European Championship
Lithuania
Oct 12, 2015 7.45pm
0
3
HT : 0 2
FT
England
  • Lukas Spalvis 84' yellowcard
  • Egidijus Vaitkunas 89' yellowcard
  • goal Ross Barkley 29'
  • goal Giedrius Arlauskis 35' (OG)
  • goal Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 62'
  • yellowcard Jonjo Shelvey 78'
  • yellowcard Jamie Vardy 79'

Live Commentary: Lithuania 0-3 England - as it happened

By | , Last updated:

Lithuania 0-3 England - as it happened
© Getty Images

England finished their Euro 2016 qualification campaign with a 100% record after beating Lithuania 3-0 in Vilnius tonight for their 10th successive win in Group E.

Ross Barkley fired the Three Lions into the lead on 29 minutes, before an own goal from goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis saw them double the advantage prior to the break.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain added a slick third on 62 minutes as Roy Hodgson's side became the sixth team in history to win every single European Championship qualifier.

Below, relive the drama with our live text commentary.

9.35pmSo, that's it! Oxlade-Chamberlain added to Ross Barkley's opener and Giedrius Arlauskis's own goal as England make it 10 wins on the spin! Was it ever in doubt? No. England have been dominant throughout. It was a game which had goals, but also it was a game lacking in chances, atmosphere and quality and praise the lord it's over. Thanks for tuning into it, though, and we'll see you next time!

9.34pmFULL TIME: Lithuania 0-3 England

90 minTHREE MINUTES ADDED ON:

88 minTwo minutes of normal time to go and there's just been nothing happening. It's been very, very lethargic from both sides in recent minutes.

84 minPoor cross from Dele Alli here as it flies over the head of Townsend, who was unmarked at the back post. There's a general malaise around England's display tonight. Very poor.

81 minNine minutes to play and England been quite sloppy in recent minutes. They can afford to be. The game is over. Well over.

78 minBOOKINGS: Stupid from Shelvey and Vardy as they're both booked for encroachment in separate incidents for the same free kick! Madness. Twelve to play.

74 minSUB: Andros Townsend replaces Barkley now. I'm not going to lie - he was poor as well, but England haven't needed to be good tonight. They've been in third or fourth gear throughout.

71 minSHOT! Just under 20 minutes of normal time to go and England want more - and they nearly get one as Ings's long-range drive is kept out by Arlaskis.

68 minSUB: Dele Alli makes his second England appearance now as he replaces the poor Lallana.

67 minHuge mistake by Shelvey here as he allows Vykintas Slivka in on goal, but the Lithuanian man can't make the most of the opportunity. He's been dreadful, he really has.

64 minHe's been quiet tonight, but Oxlade-Chamberlain bags himself a goal after being played in by Walker, before the Arsenal man, who has the angle against him, smashes past Arlaskis at his near post. Game set and match, I think.

63 minGOAL! Lithuania 0-3 England (Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain)

61 minWe've reached the hour mark then and our pre-match prediction of 2-0 looks good so far, but surely they'll score again? They should, but who knows.

58 minSUB: Kane leaves the field without a goal as Danny Ings comes on for his England debut. I fancy him to score. Quote me.

55 minIt's gone a bit quiet in recent minutes. The visitors still utterly dominant but they're running out of ideas somewhat. Motivation is certainly at a premium.

51 minCHANCE! Oh my, it should be 3-0 as Oxlade-Chamberlain plays in Harry Kane, whose close-range shot is kept out by Arlauskis, but Kane still looked certain to tap home the rebound before a yellow shirt cleared off the line.

48 minEngland start this half as dominantly as they finished the second one. I'd love to see the possession - it must be 65% - 35% in England's favour.

45 minKICKOFF: We're back in Vilnius, my friends. England leading 2-0 courtesy of Ross Barkley's opener and I think Harry Kane, though it might go down as an own goal.

8.33pmSo, Lithuania are rather dreadful, and England are in, say, fourth gear and still leading comfortably. It's been a relaxed night for the visitors, who took the lead through Barkley's excellent, albeit deflected, strike, before Kane doubled the lead. It took England a while to get to grips with the pitch, but they did and they're cruising toward a 10th successive qualifying win.

8.31pmHALF TIME: Lithuania 0-2 England

43 minSHOT! Swansea midfielder Shelvey drills a fierce low drive at goal, but it's well held by Arlaukis. England totally dominant again.

40 minSlightly better from Lithuania, who have two shot as Novikovas and Freidgemas drag efforts wide of Butland's goal.

37 minEngland double the lead through Kane, who is played in by Lallana's clever flick, but he still has plenty to do as he fires a left-footed effort past Arlaukis, who might've done better at his near post. It actually came back off the stopper, who might be an own goal actually. Who knows. What we do know is that it's definitely 2-0 and probably game over.

36 minGOAL! Lithuania 0-2 England (Harry Kane)

35 minSHOT! This took a while but Butland has been forced into a save, and it's a very good one as he tips away Spalvis's left-footed drive. Would've been the ultimate sucker punch.

32 minEngland have their tails up now and Vardy's cross is well stopped by Arlaukis, who had to get that because Kane and Oxlade-Chamberlain were lurking.

30 minWe said Barkley was quiet, and he was, but what a way to perk up. The Everton midfielder works a yard of space on his right, before firing home from outside the box with an effort that left Arlaukis with no chance.

29 minGOAL! Lithuania 0-1 England (Ross Barkley)

26 minLallana's cross goes straight out for a goal kick. He's not having the best of it so far, the Liverpool man. But then again, neither is any white shirt. Ross Barkley has been crazily quiet.

23 minSHOT! Another snap-shot from Kane and Arlauskis beats it away, with Freidgeimas then mopping up before Vardy can tap home a rebound. That's three shots from Kane but none of them were really testing Arlaukis.

21 minWe're 20 minutes deep and still awaiting the first goal. Actually, still awaiting the first chance! It's been a little pedestrian at times from England, but they're totally dominant. I'm not Lithuania have got anywhere near the opposition box yet.

18 minEngland still toiling deep in Lithuania's half as Lallana's cross for Vardy is headed behind by a yellow shirt. It's a corner but again, nothing doing. Lallana's delivery from set pieces leaves a little to be desired tonight.

15 minSAVE! Harry Kane very much the danger man from an England perspective as you might expect, and the Spurs striker forces Arlauskis into another half-decent save just now, beating it away at his near post. Again, the corner comes to nothing.

13 minUnlucky from Oxlade-Chamberlain as he bids to play in Vardy but, again, the pace of the surface did him no favours and it went out for a goal kick.

11 minSHOT! We've seen the first shot now then as Arlauskis denies Harry Kane's effort. It's gone for a corner, which comes to nothing. Much better from England.

8 minEight minutes gone and it's all England as you might expect. They'll win this, and comfortably, but the quicker they adapt to the pitch, the better.

5 minPerfect example of how swift this pitch is as Vardy runs it out of play after a brilliant surging run to leave Georgas Freidgeimas for dead. It'll take them a while to get to grips with the surface.

3 minExcellent surging run by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain down this right-hand side, but he's eventually stopped in his tracks. Big night for him. He'll want to impress.

1 minKICKOFF: Right, we're off in Vilnius! England get us underway on this artificial field. Not much atmosphere it has to be said. Everybody's too cold.

7.42pmSteam is being released by the mouth's of the Lithuanian lads as they sing their anthem. It's quite cold in Vilnius, below freezing in fact!

7.40pmAnd here come the lads! Remember that music from the first Die Hard, when the baddies crack open the vault? That music is playing. Don't ask me why.

7.36pmAnother pro-Lithuania - England marcher here.

7.34pmThis is beautifully put, and he's not wrong, is he?

7.32pmDan, on the other hand, is proudly repping his nation tonight. Good for you, sir.

7.30pmLydia can't wait for this one.

7.27pmLet's see what Twitter is saying about this one.

7.25pmPREDICTION! Despite their experimental XI, England have more than enough quality, but it remains to be seen if they can summon the motivation. Will they? No, but they'll still win. I'm going 2-0. It's also an artificial pitch, and the English boys won't be used to that.

7.21pmBy virtue of the fact that Lithuania are 15/2 to pull off a win, you could say that there's more chance of seeing Diego Costa, with a guitar, singing Kumbaya alongside members of the FA. It's just unlikely. England, on the other hand, are 2/5, which means they'll most probably win - and win very well. They hardly set the world alight with their 2-0 win over Estonia though, with Walcott and Sterling doing the damage in a very labourous affair on Friday. So who knows.

7.17pmDID YOU KNOW? Fancy a trivial stat to kill some more time? Of course you do. Did you know that English clubs have met Lithuanian clubs on eight occasions down the years? The English won every single meeting, scoring 24 along the way. That's an average of three goals per game. I worked that one out myself. #Maths

7.13pmThat's why tonight isn't your typical dead rubber. There's not much at stake, as we know, but it gives Hodgson a chance to survey his side and experiment a little. I'd have liked to see him try Walcott up front. The Arsenal man has been in fine form for the Gunners since being deployed through the middle this season, and I thought Roy (because I know him, personally) might have done the same. But nope. Not to worry.

7.10pmWelbeck, incidentally, is out until December. Joining Arsenal appears to turn players into cripples for whatever reason. Still, he certainly should be on the plane heading to France next summer. He has netted six times in this qualification campaign, one less than Rooney, who is on penalty duty, so he deserves a seat as much as anybody.

7.08pmWe usually do a quick head-to-check segment around this time, but it's very short on this occasion due to the fact that, well, they've only squared off once. England's 4-0 win at Wembley in the reverse fixture was the first meeting between both sides. Incidentally, Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling opened their international accounts during that victory, with Wayne Rooney and forgotten man Danny Welbeck also on target.

7.05pmOkay, so there's eight changes for England, with Ross Barkley - who was outstanding against Estonia - Adam Lallana and Harry Kane the only survivors from Friday. Jack Butland replaces Joe Hart between the sticks. Phil Jagielka captains the side in a defence comprising of him, Phil Jones, Kyle Walker and Kieran Gibbs. In midfield, Jonjo Shelvey replaces James Milner to sit at the base, with Barkley and Lallana operating in behind their three-pronged attack. Jamie Vardy replaces Raheem Sterling on the left. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain displaces Theo Walcott on the right, while Kane leads the line once more.

7.03pmENGLAND SUBS: Heaton, Smalling, Walcott, Alli, Ings, Sterling, Townsend, Clyne, Bertrand

7.02pmLITHUANIA SUBS: Černiauskas, Zubas, Slavickas, Baravykas, D Cesnauskis, Petravicius, Pilibaitis, Kuklys, Veliulis, Matulevičius

7.01pmENGLAND XI: Butland, Walker, Jones, Jagielka, Gibbs, Shelvey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Barkley, Lallana, Vardy, Kane

6.59pmLITHUANIA XI: Arlauskis, Klimavicius, Freidgeimas, Mikuckis, Cernych; Andriuškevičius, Slivka, Novikovas, Zulpa; Panka Spalvis

6.57pmLet's crack on with a bit of team news, shall we? Okay.

6.55pmLet's take a quick look and let's see how Group E looks. Like a protologist, we'll start at the bottom and we'll unsurprisingly find San Marino there, with one point after somehow drawing with Estonia, who sit fourth, level on points with tonight's hosts. Slovenia will qualify for the playoffs in third, while Switzerland have proven England's greatest threat to top spot - and they're nine points behind in second!

6.52pmLithuania have given up the ghost, like Casper when he briefly returned to human form. They have nothing to play for tonight, other than the prospect of ending a meh campaign with a flourish. Their elimination was confirmed by Friday's 1-1 draw away to Slovenia. They have, to their credit, won 10 points, so victory probably won't be straight-forward for the visitors, but still, England should certainly win.

6.49pmLet's not beat around the bush - the E in Group E stands for 'easy'. Nobody has really managed to test Hodgson's boys in this campaign. They've got 27 points from a possible 27, with a 2-0 victory over Estonia on Friday establishing a nine-match winning match streak. Can they make it a perfect 10 tonight? Probably. Let's see why.

6.47pmDead rubber? Says who? Okay so England will be at Euro 2016, and Lithuania won't be, but there's still plenty to look forward to on a night when manager Roy Hodgson will punt for more fringe than Nicki Minaj. I'm Shane and I'll be guiding you through all the action from Vilnius as an experimental Three Lions XI looks to become the sixth team in history to finish Euro 2016 qualifying with a 100% record.
Author photo

Written by

Share this article:

People mentioned in this article :

Teams mentioned in this article :

England related articles
Football related articles
Subscribe to our newsletter

Get FREE daily news and in-depth previews for games from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football — straight to your inbox.

Subscribe