England punish Wales at Wembley

England ran out comfortable winners against Wales in a friendly at Wembley Stadium ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Latvia on Tuesday night in Riga. 

Coming into the game the hosts had won two of their last three games whilst Wales, had hit a bumpier patch of form winning just one from their previous three.

It was a fast start for Thomas Tuchel's men when after just 2 minutes Anthony Gordon fired a shot at goal resulting in a corner, the visitors failed to properly deal with Declan Rice’s delivery and Marc Guehi showed determination to keep the ball alive as he rolled the ball back across for Morgan Rogers to calmly slot past Karl Darlow.

Things got even better for England when after 11 minutes Guehi picked up his second assist of the match as he set up Ollie Watkins for arguably one of the easiest goals of his career.

England weren’t done there though, after some lovely build-up play from the defence and midfield, they eventually saw the ball at the feet of Bukayo Saka who was able to cut inside before rifling a delightful strike into the top corner leaving keeper Darlow with no chance and putting the game to bed after just 20 minutes.

It wasn’t until the 42^nd minute that Fulham winger Harry Wilson had Wales' first real shot of the game, one that he fired over the crossbar from just outside the area.

The first half was easily one to forget for Craig Bellamy and his side as the referee blew for half-time with England leading by three goals to nil, with no real attacking threat or causing England any real issues. 

The second half saw chances for both sides as Wales grew into the match. In true ‘friendly’ style both sides made multiple changes throughout, but none were able to add to the goals from the first half. 

Last nights match was also an opportunity to raise awareness of the brilliant work done by the Alzheimer’s Society and the second half saw both sides wearing shirts without player names on to highlight memory loss linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

All in all a comfortable performance for England who will be happy with their performance, Wales will turn their attention towards a tough match as they host Belgium in Cardiff on Monday night.