Soccer-Kane spares turgid England's blushes against Andorra

BARCELONA (Reuters) -Lacklustre England laboured to a 1-0 away win over Andorra to maintain their 100% start to their World Cup qualifying campaign with captain Harry Kane's second-half goal sparing their blushes on Saturday.

On a sultry afternoon in Barcelona, Kane's scrambled effort shortly after the interval was all that separated Thomas Tuchel's team of Premier League household names with the side sitting 173rd in the world rankings.

As expected, England dominated possession but were short of the quality expected with only Chelsea winger Noni Madueke managing to impress in a forgettable match.

England secured the win, however, and sit comfortably top of Group K with three wins from three.

"It wasn't a great performance and I don't think many people will remember this one," Kane, whose goal was the 450th of his career for club and country, told ITV Sport.

"It was a dry pitch, similar to next year at the World Cup so we will go away and analyse it. We weren't good enough on the ball but we take the three points and move on."

England are expected to be one of the favourites for next year's World Cup and while it is difficult to read too much into a turgid display against defence-minded Andorra, head coach Tuchel will know big improvements must be made.

In six previous games against Andorra, England had scored 25 goals without reply, but even after they went ahead there was no sense the floodgates would open.

Andorra created a couple of chances to heap real embarrassment on their visitors with substitute Guillaume Lopez denied a late equaliser by Ezri Konsa's block.

From the opening whistle, England's build-up play was pedestrian and only Madueke garnished his reputation, especially before halftime with some penetrating runs.

He tested Andorra keeper Iker Alvarez with a curling shot and set up a couple of other chances, one for Jude Bellingham who like most of England's team, looked flat and well off the pace after a long season.

Kane wasted England's best chance in the first half, shooting wide from close range after another dangerous ball by Madueke had been turned back by Curtis Jones.

If anyone was going to break the stalemate it was likely to be Kane, however, and he did so in the 50th minute, stabbing a shot high into the net after his initial effort was saved and Madueke was alert to whip the rebound to his skipper.

Tuchel is the first England coach to win his first three games in charge without conceding a goal, but he did not try to put any gloss on a poor display.

"We are not happy of course," he said. "We lost the momentum completely after the first 25 minutes and couldn't get it back.

"We ended up in a period that wasn't good enough with a lack of urgency and a lack of quality and a lack of energy."

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond and Pritha Sarkar)