From England’s perspective, the international break in November is ended. Marcus Rashford returned to action following his knock in last week’s victory over Malta, and Gareth Southgate continued his perfect qualification campaign.

While Rashford came off the bench to play around 10 minutes in the second half, Harry Maguire started and played the whole game. Almost immediately after throwing the ball away, the center back had a nightmare in which he brought down a player from North Macedonia; it was fortunate that he did not give away a penalty.

After attempting to play it from behind, Maguire is attempting to avoid moments like this. Elif Elmas was through on goal after receiving an intercepted long pass from him. Just as the Napoli forward was about to take a shot on goal, Maguire hauled him down.

Nevertheless, Maguire expressed his frustration after a challenging encounter in an interview with Sky Sports following the match.

He described the game as “frustrating to play in” after the game. It is difficult to come back from behind once the referee gave them the lead.

Impressive second-half play from the boys. We showed great energy and fought hard against a youthful team, and another day we easily won the game. We were in complete control of the game, from the beginning to the end.Even I was guilty of a few careless ball handling moments, but we’ll take what we learned and keep improving.

In the first half, England fell behind 1-0 due to a contentious penalty that went to the host team. In his first game for England, 18-year-old defender Rico Lewis put his hand in Aberdeen’s face as he sprang for the ball, which video assistant referees judged as a foul.

“It wаs а crаzy decisiоn,” Mаguire sаid when questiоned аbоut the incident. I’ve been sаying fоr mоnths thаt VаR is mаking defenses’ jоbs mоre difficult.

Every week in the Premier League, we face top-tier forwards and players, but we just can’t seem to generate any physical contact. Nothing we do—defence, communication, and you—will help.