England’s 100% record ended when they were held by a spirited Ukraine team in Wroclaw.
The visitors drew first blood in the 26th minute through Oleksandr Zinchenko, who arrived in the box late on to turn home Yukhym Konoplya’s strike.
England equalized from an unlikely source when Harry Kane split Ukraine’s defense with a tantalizing long ball that found Kyle Walker reaching the back post to touch down before slotting past Georgiy Bushchan.
It was the Manchester City defender’s first goal for his country in his 77th appearance.
Gareth Southgate’s side pushed for victory when Bukayo Saka went close on the hour and smashed the bar with a powerful left-footed effort from the edge of the box.
Ukraine finished with a draw to remain second in the group with seven points from four games, while England remained top with 13 points from their five games.
Ukraine player ratings (4-2-3-1)
GK: Georgiy Bushchan (7); RB: Yukhym Konoplia (8), CB: Illya Zabarnyi (7), CB: Mykola Matvienko (5), LB: Vitalii Mykolenko (5); CM: Oleksandr Zinchenko (8), CM: Taras Stepanenko (6), RM: Viktor Tsyhankov (6), AM: Georgiy Sudakov (5), LM: Mykhailo Mudryk (5); CF: Roman Yaremchuk (5)
SUBS: Serhiy Kryvstov (6), Serhiy Sydorchuk (6), Artem Dovbyk (5), Vitaliy Buyalskyi (N/A), Yegor Nazaryna (N/A)
Manager: Sergiy Rebrov (7)
England player ratings (4-3-3)
GK: Jordan Pickford – 5/10 – Didn’t have too much to deal with.
RB: Kyle Walker – 8/10 – Scored his first goal for England on his 77th appearance for the Three Lions. His recovery pace ensured the lively Mudryk was ineffective.
CB: Harry Maguire – 5/10 – Met plenty of set pieces but was unable to convert them. Sometimes shown up by the quickness of Ukraine’s counter attacks.
CB: Marc Guehi – 7/10 – Stepped up with confidence to win most of his duels both on the floor and in the air.
LB: Ben Chilwell – 4/10 – Guilty of under-hitting several passes, making runs into dead-ends and was routinely sought out as a weak link in the defence.
DM: Declan Rice – 5/10 – Failed to track Zinchenko for the opening goal. Broke up play well but didn’t seem as confident in his distribution.
CM: Jordan Henderson – 5/10 – This was a match where the idea of Henderson was streets ahead of the midfielder’s actual execution. He covered Walker, made late runs into the box and bustled his way into challenges, but never to great success.
CM: Jude Bellingham – 5/10 – Wasn’t on the same wavelength as his other midfielders and failed to provide much threat in the final third either.
RW: Bukayo Saka – 6/10 – Overcame an early knock to carry on. England’s most lively player in the final third but he was often quickly surrounded by yellow shirts.
CF: Harry Kane – 8/10 – Such was the congestion in the Ukraine box that it made further sense for Kane to drop deep and dictate play. Walker’s equaliser was a noteworthy example of this tactic working.
LW: James Maddison – 5/10 – Showed glimpses of his creative wizardry but was a little careless with the ball in the first half and found it tough breaking down Ukraine’s stubborn backline.
Substitutes
SUB: Marcus Rashford (66′ for Maddison) – 5/10
SUB: Phil Foden (66′ for Bellingham) – 5/10
SUB: Conor Gallagher (87′ for Saka) – N/A
Subs not used: Johnstone (GK), Ramsdale (GK), Trippier, Colwill, Tomori, Dunk, Phillips, Eze, Wilson
Manager
Gareth Southgate – 5/10 – England were only at their best in the immediate aftermath of Ukraine’s opener. Otherwise, they played without urgency or intensity.
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