LIONS ROAR
England 3 Ivory Coast 0: Watkins, Sterling and Mings score as Three Lions dominate against ten-men visitors
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THEY came to boo Wilfried Zaha.
Instead, England’s fans turned on one of their own, the bloke who featured in the Euro 2020 team of the tournament.
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Not for the first time, you were left to wonder why some of the supporters who come to Wembley, who are also more interested in flying paper aeroplanes onto the pitch, actually bother going to the matches.
In absolute fairness, a crowd of 73,405 is a magnificent gate for a meaningless match like this.
They saw a disinterested Ivory Coast team, who actually have some decent players, produce a disorganised and at times comical performance.
The only surprise was that Gareth Southgate’s team only scored three times.
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The supporters saw Ollie Watkins score his second senior goal, captain-for-the-night Raheem Sterling increase his tally to 19 and Tyrone Mings heading a third at the end.
There was another scintillating performance from midfielder Jude Bellingham, who already looks the real deal.
For added amusement, former Spurs defender Serge Aurier proved that he has lost none of his trademark stupid by getting sent off with two yellow cards in the second half.
It always takes a special effort to be sent off in a friendly.
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So, England’s fans went home happy having probably forgotten the fact that they embarrassed themselves at the start of the evening.
Crystal Palace winger Zaha was a dead cert to get some stuck from the crowd as he would have become the third man in history to have played for and also against England.
Curiously, despite featuring in training at Wembley 24 hours earlier, there was no sight of Zaha.
Maybe he had suffered an injury or just did not fancy it. Maybe it was somewhere between.
Although he would have added something to this squad over the years, Southgate will not have lost too much sleep.
No. Instead he has players like Harry Maguire who give absolutely everything for their country.
He is indeed having a bad season with Manchester United and would have been grateful for the chance of an England break.
The defender has been a fan favourite over these last few years and will go down in history as the first England player to have a name sung in honour over the size of his head.
Yet Maguire would not have expected what was coming at 7.44pm when as the teams were announced, there were loud boos when his name was read out.
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It was pantomime stuff. It was only because he is captain of the soap opera that is Manchester United.
Yet it is still a strange thing to jeer one of your own and it would not have done his confidence any good.
Maguire was also booed when he first touched the ball and halfway through the first half, the England band started playing the tune which accompanies his song although there was not much singing.
The United skipper earned a ripple of applause as he ushered the ball out for a goal-kick before he later played a part in the opening goal.
He delivered a trademark surge into midfield and the ball eventually fell to Sterling who delivered some outstanding trickery on the left with his cross giving Watkins an easy tap in.
Throughout, Maguire did not have too many problems against the visiting forward line which included former West Ham striker Seb Haller, currently the second highest scorer in this season’s Champions League with 11 goals for Ajax.
Ultimately, Maguire will have just one more game at Wembley on September 26 against Germany.
It will also be the final match before the World Cup and you hope, along with all of the squad, he gets a proper send off.
Southgate, meanwhile, will be generally happy with these two performances, the 2-1 win over the Swiss proving to be a better test.
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Surprisingly, though, the Ivorians who, ranked at 51 are just one spot higher than Qatar, were quite aggressive.
Aurier received his first yellow card for a tackle on Jack Grealish but it was more for persistent fouling.
And he then saw a second yellow for displaying his fury at not getting a free-kick after being held back by Watkins.
Just before half-time, Sterling forced a save from keeper Badra Ali Sangare and Grealish squared the rebound back to the City forward who took the second chance.
The impressive Bellingham thought he had won a penalty 47 seconds into the second half but was denied by VAR.
And at the end of the game, Tyrone Mings scored the third with a header from Phil Foden’s corner in injury-time and 3-0 was at least what England deserved.
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Harry Kane had replaced Watkins but was unable to get goal number 50 to move within three goals of record scorer Wayne Rooney.
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That day will come, though. It would not be a surprise if he breaks the record behind closed doors as two of the three next matches will be without fans.
And there are some idiotic England supporters, however small the number, do not deserve to see the moment.
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