UEFA Nations League - League B - Group 2, Tuesday September 10th
I was offered a free ticket for England's first home game after their runners up at the Euros, and also the first one of their latest Nations League campaign, so I said why not and so made my way up Wembley Way for the umpteenth time for England's match against Finland.
Me and 70,000 others were interested to see how interim boss Lee Carsley's first match at the home of football would go, and how they would build on a decent 2-0 in Dublin at the weekend against Republic Of Ireland, Carsley's first game in charge, and the first outing for England since that heart-breaking defeat to Spain in Germany.
They were expected to beat a Finland side who had lost their opener in this Group against Greece by a scoreline of 3-0 in Athens, Greece are probably England's main threat in this section, and the two clash at Wembley next month in the next round of fixtures, but that is for then, for now Finland were England's target, although Finland would no doubt make it tough for their opponents.
It was a special night at Wembley too, as skipper Harry Kane was earning his 100th cap for his country, and only the tenth person to do so for the Three Lions, so a great achievement for the new Bayern Munch forward, and he was presented a gold cap prior to the anthems and was duly given a warm reception by everyone inside the stadium.
There was also a special tribute paid to ex England boss Sven Goran Eriksson who passed away recently due to cancer, and again everyone stood to applaud the great man who won forty of his games in charge of this country, which was around two thirds of them, and he gave us all hope once again when he did take charge after a period where we were not given much hope.
Ironically his first match in charge was a 2-1 win over Finland in the qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup, so it seemed fitting that England's first match at home since his passing was against the same country, obviously we then went onto thrash Germany Munich in one of his most famous victories, he was a great coach and manager but more importantly a great man too, rest in peace Sven, you will never be forgotten.
There was a game to come though, and the first period saw England dominate possession but were unable to turn that into anything meaningful, Kane thought he had given the hosts the lead but saw his powerful close range header ruled out for offside, it was the only thing that was getting past Finnish keeper Lukas Hradecky, who was saving anything that was coming his way, making two excellent stops from Kane.
Finland's breaks forward were brief, but they did almost punish England on one occasion but saw an effort go just wide of the post, but this was brief as the visitors defended stoutly for the majority of the first half and made it very hard for England to find anyway past them, and they would have been more than happy with how the contest was going when it reached half time.
The second half saw England step it up a bit and Finland struggled to live with them if truth be told, and it it hadn't been for Hradecky, the score line would have been more, and at this point England would have already been in front before they did actually find a breakthrough against a very stubborn Finnish side.
That breakthrough finally came midway through the second half, and it was who else but Kane, who after receiving a clever pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold before unleashing a thunderbolt of a strike from outside of the box which flew past Hradecky and in off the crossbar, it was a superb strike and it was only going to be something like this that would beat the Finnish keeper this evening, 67 goals and counting now for his country, Kane's record speaks for itself really.
England were now pouring forward and looking to score another to make it even more comfortable, substitutes were made, one of them being a debut for Noni Madueke, and he was to grab an assist soon after, a lovely pass from Alexander-Arnold sent the Chelsea player in down the right, and his lovely outside of the boot first time pass across the box found Kane who fired a lovely shot beyond Hradecky into the far corner, devastating from England and the match was now safe with around fifteen minutes to go.
Another decent showing from the Three Lions then, especially second half where they really found their mojo at times, it's two wins from two now in this nations league and two wins from two for the interim boss, Finland on the other hand have zero points from two games and no goals scored, not the ideal start to their nations league campaign.
Full time England 2 Finland 0
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