Key events
38 min: Kane drops deep and sprays an elegant long pass wide right for Walker, who finds himself in space, but can only clank his cross over everyone’s head and out for a throw on the other side.
36 min: Say what you like about Harry Maguire, but England are going to miss him at corners. He’s scored seven times for England, a record haul for a defender.
34 min: … Valdimarsson parries it away from danger. England toiling a bit.
33 min: Gordon feeds Palmer on the overlap down the left. Palmer twists, turns and wins a corner. Rice comes over to take it, and …
31 min: Walker tries to find Gordon on the left with a raking diagonal pass. The ball sails out of play. That’s not as easy a skill as Trent Alexander-Arnold made it look against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday night, when he sent that outrageous swerver onto Jack Grealish’s toe.
29 min: Palmer cuts in from the right and whips a cross in for Kane, onside and free, six yards out. Having timed his run perfectly, Kane has to score, but meets the dropping ball with his shin, and it flies wide left and high. You don’t see Kane passing up too many of those types of opportunity, but there we have it.
27 min: England pass and probe, to little effect. Iceland have everybody lined up on the edge of their box.
25 min: Iceland seem quite happy sitting back and holding their shape. Ingason launches a rare ball upfield but there’s only Gudjohnsen around and Stones heads it back to Ramsdale. Wembley not exactly a cauldron right now.
23 min: Rice shovels a pass down the right. Kane extends a leg in the hope of volleying the ball dropping over his shoulder, but can’t connect properly. The ball squirts out for a goal kick.
21 min: Mainoo slips a pass down the inside-left for Foden, who attempts a first-time spin and shot from ten yards. The ball dribbles harmlessly through to the keeper but Foden thanks his fellow Mancunian for the clever diagonal pass.
20 min: Foden plays a progressive pass down the inside-left channel to … no, there’s nobody there either. England all out of shape at the minute as they react to that goal. On the touchline, Gareth Southgate performs the internationally recognised palms-facing-the-floor mime for Calm Down.
18 min: Valdimarsson dithers with the ball at his feet and is closed down by Rice. The ball breaks to Palmer who chests down and shoots. Grétarsson throws himself in the road and deflects it wide right. Nothing comes of the resulting corner. This game doesn’t feel like it’s going to end 0-1.
16 min: Anderson fancies his chances down the right. England are very fortunate that Trippier reads and intercepts the long ball that would have released him through on goal. Again it’s Gordon putting up some resistance, as he dances down the left and dinks into the middle for … nobody in particular.
14 min: England weren’t expecting that, and look a bit shaky when the game restarts. Anderson piles down the right into acres of space, but can’t find Gudjohnsen in the middle. Kane takes matters into his own hand and launches a counter, releasing Gordon down the left. Gordon sashays into the box but can’t do what Thorsteinsson did moments earlier, flaying a wild effort high and wide right.
GOAL! England 0-1 Iceland (Thorsteinsson 12)
What a lovely goal this is! Thorsteinsson stuns Wembley by cutting in from the left, discombobulating Stones, and lashing a low drive through the defender’s legs and into the bottom left. That was hit with some zip. He’d been set up by Haraldsson’s storming run down the inside-left channel.
11 min: Gordon go, go, goes this time, tearing past Bjarkason down the left with great ease. His cross isn’t up to it, though, and easily cleared. But it looks as though he’s got the beating of his man.
10 min: Kane wins the first corner of the evening down the right. Foden sticks it into the mixer. Valdimarsson claims an uncontested ball. This match hasn’t got going yet, and Iceland will be perfectly happy about that.
8 min: Trippier rolls a pass down the left for Gordon and screams “Go! Go! Go!” Gordon doesn’t go, go, go. Trippier fumes a bit. He fancied being fed on the overlap.
6 min: Walker intercepts a pass down the left intended for Thorsteinsson. He passes back to Ramsdale, who wasn’t expecting the ball, and hacks out clumsily. Some early confusion as Ramsdale shakes off the rust.
5 min: Rice attempts to release Palmer down the inside-right channel but the pass is overhit. Valdimarsson claims. “I looked up the career of the Iceland coach Åge Hareide, and it seems that there’s reassuring news for England – the man is not, and has never been, a dentist,” reports Charles Antaki. “Up against someone who is merely an experienced football manager, they might stand a chance.”
3 min: Gordon and Palmer combine down the left and Kane picks up possession on the left-hand edge of the six-yard box. Kane opens his body in an attempt to steer something towards the far side, but he’s quickly swarmed and Iceland clear.
2 min: Stones grapples with Thorsteinsson, the latter landing accidentally on his planted leg. Stones immediately feels his ankle but thankfully gets up again soon enough. For a second, that looked nasty.
1 min: No pitch invaders yet, so that’s a plus point for Wembley’s security team.
England kick off. The atmosphere is polite.
The teams are out! England in white, Iceland blue. Anthems are played. Then hands are shaken. Pennants swapped. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Gareth Southgate speaks to Channel 4 and is asked how close tonight’s XI is to the team he’ll pick for England’s opening Euro 2024 match against Serbia. “Close … but none of that is decided yet … there are players who didn’t play the other night … we were really pleased with the performance in Newcastle and we have to build on that … we wouldn’t have any hesitation in [starting Kobbie Mainoo at the Euros] … we love the way he can receive in tight areas and progress the ball quickly … and he’s strong in the challenge … we’re looking forward to seeing him tonight … we can’t play everyone! … we love [Anthony Gordon]’s mentality and focus … we should get [Bukayo Saka] some minutes later in the game … [Aaron Ramsdale] has been our number two … he’s not had the game time with Arsenal but we still have trust in him.”
Pre-match postbag. “With the population of Iceland now expanded to 377,688, can we just update the country’s most keenly watched footballing stat: that one in every 188,844 islanders has now scored against England at a major tournament? The population was 335,675 on the famous June day in 2016, when every single one of them laughed out loud, making that stat one in every 167,837. So England are making progress in international football” – Justin Kavanagh
“If this matchup needs a catchy moniker, ‘Rice versus Ice’ would do in a pinch. A really desperate pinch” – Peter Oh
Just landed! Barney Ronay says goodbye to Harry Maguire, who left the England camp earlier this week broken of both body and heart.
Retro delights. For those brave enough to relive that evening in Nice …
… and this is what happened the last time the teams met, for those who need cheering up having just been reminded of the above.
Aaron Ramsdale gets a rare start in goal tonight. It’ll be the Arsenal keeper’s fourth cap, and he’s one of a number of players gaining some precious international experience this evening: Kobbie Mainoo and Anthony Gordon win their third caps, Cole Palmer his fourth. Iceland have some Premier League representation in their team, in the shape of Brentford keeper Hákon Valdimarsson and their captain Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson of Burnley.
The teams
England: Ramsdale, Walker, Stones, Guehi, Trippier, Mainoo, Rice, Palmer, Foden, Gordon, Kane.
Subs: Henderson, Gomez, Gallagher, Toney, Watkins, Alexander-Arnold, Bowen, Eze, Pickford, Wharton, Saka, Quansah, Trafford.
Iceland: Valdimarsson, Bjarkason, Gretarsson, Ingason, Finnsson, Traustason, Johann Berg Gudmundsson, Arnar Haraldsson, Gudjohnsen, Thorsteinsson, Anderson.
Subs: Elias Olafsson, Patrik Gunnarsson, Sampsted, Thorarinsson, Brynjar Ingi Bjarnason, Arnor Sigurdsson, Fridriksson, Johannesson, Saevar Magnusson, Hlynsson, Tomasson, Pordarson.
Referee: Davide Massa (Italy).
Preamble
England – now no longer featuring Jarrad Branthwaite, Jack Grealish, Curtis Jones, James Maddison or Harry Maguire – conclude their preparations for Euro 2024 with this friendly against Iceland. The Three Lions have a positive record against the Icelanders, having won three and drawn one of their five previous games; on the other hand, they’ve lost the only one that really mattered, at Euro 2016, the nadir of river-cruise enthusiast Roy Hodgson’s reign. The last meeting was a 4-0 rout at Wembley, in 2020, so most expect Gareth Southgate’s side to sign off ahead of their jaunt to Germany with a similar momentum-building victory; Iceland only just narrowly missed out on Euros qualification, mind, so let’s take nothing for granted. Kick-off is at 7.45pm. It’s on. HÚH!