Soccer-Unimpressive England beat Andorra 2-0 in World Cup mismatch

By Andrew Cawthorne

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) -England needed an own goal to open the scoring in a 2-0 win over Andorra in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday before Declan Rice made the result more respectable as they failed to sparkle against the tiny principality ranked 170 places below them.

A fourth win in four for Thomas Tuchel's team in their campaign for next year's finals put them in command of Group K on 12 points ahead of Tuesday's game in Serbia.

But their often slow build-up play did not excite the near-40,000 Villa Park crowd and may fuel grumbles that they have become a duller team under German Thomas Tuchel despite his perfect record in the qualifiers.

England's opener came in the 25th minute when a fine cross from Noni Madueke skimmed off Andorra defender Christian Garcia's head into the net with Harry Kane lurking behind him.

Rice added the second in the 67th minute when he met another superb cross, from Reece James this time, to steer a downward header past goalkeeper Iker Alvarez to wrap up the victory against 174th-ranked Andorra.

(Reporting Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Ken Ferris)