England lose and Scotland draw, but it is the defeat that contains the positives as the season’s final batch of international matches gets underway.
Germany 1 England 0
What’s the difference between England and Germany? On the evidence of last night’s friendly in Dortmund, it was a 25-yard screamer from the retiring Lukas Podolski and not a lot else.
The veteran striker earned his 130th, and final, international cap and won the match with a superb goal out of nothing.
For England, employing a 3-4-3 formation to promising effect, it was scant reward for a performance of some merit – or punishment for failing to take their chances when on top in the first half.
From a Fantasy perspective, the 27.6%-owned Dele Alli brought his fine Spurs form to Germany, minus the goalscoring edge that has seen him find the net in his last three league matches.
The midfielder squandered the visitors’ best chance when put in on goal by Jamie Vardy, taking an age to consider his options and then blasting straight at German keeper Marc-Andre ter Stergen.
Adam Lallana also caught the eye. But without Alli’s end product – the Liverpool man has no goals and just one assist since Gameweek 19 – it was perhaps less surprising when his fine run from the halfway line ended with a shot coming back off the inside of the post.
Gareth Southgate marked his first match in permanent charge of England by handing a debut to Burnley’s Michael Keane as one of three centre-backs. Southampton duo Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse also took their senior bows as second-half substitutes, while Jesse Lingard also calmed concerns of a knock sustained in Sunday’s win at Middlesbrough by making an appearance from the bench.
Elsewhere, Fantasy Premier League’s most popular defender, Tottenham right-back Kyle Walker (35.3%), was a key performer at wing-back for the full 90 minutes – allaying any fears surrounding his hand injury sustained in Sunday’s victory over Southampton.
The one worry for his ownership base is that he will almost certainly repeat the feat in Sunday’s World Cup qualifier at home to Lithuania, leaving him less than fresh when Spurs return to league action at Burnley on April 1.
There should be no such issues over two of Manchester City’s three most-owned assets, John Stones (16.2%) and Raheem Sterling (13.1%). The former was given five minutes of pitch time at the end of the match, while the latter was an unused substitute.
Meanwhile, City’s German winger Leroy Sane, owned by 3.3% of FPL managers, played the entire match for the Germans and forced a fine save from Joe Hart.
England XI: Hart, Keane, Smalling (Stones 85), Cahill, Walker, Dier, Livermore (Ward-Prowse 83), Bertrand (Shaw 83), Lallana (Redmond 66), Alli (Lingard 71), Vardy (Rashford 70).
Subs not used: Heaton, Forster, Clyne, Shaw, Barkley, Ward-Prowse, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Defoe, Sterling.
Scotland 1 Canada 1
The parlous state of Scottish football at the moment was writ large in the friendly at Dundee.
Canada started the match with nearly as many Premier League performers as Scotland, and the hosts then spent much of the first half trailing to their opponents, who are ranked 117th in the world.
Burnley midfielder Scott Arfield was the Canadian’s EPL representative, while Scotland boos Gordon Strachan started with West Ham’s Robert Snodgrass and West Brom’s Darren Fletcher.
Hull defender Andy Robertson boosted the Scots’ Premier League contingent when he came on for the second half of a low-key encounter, Fantasy-wise, in which Snodgrass hit the post.
Arfield later limped off with an injury, which is unlikely to create any major Fantasy repercussions other than improving Robbie Brady’s opportunity for starts should he be sidelined. Arfield has been deployed on the left flank in recent matches for the Clarets, consigning Brady to the bench.
Elsewhere, the 9.5%-owned Snodgrass and Fletcher (9.7%) are expected to start Scotland’s second match of the international break, Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.
Scotland XI: McGregor, Anya, Berra, Mulgrew, Wallace (Robertson 45), Burke (Bannan 45), D Fletcher, Cairney, Naismith (Rhodes 62), Snodgrass, C Martin (Griffiths 62).
Subs not used: Gordon, Robertson, S Fletcher, R Martin, McGinn, Griffiths, Bannan, Rhodes, Cooper.
