Star

Game by game Owen Hargreaves, the man who didn’t even look like an international footballer just a few months ago, is proving to be a revelation in his midfield holding role.

His energy, his composure, his vision, his competitive instinct, his pace, his passing – all these qualities have helped to elevate him to the point where he must be almost an automatic choice for Steve McClaren. And in the 30th and 63rd minutes of the game against Andorra, when he hit the post and was desperately unlucky not to score, he showed another important dimension to his game.

How Sir Alex Ferguson must regret Bayern Munich’s understandable insistence upon keeping him to see out his contract.