England hit a rare bump on the road to next year's European Championship as Kyle Walker’s first international goal secured Gareth Southgate’s side a 1-1 draw against Ukraine in Poland.
Having opened Group C with four wins from as many matches, it has long looked a case of when rather than if the Euro 2020 runners-up seal their place at next summer’s tournament in Germany.
England had won 21 of their previous 22 Euros qualifiers but had to make do with a point on Saturday evening having failed to build on Walker brilliantly cancelling out Oleksandr Zinchenko’s opener.
Ukraine were vastly improved from their meek March loss at Wembley and, despite being forced to play away from home due to the ongoing Russian invasion, received fantastic support in Wroclaw.
Skipper Zinchenko sparked ear-splitting celebrations when opening the scoring at the Tarczynski Arena, where world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk beat Daniel Dubois a fortnight ago.
But this time there was no Ukrainian knockout blow against English opposition.
Harry Kane's exceptional pass was met by a similarly impressive Walker touch, before the right-back coolly slotted home to open his international account on his 77th appearance.
The 33-year-old became the second-oldest player to score his maiden England goal after ending the longest wait for an outfield player to net their first for the country.
Bukayo Saka saw an effort tipped onto the bar as England pushed for a winner that evaded them.
Walker told Channel 4 of his goal: "It's just a relief. Obviously to represent your country and be as fortunate as I have this many times, but to not score, it’s been on my mind. But now I can tick that off."
On the result, the defender added: "It’s a point away from home. I think we’re in a good position in the group. It was always going to be tough coming here, they’re a proud nation.
"In front of goal I thought we lacked the cutting edge we normally have, but sometimes you have to take those games. Come away from home, take a point and move on.
"We know we can do better, but we move on to Tuesday now, which is obviously a massive game."
Ukraine boss Sergiy Rebrov praised his side, saying: "Of course I want to say a lot for the players. They did a very good celebration for the people.
"It's a very good atmosphere in the stadium. Of course you see nobody is going home because it’s not only about the result, it’s about the game. We played against a very strong side and I think we deserved this point.
"Especially in the first half England was very strong, but in football controlling the ball is not enough, you have to create the chances. They didn’t create lots of chances because I think we defended very well."
Talking about the significance of the match for his country, Rebrov said: "This is a big responsibility. I'm very proud to work for Ukraine.
"It’s very difficult. Football is not in first place in our country. I’m glad that we gave emotion for our people because I know lots of millions of Ukrainians watched this game and they showed the character of Ukrainians. At this period of time that’s really important."
That was echoed by Ukraine goalscorer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who said: "The atmosphere was unbelievable, lots of thanks for the support. We felt like we played at home. I really hope very soon we can play at home."
On the draw, the Arsenal player added: "I think it’s an amazing result for us. England at the moment are one of the best teams in the world. We knew it was going to be hard, we knew most of the time we have to defend. I think in general we did well."
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