sport news IAN LADYMAN:England head to Qatar with a little more purpose after their 3-3 ... trends now

sport news IAN LADYMAN:England head to Qatar with a little more purpose after their 3-3 ... trends now
sport news IAN LADYMAN:England head to Qatar with a little more purpose after their 3-3 ... trends now

sport news IAN LADYMAN:England head to Qatar with a little more purpose after their 3-3 ... trends now

At the end there was polite applause. After such a startlingly unpredictable and exciting half of football, that felt a little strange. But by then, all other options had been exhausted.

With 20 minutes of normal time remaining, England were heading for one of their most brutal receptions in recent memory. Two goals down and drowning in front of a full house.

Twelve minutes later, those who had left early — and there were undoubtedly some — were turning around, drawn back by the unlikely ferocity and exhilaration of England’s comeback. Wembley was alive.

Harry Maguire did little to persuade his doubters and was at fault for two of Germany's goals

Harry Maguire did little to persuade his doubters and was at fault for two of Germany's goals

And then, just as Gareth Southgate had been released from the embrace of his assistant Steve Holland, came a German equaliser, handed to them by a mistake from goalkeeper Nick Pope.

So at full time, we got the ripple of applause that comes when a crowd doesn’t really know what to think. 

On the one hand, their team had handed Germany three goals in one half. That’s never a good sign. And where Harry Maguire goes from here — apart from straight back to the Manchester United substitutes bench — is hard to fathom.

On the other, England had belatedly found something vaguely familiar and recognisable. The Nations League table still looks dreadful. Southgate’s team have finished bottom without a win in six attempts. It has been a pretty ghastly summer.

But as they recovered from the shock of two German goals that seemed to have decided the game, England played some attacking, incisive football that may just have triggered some long-buried muscle memory of what it actually feels like to impose themselves on a game.

Gareth Southgate's side were poor for much of the game but improved in the final 20 minutes

Gareth Southgate's side were poor for much of the game but improved in the final 20 minutes

Confidence is a strange thing. Lose it and you may as well slip your feet into concrete shoes.

But when it returns, it can be liberating. And for England here, all it took to release the genie from the bottle was one close-range shot from Luke Shaw that dribbled over the German line following a hefty deflection from the goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen’s ankle.

Had that not gone in with 19 minutes left, Southgate would doubtless be preparing for

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