Southgate: England played really well, with the ball especially

Matt Stead

England manager Gareth Southgate was pleased with the 2-1 friendly win over Nigeria, despite a poor second-half from his side.

Harry Kane continued his scoring streak as England captain but Gareth Southgate’s team made heavy work of beating Nigeria in their final Wembley outing before the World Cup.

England took the lead inside seven minutes courtesy of Gary Cahill’s headed effort and Kane doubled the advantage before the break, when modest goalkeeping allowed him to hit the net for the sixth time in five appearances with the armband.

But what might have turned into a walk in the park against a side ranked 47th in the world became a tense 2-1 victory as Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi struck less than two minutes into the second half, robbing the hosts of their composure.

However, Southgate was still please with how his side looked on the ball.

“I think we played really well, with the ball especially,” Southgate told ITV.

“Far more good situations than in recent games. We were deservedly two goals up in the first half. The period leading up to their goal, they changed their system and we took some time to adjust. But after that we dealt with it well. It was a decent exercise for us to adjust to that.

“The front four, some of the movement and interplay, we looked a threat with plenty of pace. Dele [Alli] and Jesse [Lingard] made unselfish runs. Some slightly better decision making or quality and we would have scored more.”