Joe Hart admitted that he felt battered and bruised after his heroic display in England’s underwhelming 0-0 draw in Slovenia on Tuesday.
Hart enjoyed his best day of a difficult season as the England goalkeeper made a series of fine saves in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Group F qualifier, including a brilliant effort to keep out Jasmin Kurtic’s second-half header.
It was a sweet moment for Hart, who is exiled on loan at Italian club Torino after being axed by new Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
Photo: AP
Hart needed lengthy treatment after his wonder save to deny Kurtic because he landed heavily, but he was able to continue and kept the hosts at bay.
“It is my best game for a while,” Hart told ITV. “My body is in absolute pieces, I will struggle to get up tomorrow. The lad has got across and flicked it on, and I just did everything I could to keep it out. I don’t know what happened, I have only just seen it now on camera — it hurt though. I landed on the frame of the goal.”
With Gareth Southgate’s team lacking any rhythm, Hart had to be at his best and he hopes the gritty point proves important in England’s bid to reach the World Cup finals.
Photo: Reuters
“I was asked to do quite a bit, but it was down to a few errors from us,” Hart added. “But we can all improve, we are a young team and have dug in, in an intense atmosphere, and taken a point. On the night it was a difficult result, but we have to look at the bigger picture, which is trying to qualify for Russia.”
England’s lethargic effort did not reflect well on interim manager Southgate, who took over when Sam Allardyce was forced to leave in disgrace after his controversial comments to undercover reporters, but Southgate suggested England were in turmoil after Allardyce’s exit and their poor performance at Euro 2016.
“The overall objective is to qualify, so long term that could be an important point,” Southgate said. “I can’t thank the players and support team enough for the backing I have had. We wanted six points, but we have taken over a mess and had to steady the ship. We are on track. I am going to have a couple of days to go and sleep.”
England moved on to seven points after three matches, two more than Slovenia and Lithuania, who defeated 10-man Malta 2-0 in Vilnius.
Slovakia registered their first points with a commanding 3-0 victory over Scotland in Trnava, where Robert Mak scored twice before Adam Nemec capped off a miserable evening for Gordon Strachan’s visitors.
In Hannover, defending champions Germany swept aside Northern Ireland 2-0 with first-half goals from Julian Draxler and Sami Khedira sending Joachim Loew’s men two points clear in Group C and looking ominous.
“We’ve done our job, taking six points and not conceding any goals,” Loew said. “We scored our two goals very early and that allowed us to win without suffering.”
Azerbaijan extended their undefeated run with a hard-fought point in a goalless draw in the Czech Republic, Robert Prosinecki’s team a surprise second in the standings following their shock defeat of Norway at the weekend.
Norway were in danger of another highly embarrassing result at home to San Marino before three goals in the final 13 minutes eased tensions in Oslo as the hosts won 4-1.
Robert Lewandowski snatched a dramatic stoppage-time winner as Poland overcome 10-man Armenia 2-1 in Warsaw.
Hrayr Mkoyan’s own-goal just after the break gifted Poland the lead, but Armenia, who played a man down for an hour after the dismissal of Gael Andonian, leveled two minutes later through Marcos Pizzelli.
However, Lewandowski scored for the eighth straight qualifier as he headed in deep into stoppage-time to keep Poland level on points with Group E leaders Montenegro, 1-0 winners in Denmark.
Romania are two points off the pace following a 0-0 draw with Kazakhstan in Astana.
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