Analysis: England

England set up in their variation of a 3-1-4-2 formation, with the variation generally coming in the positioning of the wing-backs. Joe Gomez, John Stones and Harry Maguire formed the back three, with Jordan Henderson ahead of them in midfield. Marcus Rashford partnered Harry Kane in attack, with Jesse Lingard and Dele Alli providing the playmaking support.

Gareth Southgate’s players struggled to break Spain down in possession in the first half, with Henderson in particular running into difficulty. The Liverpool captain would position himself between the first and second lines of Spain’s block, but could only really receive facing his own goal, resulting in the ball being recycled to the back three. England’s most effective way of bringing the ball out in the opening period was through Maguire driving forward and committing opposition players towards him – this then created space elsewhere.

England’s purpose in possession was to breach Spain’s back line and meet the forward runs of Rashford, Kane, Lingard and Alli. This was exactly how the opening goal of the game came about on 11 minutes, as Shaw collected the ball before threading a sublime pass through for Rashford to finish. This was as good as it got for the hosts, however – despite showing they could threaten the visitors’ back line, poor execution and timing of movement limited their threat for the rest of the game, as they struggled to create many clear-cut chances. A late Rashford chance parried by David de Gea, and Danny Welbeck’s even later disallowed goal, was as close as England came to securing a draw.

Out of possession, they mixed between pressing Spain aggressively and forming a mid-block. The intention here was to prevent Spain’s deep-lying playmaker Sergio Busquets from getting on the ball and dictating play. Rashford was tasked with man-marking the Barcelona midfielder during the build-up phases, which resulted in their shape taking the form of a back five and a central midfield diamond of Henderson, Alli, Lingard and Rashford.

When the ball was delivered wide to full-backs Marcos Alonso and Dani Carvajal, or wide attackers Isco and Iago Aspas, the player at the side of the diamond (Alli or Lingard) would release himself to close down the wide man and prevent him from playing inside. The near-side full-back (Kieran Trippier or Shaw) would release himself from the back line to prevent any forward play, while the near-side centre-back would assume responsibility for the attacking midfielder inside.

This strategy was reasonably effective but could be undone if the full-back closed down too quickly – as Shaw did in the build-up to Spain’s equaliser – or if the near-side centre-back failed to deal with the penetrative run from the attacking midfielder. Gomez, starting ahead of Kyle Walker on the right of Southgate’s back three, was caught out by such runs from Saul on several occasions.