Sterling the star as England shape up well for World Cup

Gareth Southgate's plans are coming together nicely as a controlled performance following an admittedly iffy start brought encouragement against Italy
German referee Deniz Aytekin will find himself at the centre of a media storm no doubt as his VAR-assisted decision to award a late penalty against James Tarkowski for a foul on Federico Chiesa was far from conclusive. It got the Wembley crowd fired up at least for the last few minutes on a night when they saw some good football but also entertained themselves with the lights from their smartphones and a few Mexican Waves.
It might take them a bit of time here to get used to seeing an England team pushing and probing and not getting the ball forward at the first opportunity. But they should stick with it because the Three Lions are going somewhere, this draw notwithstanding.
Maybe if Ciro Immobile hadn’t come out so cold then we would be having a very different conversation. The Italy front man missed three chances in the opening few minutes, letting England off the hook early on at Wembley. And although Italy grabbed their technologically-aided spot kick late on, that shouldn't detract from the positives we saw from England in between.
The home side and John Stones in particular were guilty of sloppy mistakes right at the outset. This ground had scarcely filled up by the time Immobile sprung an ordinary offside trap before squandering in front of Jack Butland. Stones was overconfident moments later as he attempted to round the forward instead of passing the ball out. Again, the Lazio striker was charitable.