England kicked off their World Cup campaign with a 2-1 win against Tunisia and winning the three points was anything but a walk in the park for Gareth Southgate’ side.
Harry Kane put the Three Lions infront with a tap-in goal during the 11th minute and it looked like that Tunisia were in for a rough night.
But England failed to convert a series of opportunities in front of goal and it ultimately came to bite them back after Kyle Walker gifted Tunisia a penalty during the 35th minute.
Walker caught Fakhereedine Ben Youssef with a flailing arm inside the box and the referee wasted no time in pointing towards the penalty spot. Tunisia managed to convert from the spot and they looked all set to pull out yet another upset during the 2018 World Cup.
And once again it was captain Kane who came to the rescue scoring an injury-time header and eventually sealing the match 2-1 in favour of England.
While everyone is gushing over Harry Kane’s heroics but a lot of people have also started pointing fingers towards Kyle Walker and his silly error that nearly cost England the game.
As it is Gareth Southgate is playing Walker in central defence – a position that he is not used to playing and this near-costly error has drawn a lot of negative criticism.
One of the person’s that has strongly bashed Kyle Walker’s performance during the Tunisia game is former England centre-back, Rio Ferdinand.
Talking on BBC One(as reported by the Daily Mail), Rio said: ‘It is the one doubt anyone would have had over Kyle Walker playing centre-half,
‘His body positioning there, facing your own goal. It should be facing the other way, where the ball is coming from and being able to see the player as well.
‘He needs to open himself up. Here he’s looking at his goalkeeper and that’s criminal. He can’t see the attacker so he’s got no idea where he is.
‘His arms come up, he doesn’t know there’s going to be contact and you get punished for that.’
Unlike a lot of other big teams, England have made a winning start to their World Cup campaign and next they take on Panama on Sunday in their second Group G encounter. But we have to wait and if Gareth Southgate keeps his faith on Kyle Walker and plays him once again in his three-man back line.
