown, albeit not perhaps as much as it would have been in the pre-Southgate days. There is so little evidence available that everything has to be over-scrutinised – except, perhaps, the opposition.