Myles Lewis-Skelly became England’s youngest goalscoring debutant as the Thomas Tuchel era started with a win against Albania.
Tuchel’s reign began with a 2-0 victory against a limited Albania team thanks to debutant Lewis-Skelly’s opener and Harry Kane’s record-extending 70th goal for England in front of a sell-out Wembley crowd.
Lewis-Skelly repaid Tuchel’s faith when meeting a superb Jude Bellingham pass with a fine finish, becoming the youngest England player to score on his debut at the age of 18 years and 176 days.
Fellow debutant Dan Burn rattled the crossbar five days on from his Carabao Cup final goal for Newcastle at Wembley, before Kane added a deserved second late on.
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Isaac Price made it five goals in his last four games for Northern Ireland as Michael O’Neill’s side earned a creditable 1-1 friendly draw with Switzerland in Belfast.
Price, who last year became the youngest player to score a hat-trick in Northern Ireland colours, fired the hosts in front 16 minutes in with a fine curling shot before Vincent Sierro headed Switzerland level 12 minutes later.
It might have been better if Price had converted a golden chance at the start of the season half but, as O’Neill continues to build towards the World Cup qualifying campaign to come later in the year, this was a positive result against a nation ranked 20th in the world.
A young Northern Ireland side, who will be up against Slovakia, Luxembourg and either Germany or Italy when the campaign begins in September, looked confident and composed against higher-ranked opposition, even if the Swiss side were missing the likes of Manuel Akanji and Granit Xhaka themselves.
There were also wins for Finland, Poland, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Latvia in World Cup qualifying.
