Wolverhampton Wanderers club captain Conor Coady played the full game of England’s 5-0 World Cup qualifying win against Andorra last night.
Playing alongside Manchester City’s John Stones for the first hour before Fikayo Tomori came on, Coady had a quiet evening and was often an onlooker with England dominating the game.
It was the 28-year-old’s second start of the qualifying campaign following the 4-0 win against last night’s opponents at Wembley last month.
Coady will be hoping he’s done enough to retain his place ahead of Tuesday’s clash against Hungary.
Yesterday’s clean sheet meant that Coady has only conceded one goal in seven England appearances.
Professional performance
Playing on an artificial pitch brings its own challenges, but England and Coady produced a professional performance and ensured they got the job done.
The former Liverpool man was on the receiving end of an elbow from Marc Rebes in the second half, who was lucky to stay on the pitch given he was already on a yellow card.
Coady was booked in the 86th minute for a reckless challenge, but from the resulting free kick, Sam Johnstone collected the cross and threw the ball out to Jack Grealish, who scored his first England goal and his country’s fifth on the night.
Coady had 98 touches, only three players had more, and completed 81 of his attempted 90 passes (90%).
He won three aerial duels, which was more than any other player on the pitch, and three ground duels.
But most importantly for Wolves and Bruno Lage, the defender came through a match on an artificial pitch unscathed.