After some garden-variety shoving, a load of nonsensical yap between Maguire and Yaremchuk brings the half to an end. They’re still arguing with each other as everyone leaves for the dressing rooms. England the happier, obviously, though Ukraine will be buoyed by the way they’ve come back into the game.
Sancho excites the fans with a supersonic sashay down the left, jinking elegantly through the smallest of gaps. He’s clipped to a standstill, but Manchester United fans can be forgiven for getting quite excited over their new signing. England are sitting very deep. They’ll be happy to hear the half-time whistle and regroup. There will be three added minutes.
After a brief game of head tennis in the England box, Shaparenko shoots from 25 yards. The ball curls well wide right. This is much better from Ukraine, who have switched to a 4-3-3 after the enforced substitution, and look a lot happier as a result. Yaremchuk busies himself down the left and wins a corner. The set piece is a non-event, but Ukraine are at least asking England the odd question now.
Sterling slips Shaw clear down the left. Shaw is in acres, racing into the box. He pulls back for Sancho, who spins on the penalty spot and sends a slapshot goalwards. Bushchan shovels clear, then the flag goes up for offside. Not sure why Shaw didn’t go for that himself, one on one with the keeper as he was. Had either he or Sancho scored, VAR would have overturned that offside decision.
Ukraine play some lovely triangles down the left and open England up for the first time. Zinchenko then slips a pass down the channel for Yaremchuk, who cuts back for the Manchester City man. However Yarmolenko also goes for the cutback, and gets in Zinchenko’s way. Neither can get a shot off, and Mount steps in to clear.
Kryvtsov goes down and requires some treatment. He’s grimacing quite a lot. As the physio comes on, it’s a chance for his defence to regroup.
Sterling drives down the left and crosses low. It’s half cleared. Rice picks up possession on the edge of the box and creams a venomous shot straight at Bushchan. There’s a brief game of high-speed, high-stakes pinball, before Ukraine eventually clear. England can sense a second goal here.
England’s current confident state of mind is perfectly illustrated when Pickford comes sauntering out of his box to meet a loose ball, and rolls a careful pass to a team-mate between two encroaching Ukrainians. A risky move performed with no little panache.
A loose Walker pass in the midfield is snaffled by Yaremchuk, who dribbles at pace down the left channel. He shoots for the bottom-left corner. Pickford turns the ball around the post. Nothing comes of the corner, but Pickford is beyond livid with his defenders for gifting Ukraine that half-chance.
An exciting first half, now gearing for the second half.
