Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell played 90 minutes yesterday in England’s 1-1 draw against Ukraine.
The Blues left-back hasn’t played a lot of football for his country during the past couple of years due to injury, but he earned his 19th senior international cap on Saturday.
Kyle Walker’s equalising goal for the Three Lions cancelled out Oleksandr Zinchenko’s opener in the European Champions qualifier.
The result means Gareth Southgate’s are one step closer to qualification for next summer’s major tournament.
Ben Chilwell delivered a steady, albeit uninspiring, England performance against Ukraine.
However, the £45million (BBC) full-back did receive a fairly harsh reaction from the national media to his weekend display.
The Sun wrote: “Ben Chilwell (5/10) – With Luke Shaw injured, this was a chance for Chilwell to put forward his case for the Euros in Germany. He was given licence to surge forward down the left but got caught out for the goal as he failed to block the cross. Will be disappointed with his performance.”
GOAL wrote: “Ben Chilwell (5/10) – Not his best game on the left flank as he failed to impact England’s attacks.”
90min wrote: “Ben Chilwell (4/10) – Guilty of under-hitting several passes, making runs into dead-ends and was routinely sought out as a weak link in the defence.”
We’ve not seen Chilwell at his attacking best for club or country in the opening months of the season, but the most important thing if he’s fit and playing.
The 26-year-old wide man is playing quite advanced in the Chelsea system under Mauricio Pochettino. We much prefer seeing him as a conventional full-back, though.
It would be great for Chelsea’s vice-captain to get some more England minutes in next week’s friendly match against Scotland.