PARIS — England is bottom of its
UEFA
Nations League group without a win after drawing 0-0 with Italy in a repeat of
the Euro 2020 final on Saturday, while Germany settled for a point in a 1–1
stalemate in Hungary.
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The meeting in
Wolverhampton between Gareth
Southgate’s side and the European champions was played before just 3,000
people, largely schoolchildren, as a punishment for the incidents that marred
the Euro 2020 final between the same nations at Wembley last year.
UEFA rules say a match ordered to be played behind
closed doors can still be attended by children accompanied by an adult, as
happened last weekend when Hungary beat England in Budapest.
England followed that reverse by drawing 1–1 in
Germany and another draw at Molineux leaves it bottom of League A, Group 3 with
just two points from three outings before England hosts Hungary at the same
venue on Tuesday in its final game of a long campaign.
Mason Mount hit
the bar early on for England, while
Aaron Ramsdale produced a fine save to deny
Sandro Tonali for an Italy side featuring just two starters who also lined up
in the European Championship final.
“We had two or three really good chances we need to
score, but just lacked that sharpness in front of goal,” said Southgate.
Roberto Mancini’s Italy is rebuilding after failing
to qualify for the World Cup and are top of the group after Hungary and Germany
cancelled each other out in Budapest.
Zsolt Nagy gave Hungary an early lead, smashing in
after Manuel Neuer had palmed out a Rolland Salai header.
However, Germany needed just three minutes to draw
level as Borussia Moenchengladbach’s
Jonas Hofmann latched onto a long ball
forward and rounded the goalkeeper before slotting in.
“I said beforehand that this was the hardest game
you could have after England,” Germany coach Hansi Flick told RTL after his
side’s third consecutive 1–1 draw.
“But we are in a development process. We have to see
that we learn the lessons from this game.”
Depay misses late penalty
The Netherlands is top of
League A, Group 4 after coming from two goals down to draw 2–2 with Poland in
Rotterdam, but it could have claimed a third win in as many games had Memphis
Depay not squandered a late penalty.
English-born full-back
Matty Cash gave Poland an
18th-minute lead with a fine low strike, and the visitors doubled their
advantage five minutes after half-time as Przemyslaw Frankowski squared for
Piotr Zielinski to finish.
Yet the home side pulled one back almost immediately
when Daley Blind’s cross from the left was swept in by Davy Klaassen, and they
were level by the 54th minute as Denzel Dumfries made it 2–2.
They could have won it in stoppage time when Cash
was penalized in the box, but Barcelona forward Depay saw his spot-kick come
back off the post.
Meanwhile Brennan Johnson — a star for Nottingham
Forest as they won promotion to the Premier League this season — came off the
bench to score a late leveler as Wales drew 1–1 with Belgium in Cardiff.
Ireland hammers Scotland
Youri Tielemans gave Belgium
the lead early in the second half in
Cardiff, but Wales earned their first
point of the Nations League campaign.
Its attention had previously been on their decisive
World Cup qualifying play-off against
Ukraine, which they won 1–0 last weekend
to qualify for the global showpiece for the first time since 1958.
Wales now travels to play the Netherlands in
Rotterdam on Tuesday.
In League B, the Republic of Ireland got its first
win in Group 1 in emphatic fashion, beating hapless Scotland 3-0 in Dublin.
Alan Browne and Troy Parrott netted in the first
half for Ireland before Michael Obafemi smashed in an emphatic third early in
the second half.
In the same group Ukraine got its second win in as
many games since losing to Wales, as it beat Armenia 3–0 in a match played in
the Polish city of Lodz.
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