England held by Ukraine in Poland after Kyle Walker equaliser
Kyle Walker scored for England (Nick Potts/PA)
England hit a rare bump on the road to next year’s European Championship as Kyle Walker’s first international goal secured Gareth Southgate’s side a 1-1 draw against Ukraine in Poland.
Having opened Group C with four wins from as many matches, it has long looked a case of when rather than if the Euro 2020 runners-up seal their place at next summer’s tournament in Germany.
England had won 21 of their previous 22 Euros qualifiers but had to make do with a point on Saturday evening having failed to build on Walker brilliantly cancelling out Oleksandr Zinchenko’s opener.
Ukraine were vastly improved from their meek March loss at Wembley and, despite being forced to play away from home due to the ongoing Russian invasion, received fantastic support in Wroclaw.
Skipper Zinchenko sparked ear-splitting celebrations when opening the scoring at the Tarczynski Arena, where world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk beat Daniel Dubois a fortnight ago.
But this time there was no Ukrainian knockout blow against English opposition.
Harry Kane’s exceptional pass was met by a similarly impressive Walker touch, before the right-back coolly slotted home to open his international account on his 77th appearance.
The 33-year-old became the second-oldest player to score his maiden England goal after ending the longest wait for an outfield player to net their first for the country.
Bukayo Saka saw an effort tipped onto the bar as England pushed for a winner that evaded them.
Ukraine went ahead in Poland (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)
As many as 300,000 Ukrainians are said to live in this region of Poland and there was a spine-tingling rendition of their national anthem by the wall of yellow and blue in the
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