England and Scotland played out a dour 0-0 draw in an anti-climactic Euro 2020 clash at London’s Wembley Stadium where Harry Kane barely fired a shot on Saturday.
Favourites England only managed one shot on target for the entire 90 minutes, despite having 61 per cent possession and almost 200 more passes than Scotland.
The result brought widespread condemnation from English fans and boss Gareth Southgate defended his side.
“It was a bit frantic, it wasn’t a game where there was a huge amount of control,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure, sitting on three points as we did, that we manage the tournament as well as the game
“It’s easy to gamble towards the end and lose shape and then end up losing the game in the last five minutes. I understand we’re at Wembley, it’s a game against Scotland where everyone wants us to win, we wanted to win.
“But it is in the context of a tournament and the qualification is the most important thing.”
Southgate was also eager to defend Tottenham forward Kane, who fluffed one chance and didn’t have a shot on target for the second straight game.
“I think the whole team, we’ve got to look at the whole performance and our use of the ball and review where we can be better,” he said.
“That’s right across the board, it’s not just about one person. Scotland marked him extremely well.”
Elsewhere, Croatia drew 1-1 with Czech Republic in the other group game.
Sweden netted a 77th Emil Forsberg penalty to lift them past Slovakia 1-0.
