England delivered a skilful but barely stellar performance to beat Czech Republic 1-0 with an early Raheem Sterling header on Tuesday to reach the last 16 of Euro 2020 as Group D winners, with the Czech third-place best was one of the teams.
Sterling scored his and England's second goal of the tournament in the 12th minute, but the initial injection of pace, intensity and crowd-pleasing enthusiasm brought by Jack Grealish and teenage man of the match Bukayo Saka slowly waned as the game went into full swing. had become forgettable. Second innings.
However, none of the coaches will object as they are now planning their attack in the knockout stage.
England return to Wembley on Tuesday to face runners-up from Group E - likely to be France, Germany or Portugal - while the Czechs will have to wait to find out which group winner they play.
They were relegated from second place by Croatia, who beat Scotland 3-1 and will play Group E runners-up - Sweden, Slovakia, Spain or Poland - in Copenhagen on Monday.
The positives of England's balance sheet include two wins and one draw, three clean sheets, a return to Wembley and a good number of players to savor the action.
In contrast, having scored just two goals - the fewest by any team to top the Euro group - all three were sluggish and hyper-vigilant for a long period of games and the midfield combination and approach seemed anything but. has been decided. They will also face a potentially challenging game in the next 16 games.
Sterling, surprisingly, opted to focus on the positive: "If you don't concede goals you win a football match, you just need to score at the other end," he said.
"A few days ago in the Scottish game, people were disappointed but we didn't.
"I think there's a positive from the game. We put the ball better today. It gave us more attacking options. We came into the gaps really well, played some good football and got the goal we needed."
It was Stirling who was on the sharp end of England's early attacks. He hit a post in the second minute when he picked up the ball, passing goalkeeper Tomas Vaiklik - the third time England had hit the same goal post in each match.
Ten minutes later he hit the target with a close-range header from a delicious floated cross by Grealish, when a driving run by Saka tore apart the Czech rearguard.
Making his first appearance in the tournament, the 19-year-old wide man showed a willingness to run with the ball, which was painfully absent from England's first two appearances and, with Grealish also a constant threat, the hosts looked much more dangerous. Were.
Harry Kane also looked quick and a shot was well saved by Weklick late in the first half, but that early promise was slowly replaced by the all-too-familiar caution and England barely made another worthwhile effort. did.
The Czechs came clean without threatening a huge penalty box, although Tomas Holes was fired just wide in the first half by Jordan Pickford and Tomas Sousek.
Substitute Jordan Henderson thought he had scored his first goal for England in his 60th appearance five minutes after a scuffle, only to see it dismissed for offside.
Overall though it was extremely thin grueling for most of the second half, with the loudest cheers for big screen announcements of Croatia's goals eliminating Scotland.