Gareth Southgate needed this. England needed this. And after all the focus on the squad’s misbehaving players, on what Southgate had called the off-field “circus”, how gratifying it was to see a clutch of dream-come-true moments.
There was a debut goal for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, which embossed a fine performance from him, and first England goals for Conor Coady and Danny Ings on the occasions of their second and third caps respectively. Both were beautifully taken.
To top it all, there was Jack Grealish, who gave a display of gliding menace off the left of Southgate’s 3-4-3 system, which functioned a whole lot better than it did in the 0-0 in Denmark last month.
Everything was better, with England threatening through Calvert-Lewin at the outset and shifting towards total control in the second-half when Wales could not live with them.
The build-up had been dominated by the Covid-19 breaches from Tammy Abraham, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho, which had come hard on the heels of the errors of judgment by Phil Foden and Marcus Greenwood in the previous camp, not to mention Harry Maguire. But Southgate’s youthful line-up shaped a different narrative here, with virtually everybody emerging with credit. Bukayo Saka overcame a difficult start and would have got himself on the scoresheet but for a fine save from Wayne Hennessey and even the largely untroubled Nick Pope made a courageous first-half save to deny Kieffer Moore.
Southgate had sought to manage expectations beforehand by warning that the performance was not “going to be perfect”, mainly because of his players’ lack of familiarity with each other. The inexperience of his starting lineup was certainly pronounced – there were only 54 caps between them at kick-off and Michael Keane, Joe Gomez and the stand-in captain, Kieran Trippier, had 41 of them.
It does not get any less weird watching top-level matches at a deserted Wembley and the ghostly backdrop was not how Calvert-Lewin and Saka could have envisaged their England debuts to be.
If the latter was nervous in the early running, Calvert-Lewin bristled with menace, showcasing the clever movement and power that has lit up the early weeks of the Premier League season. He advertised the breakthrough goal which came midway through the first half.
From an early Trippier corner, Calvert-Lewin rose unmarked and looked set to head England into the lead. Instead, his Everton teammate Keane stretched in front of him and succeeded only in flicking the ball away from him. Keane was never going to get over the header and it was a frustrating moment for England.
Calvert-Lewin almost got on to the end of a raking ball out from the back by Gomez and there was also the dart on to an Ings pass that saw him take the ball around Hennessey only to have nothing to aim at from a tight angle.
Wales looked comfortable in possession, particularly in midfield where Jonny Williams caught the eye with his easy balance. But it was England who were the more threatening in front of goal before the interval and Calvert-Lewin’s goal was a fair reflection of the first 45 minutes.
Its creation was all about Grealish, who had joined up with the squad on a high after his magnificent performance for Aston Villa in Sunday’s 7-2 thumping of Liverpool. He moseyed over from left to right where he took a pass from Trippier and fronted up to Ethan Ampadu.
With a trademark sashay, he bought himself a yard before whipping over a precision cross. Calvert-Lewin was already moving towards it to give himself an easy downwards header. England’s lead at half-time might have been greater had Coady been able to keep a shot down after a corner had been recycled by Keane.
Wales had half a chance when Saka headed weakly out to Moore and he could not get hold of the volley, and then a better one when the big centre-forward seized upon a Keane misjudgment and tore in on goal.
Nick Pope was out to smother the danger, taking a knee to the face from Moore in the process. It was alert and brave work from Pope. Moore picked up an injury in the collision and would be forced off.
Coady made it 2-0 early in the second half and the joy was etched across the central defender’s features. He had sprinted on to Trippier’s excellent free-kick, in front of two Wales defenders, and the half-volleyed finish was almost nonchalant. The technique was perfect and the ball flew into the roof of the net.
Grealish enjoyed himself, even if he came in for a few hard challenges – Wales took no prisoners at times – and it was encouraging to see how he demanded the ball, how he sniffed out spaces and drove the team with the ball at his feet.
Ings, too, could look back on a fine evening’s work and his goal was a beauty, a perfectly executed overhead after the substitute Tyrone Mings, had headed back a corner.
Southgate got Reece James and Harvey Barnes on for debuts in the second-half and Wales would be indebted to Hennessey, who saved smartly from Grealish, Saka, Ings and another substitute James Ward-Prowse.