James Garner makes his England debut

England 1 - 0 Uruguay [85']

James Garner makes his England debut at Wembley tonight against Uruguay in a pre-World Cup friendly.

G arner was taking the corners in the first half and putting in some decent deliveries. But England were mostly tentative playing the maddening backwards, sideways, forwards, sideways, backwards rubbish that is so hard to watch in the Premier League.

Half-Time: 0 - 0

Garner got few meaningful touches in the second half and was subbed by Barnes after 68 minutes.

Calvert-Lewin missed an absolute sitter from just three yards out, a beautiful curling delivery... probably a bit much for the former Everton striker to handle.

Ben White gave England the lead from a corner. But VAR persuaded the referee to give Uruguay a very late penalty for nothing more than a coming together as two players challenged for a ball off the ground. Trafford failed to save the spot-kick.

England: Trafford, Livramento, Tomori, Maguire, Spence, Henderson, Garner, Foden, Madueke, Rashford, Solanke.Subs: Ramsdale, Pickford, Steele, Hall, Wharton, Stones, Palmer, White, Mainoo, Calvert-Lewin, Barnes, Bowen.

Uruguay: Muslera, R Araujo, Ugarte, De Arrascaeta, Varela, Canobbio, Valverde, Olivera, M Araujo, Piquerez, Aguirre.Subs: Rochet, Mele, Gimenez, Caceres, Sanabria, De La Cruz, Martinez, Nunez, Pellistri, Vina, Rodriguez, Vinas, Torres, Rodriguez.

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Reader Comments (27)

"James Garner's first involvement a corner kick” says the commentator.

Jimmy had already played a nice ball to his left mid, a dangerous hanging cross into the box and got fouled on the ball, leading to a Foden free kick.

Are they instructed to avoid naming Everton players??

He's playing well, our boy!

Andrew Ellams 3 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:10:42

The boy's playing well and hit 3 cracking corners.

Bill Gall 4 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:17:16

Any feeds for this game?

I have Fubo but they have now got DAZN in their folder and want extra money to watch this game.

George Freeman 5 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:23:05

Bill, it's on ITV 1 or ITVX

Tony Hughes 6 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:23:10

Shit load of players who have never played together before produce a disjointed peformance, who'd have thought it eh?

Mark Murphy 7 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:23:40

Dixon is being quite positive towards Jimmy's play so far...

Mark Murphy 8 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:24:44

That Bielsa is a weirdo!

George Freeman 9 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:27:09

James Garner is the only one with any idea.

He is making some good runs but instead of picking him out they would rather pass back.

Bill Gall 10 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:27:16

Thank you, George.

Problem is... I live in Canada.

George Freeman 11 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:39:44

Bill, have you tried a VPN, like Unlocator VPN or Nord VPN?

Mike Powell 12 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:44:31

I don't usually watch England, but because Jimmy Garner is playing thought I would make the effort.

I shouldn't have bothered... it's awful, although Jimmy is doing well.

Mark Murphy 13 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:45:55

If Everton played like England, the Hill Dickinson would be half-empty.

It's awful. Apart from Rashford.

Tony Hughes 14 Posted 27/03/2026 at 20:54:08

Load of players who haven't played together before, what do you expect. Brazil 1970?

Pointless these games, the manager should know how good a player is. The players are playing against the world's best each week in the Premier League at a higher tempo with much more at stake.

Playing against the likes of Japan or Andorra to prove you're an international footballer is utter bollocks.

Tony Hughes 16 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:14:08

Need to take the blue-tinted specs off tonight.

Garrner had been really quiet, too much backwards and sideways, not showing the confidence he has in a Blue shirt

Tony Hughes 18 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:24:13

Dirty Uruguayian fuckers, nothing changes

Tony Hughes 19 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:25:06

Sitter

Geoff Trenner 20 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:27:47

Oh DCL

Michael Kenrick 21 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:27:52

What a miss by Calvert-Lewin!

Laid on a plate. But it was always the service that was lacking, eh?

Nowt to do with his abundance of skill... My arse.

Michael Kenrick 23 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:43:42

Fifa are such a bunch of crooks.

Wembley already half-empty at 90 minutes, with 5 minutes added.

Mark Murphy 24 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:54:19

DOM misses a sitter

White booed onto the pitch then scores

Then gives away the pen they didn’t deserve.

We’ll sign White, won’t we?

IF Everton played like England I wouldn’t go.

Mike Gaynes 25 Posted 27/03/2026 at 21:57:38

There’s no way I can properly describe the excitement of that game.

So I won’t try.

Simon Dalzell 26 Posted 27/03/2026 at 22:08:51

Tony Hughes.. Laughable comment at best. He played about as well as he could, surrounded by rubbish. Especially Henderson. How the is he still around ?

Tom Bowers 27 Posted 27/03/2026 at 22:16:13

Typical Uruguay! Terrible referee !

England weren't great but they were better than these South Americans.

Why did this awful ref. not call a penalty when Maguire was wrestled to the ground or at least go to VAR. and why no red card when Foden was brutally tackled.

I think Tuchel made too many substitutions at the wrong time and have doubts that England will do well at the finals under him.