Gareth Southgate’s most pressing need at Wembley was for his players to show something in attack against Italy – and Sterling and Vardy were happy to oblige

On Wembley Way before kick-off a louche, drowsy New Orleans‑style jazz band dressed in Three Lions shirts could be heard parping and tootling away, serenading the strolling crowds. At the time it seemed a slightly off‑key soundtrack to another outing for this guarded, orderly England team, like cutting the highlights of a chess match to the soundtrack to the Benny Hill show.

Three hours later it was probably all for the best that England had failed to keep their sixth successive clean sheet on another mannered, quietly intriguing night for this doggedly constructed team. When it comes to recent England tournament performances it’s not actually the hope that kills you. It’s the lack of hope – closely followed by repeated confirmation that the initial lack of hope was based on sound hope-free judgment.

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In the event a 1-1 draw against Italy, with some attacking sparks along the way, feels like a more useful outcome in sizing up the deeper gears of this team, and their ultimate destiny in Russia. The idea of England as a genuine defensive colossus ready to strangle the world into submission always looked a little hopeful. The more urgent requirement here was to produce something more in attack, a sense that this team can snap forward.

England did produce this at times in the opening hour before Italy’s determination to play for their caretaker-manager drove them to a deserved draw. The obvious highlight was the performance of Raheem Sterling, who before this match had called on England’s supporters and indeed the media to love this team a little more.

To his credit, Sterling did his best to make it happen. For long periods the Wembley crowd had chuntered vaguely to itself while down on the wide green stripes the shapes moved in tight, easy patterns.

But there was usually a tremor when Sterling took the ball, most notably in the early exchanges as he dropped deep and picked up possession in crowded areas. Ten minutes into the second half he veered out to the left wing, stopped and looked up with that familiar twirl, foot on the ball, and found himself closed down by two blue‑shirted defenders shuttling out to form a double-barrier.

It was a striking little moment in isolation, firstly for the simple compliment in any Italian team deigning to provide special attention to one of England’s forwards. And secondly for the way Sterling dealt with it, stepping away from and then inside Davide Zappacosta and Daniele Rugani, and nudging a lovely little pass to Ashley Young.

Young’s shot was blocked. But the point was made on a night when England’s best moments came whenever they succeeded in bursting out from their more natural state of defensive caution. Sterling was their best player in those periods, confirming his own status as a senior member of that revolving attack, and showing some calm, assertive maturity on the ball as well as the usual veering pace and trickery, chest puffed, with something endearingly duck‑like in his upright style.

Jamie Vardy was the other spark. He made his first significant run midway through the half, tearing off the back of the Italian defence to take Sterling’s pass. The same combination brought the opening goal three minutes later.

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Sterling was dragged back as he looked to skitter away. Jesse Lingard caught the defence sleeping with a quick, tapped free‑kick. Vardy took one touch and spanked the ball past Gianluigi Donnarumma, wiffling the top corner of the net then surging away to celebrate with a snarl and a leap of real joy.

It was a deeply Vardy kind of goal, one of those moments where he makes the game seem gleefully simple, almost a little silly in its formalities, its cautious notes. There had been a general sense of double-take at his ghostly non-appearance against the Netherlands on Friday, those 22 minutes spent running around quite near a game of football. But this is very much the Vardy way. Before Tuesday night he had completed 16 passes and touched the ball 42 times in his last three hours of international football. He is a wonderful finisher, though, an exhilarating, pared-back attacking edge, and a certainty for Russia.

And so the soft-pedalled bandwagon rolls on, and that on a night when squad players will have been sifted and sorted by the manager. James Tarkowski looked a little out of his depth. No decisive moves were made either way on the goalkeeping position. Jesse Lingard and Alex Oxlade‑Chamberlain were kittenishly keen ahead of Eric Dier. But the best of this team in the past week has been Sterling here and Marcus Rashford in Amsterdam, with the promise, however mild at times, of something else, of a change of gear behind that cautious guard.