England manager Gareth Southgate admitted his team was not sharp enough after being held to a one all draw by Ukraine in Wroclaw, Poland.
After Oleksander Zinchenko put Ukraine ahead in the 26th minute, England found a way back into the game through Kyle Walker who leveled things up a few minutes before the halftime break.
While talking to the press after the match, Southgate said that although they controlled the game in a tough match played under a unique atmosphere, his men didn’t do enough in the final third of the pitch.
“It’s a very tough place to come – you could feel the atmosphere, it was a unique occasion really. I thought we controlled the game, we had 70 percent of the ball, so we passified a lot of that atmosphere,” Southgate said.
He added: “What we didn’t do well enough was our work in the final third, we didn’t create enough chances from the possession and territory we had. Clearly, when you have that much of the ball you want to create more chances. Our attacking play just didn’t click today.”
Although England didn’t win the match, Southgate said the point they got off Ukraine is very important for their qualification
“[..] If that’s the case, you’ve got to make sure you don’t lose the game, and having gone behind, to come back and get the point, in terms of qualification, is very important.
“Qualification is eight games and we probably had the toughest group around because of the seedings. We’ve taken four points from the two big away games. Of course, we want to play better than we did tonight, but it’s a really important point.”
England play Scotland in a friendly match on Tuesday at Hampden Park.
