Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere did their chances no harm at Wembley on Thursday.
Hodgson: Still has some thinking to do
England may have won all three of their European Championship warm-up matches, but Roy Hodgson is arguably no nearer to knowing his best eleven ahead of next Saturday’s Group B opener against Russia.
Manager Roy Hodgson went with a diamond system against Portugal at Wembley, with Wayne Rooney shoe-horned in behind strikers Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy.
Despite their Iberian opponents going down to 10-men at the end of the first half, courtesy of Bruno Alves’ flying kick on Kane, England struggled to break them down, and it wasn’t until late in the second half that the Three Lions really began to ask questions of Fernando Santos’ team.
Alves (L) was dismissed following this challenge on Kane
Chris Smalling’s 85th-minute header eventually snatched a 1-0 win for the hosts, following a pin-point cross from substitute Raheem Sterling – the third goal created by the Manchester City winger in as many international matches.
Smalling was England’s unlikely match winner
Sterling had entered the fray 19 minutes earlier, alongside Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere, and the pair’s performance has appeared to go down well on social media.
Have they muscled in on Hodgson’s plans? Some fans would like to think so…
Sterling (L) and Wilshere make their entrance
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