By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) -England debutant Myles Lewis-Skelly got new coach Thomas Tuchel’s reign up and running as the 18-year-old scored the first goal in a 2-0 home victory against Albania in their World Cup qualifying Group K opener on Friday.
The Arsenal left back, who along with Newcastle United’s Dan Burn was handed a first cap in Tuchel’s maiden game in charge, slotted home in the 20th minute at a packed Wembley.
There was much for Tuchel to ponder in a far from fluent display and it took England until the 77th minute to make the points safe when captain Harry Kane’s precise finish ensured his side began their path to next year’s finals with a win.
Burn came close to making it a dream night for the debutants in the first half when he headed against the crossbar.
Tuchel’s England team are back in action at Wembley on Monday when they host Latvia in their second qualifier while Albania host group outsiders Andorra.
Lewis-Skelly only made his first Premier League start in December but his rapid progress caught the eye of Tuchel and he was given his chance as England set off on their latest quest to win their first trophy since 1966.
It took him only 20 minutes to repay the faith as Jude Bellingham turned on the edge of the area and slid a pass through for Lewis-Skelly to shoot low past Thomas Strakosha.
“Amazing player. Amazing personality. He came into camp and showed straight away that it’s normal to fall in love with him. It is well deserved,” Tuchel said, although he was less pleased with other aspects of the display.
“Second half, I felt we were too slow and in general not enough runs off the ball to get behind the line.”
Lewis-Skelly became the youngest player to score on his senior England debut, taking the record away from Marcus Rashford who was also 18 when he scored against Australia in 2016.
Tuchel had sprung something of a surprise by recalling Rashford to the squad and then giving him his first England appearance for a year but he was a largely peripheral figure and was substituted in the second half.
England racked up 437 passes in the first half — the most recorded by data analysts Opta in any first half of any match — although the vast majority of them were in front of a deeply-packed Albania defence.
Burn, who five days earlier at Wembley scored Newcastle’s opening goal in their historic League Cup final win over Liverpool, had virtually nothing to do in the first half.
However, his heart was momentarily in his mouth as from a rare Albania attack, his clearing header spun the ball up into the air and landed on the top of the crossbar.
He then almost emulated Lewis-Skelly when he headed a Declan Rice corner against the woodwork while Kane was denied an almost certain goal with a superb block by Albania’s Berat Djimsiti.
Albania asked more questions of England’s defence after the break and their thousands of fans raised the decibel levels as they made some dangerous incursions forward, although they failed to force Jordan Pickford into a meaningful save.
Kane, reunited with his former Bayern Munich boss, eased any jitters with a superb guided finish after taking the ball out of the air, his record-extending 70th England goal.
(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Christian Radnedge)
