England 2 Turkey 1
By the end, there was a narrative to this match that will no doubt fuel the debate about whether Wayne Rooney deserves to start for England in Euro 2016. With the captain missing, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy both scored in Roy Hodgson's new-look attack and, at the very least, it served as a reminder that England are no longer as reliant on their leading scorer as once might have been the case.
Whether that will sway Hodgson’s opinion on Rooney is another matter after a weekend in which England’s longest-serving player excelled for Manchester United in the FA Cup final. Yet it was certainly a satisfying way for Kane and Vardy to reiterate their own credentials and, in the process, Hodgson can be encouraged by the way an England side featuring five Tottenham Hotspur players in the starting line-up inflicted Turkey’s first defeat since November 2014.
It did not even matter too greatly that Kane, having opened the scoring in the third minute, missed a second-half penalty with the score at 1-1. That aside, Hodgson must have been impressed by the confidence Kane has clearly taken from winning the Golden Boot as the Premier League’s top scorer.
Kane’s willingness to take aim from all sorts of distances and angles did sometimes stray towards being overly indulgent but he scored with a neat finish and, on this form, he will clearly trouble defences in France next month.
Vardy scored the winner, after 82 minutes, with a typically predatory piece of penalty-box finishing and it was also his speed and direct running that led to the penalty that Kane fired wide. Raheem Sterling showed flashes of the good form that has deserted him in the past few months for Manchester City and Eric Dier is rapidly emerging as a player Hodgson might have to start thinking about as a mandatory starter.
There was certainly more good than bad for Hodgson to ponder after Joe Hart’s brilliant stoppage-time save from the substitute Olcay Sahan meant a winning start to England’s warm-up programme and made amends for the goalkeeping mistake that led to Turkey’s equaliser.
However, there was further evidence of England's imperfections in their back four. Danny Rose was caught out positionally in the build-up to Turkey's goal but it was a collection of errors and Hart made a poor decision to dash off his goal line to try to charge down the cross from Volkan Sen. Hart risked leaving his goal exposed and Hakan Calhanonglu was in the centre to turn in Sen's delivery and punish England's goalkeeper.
The goal came as a jolt bearing in mind the impressive way England started the match, with Sterling running at defenders, Kane immediately making it clear he intended to leave a favourable impression on the match and the home team opening the scoring from a quick, flowing move that also served as another reminder of Dele Alli's rare gifts. Sterling had quickened the tempo with a darting run towards the penalty area but it was Alli's nutmeg on the Turkish captain, Mehmet Topal, that did most of the damage. Kane was anticipating the pass from his Spurs team-mate and calmly steered the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of Volkan Babacan's net.
By that stage Kane had already created a reasonable chance for Vardy and, in those early moments, Turkey did not look like a side that had gone 18 months without losing. Dier headed one corner against the side netting and a difficult start for Turkey also comprised an awkward moment for their coach, Fatih Terim, when the officials ordered him to hand over a mobile phone that he had been using to watch video replays.
Early in the second half, however, Turkey started to gain the upper hand and there were two opportunities when their striker, Cenk Tosun, came close to giving them the lead. His first was a header that went narrowly over and the second was a neat turn and left-foot shot that skimmed past Hart’s left-hand post.
England had started to look a little scruffy in possession and Hodgson, no doubt wanting Vardy to be more involved, switched to a midfield diamond formation in which the Leicester striker formed a more orthodox partnership with Kane. Sterling moved in from the right to take the No 10 role but England had lost their early momentum and perhaps there was a bit of rustiness for some of these players, too.
Alli was playing for the first time since picking up a suspension that saw him miss the final three matches of the season while Jack Wilshere is still working on his match sharpness and was restricted to 66 minutes before Hodgson decided to replace him with Jordan Henderson. Wilshere looked eager to impress in that time but he was still some way short of his best form.
Kane’s penalty flicked off the outside of the post after Vardy had gone down under Topal’s challenge but England kept pressing and the winning goal came from a corner. Gary Cahill’s header came back off a Turkish defender and Vardy turned in the rebound from close range.
(Guardian service)
