England win keeps Tuchel perfect but not happy
Harry Kane scored the only goal as England maintained its perfect start under Thomas Tuchel with an underwhelming 1-0 victory over Andorra in a FIFA World Cup qualifying clash.
Kane's strike was his 450th senior career goal in all competitions for club and country, and it ensured the Three Lions remained top of Group K after three matches.
The opening exchanges were a sign of things to come as England dominated and forced Iker Alvarez into two smart saves inside the first 15 minutes, with Jude Bellingham and Noni Madueke's efforts from distance being repelled by the Andorra goalkeeper.
England's first big chance to open the scoring came in the 19th minute when Madueke's cross found its way to Curtis Jones at the back post, but his cutback was just behind Kane, who could not guide his strike on target.
The Three Lions continued to press, with Bellingham again trying his luck from outside the box with a sweet half-volley before testing Alvarez with a flicked header in first-half stoppage-time, but England went into the break level.
However, England needed just five minutes after the restart to take the lead. After Kane saw his first effort saved by Alvarez, the rebound fell kindly to Madueke, who squared the ball for the Bayern Munich striker to tuck home from close range.
Eberechi Eze almost marked his 65th-minute introduction with a goal, rising highest to meet Bellingham's clipped ball into the box, only to see his header tipped over the crossbar eight minutes after coming on.
The influential Madueke should have added a second in the final minute of second-half stoppage-time, but he was unable to convert substitute Morgan Gibbs-White's cross into the net in an action that summed up England's display in the final third.
The result means Tuchel has done something no Three Lions manager has achieved. The German is the first manager to win each of his first three competitive games in charge of England without conceding.
But he was was disappointed by England's attitude in the last 20 minutes of the win.
"I am not happy with the performance. I think we started well in the first 20 or 25 minutes," he said.
"We created a lot of chances and half-chances, and we lost completely the momentum and couldn't get it back in the first half. Got a little bit in the second half, but then ended up in a place that was not good enough in terms of urgency.
"We can just admit it that it's not what we expect from us. We need to look at it in detail and do better on Tuesday [Wednesday AEST].
"I was most worried in the last 20 minutes because I did not like the attitude that we ended the game with. I didn't like the lack of urgency, and it did not match the occasion.
"It is still a World Cup qualifier. We will let them know tomorrow what we want from them."
Unlike Tuchel, Morgan Rogers found the positives from the performance, as England eventually managed to find a way through Andorra's deep-lying defence.
"These games are always difficult, the way teams set up to try to stop our threats," he said.
"We got the job done. We won the game, which is the objective. We'd like more goals. But there are still positives to take. We know we need to improve and will hold ourselves accountable.
"The manager is trying to get his ideas across to the players. We're trying to learn and improve. We've had a tough week of training. We've got another game to try to show what we're about. [It's] just the start. We've got different ideas and a different identity for how we want to play."
England remains top of Group K after collecting nine points from nine from its first three games. It takes on Senegal in an international friendly next week.

