Kane level with Sir Bobby on 49 goals as England come from behind to beat Swiss 2-1 at Wembley
By Paul Lagan a Wembley Stadium
England 2 v Switzerland1
Harry Kane scored the winner for England in their 2-1 friendly win over Switzerland tonight at Wembley Stadium, to put him level with the great Sir Bobby Charlton with 49 goals.
England, playing in their away kit of Blue came from behind with Luke Shaw equalising on the stroke of half time.
In truth, this was a disjointed performance by the Three Lions but there was tremendous London representation - with Crystal Palace having the most with three - Conor Gallagher, March Guehi and Tyrick Mitchell.
All three had minutes on the hallowed turf.
Chelsea’s Mason started alongside Ben White who replaced John Stones who injured himself in the warm-up.
West Ham’s Declan Rice was a second-half substitute.
It was a cagey opening 15 minutes neither side tempted to create goal-scoring opportunities, rather they opted for the safe percentage pass.
But the first chance came on 14 minutes when Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane set Crystal Palace’s Conor Gallagher free on the right.
The Chelsea loanee cut inside on the edge of the Swiss penalty area, his left-footer, was on target but deflected away for a corner.
With their first attack, Switzerland almost scored, Granit Xhaka let fly with a firm left footer. Jordan Pickford made a fine diving save to his left. But that spurred on the visitors and on 22 minutes they took the lead.
A regulation pass went over the head of Arsenal’s Ben White and Breel Embolo directed his header across Jordan Pickford and into his far corner of the net. Two minutes later and the England defence was all at sea and Fabian Frei forced a reflex save from Pickford, which saw his thunderous effort zip off the England crossbar.
Kyle Walker-Peters rattled the Swiss post on 35 minutes, but Chelsea’s Mason Mount, who set him up with a cross goal pass was well offside.
England’s shambolic defending saw the visitors hit the post direct from a corner, Pickford then made a wonderful save and that was followed by the ball zipping across his goal.
But with the clock ticking into added time, a loose ball on the edge of the Swiss area was fed across to in-running Luke Shaw, and the Manchester United left back thumped home a venomous equaliser.
There were no changes made by Gareth Southgate at half-time. And the game started to drift.
The first change of the second half fell to the home side on the 52 minutes.
A curling free-kick by Mount found his former Chelsea team-mate Matic Guehi who now plays for Crystal Palace, but the centre-back’s header was slightly wide of goal, but Conor Cody almost got a touch on it, but the ball fell away for a goal kick.
Southgate decided to bring on Raheem Sterling, West Ham’s Declan Rice Jack Grealish and Crystal Palace Tyrick Mitchell - off came Gallagher, Shaw, Walker-Peters, and Mount.
White almost opened his account for the Three Lions on 72 minutes. His long-range effort wasn’t too far over Jonas Omlin’s crossbar.
A minute later and VAR intervened when it appeared that Steven Vega handled the ball from a Guehi header.
The referee, Andreas Ekberg, was called to the monitor and he gibe a spot kick.
Up stepped Kane who blasted the ball home to give England a 2-1 lead on 79 minutes - his 49th goal for the Three Lions.
Jude Bellingham then came on for Foden.
England are back at Wembley on Tuesday when they face the Ivory Coast in another friendly.
For Yann Tear’s player ratings go here
Teams: England, Pickford, Walker-Peters, Mishawaka, Guehi, White, Cody, Gallagher, Henderson, Kane, Foden, Mount
Subs: Pope, Forster, Maguire, Mings, Grealish, Rice, Bellingham, Watkins, Sterling, Ward-Prowse, Mitchell
Switzerland, Omlin, Widmer, Akanji, Frei, Embolo, Freuler, Xhaka, Steffen, Rodriguez, Arabs, Shaqiri,
Subs: Von Ballmoos, Kobel, Mbabu, Elvedi, Okafor, Zuber, Sow, Lotomba, Comment, Gavranovic, Zeqiri, Aebischer,
Referee: Andreas Ekberg
