England vs Portugal: Why Roy Hodgson's men needed Cristiano Ronaldo test after anaemic display

England 1 Portugal 0: Hodgson's men may not be so lucky against better teams in France

Chris Smalling is mobbed his his England team-mates (Getty)

The only sign of Cristiano Ronaldo since we saw him pictured in front of the wash of a speedboat a few days ago has been a new video of him promoting anti-dandruff shampoo, so it is fairly safe to say that he has been as emotionally detached from the evening chill of a subdued Wembley as any player might be. It was England’s loss in every way.

Portugal and Ronaldo were supposed to be creating the conditions the team will encounter in Lens on June 16 when they find Gareth Bale running at them like a TGV.

In his absence there was such a meagre test that by the end you were willing Joao Moutinho, quite clearly the best of the rest in Fernando Santos’ ranks, to create a piece of danger for the front line that might give the video analysis staff something to while away an hour or so with Chris Smalling and Gary Cahill before the team face Russia a week on Saturday.

For the same reason, the dismissal of Bruno Alves would have been something to feel angry about, had his eye-watering challenge on Harry Kane not involved a set of studs being raised to the striker’s face. The 23-year-old Braga striker Rafa Silva, removed in the ensuing reshuffle, was supposed to be one of those who would provide a measure of the Portugal’s ‘new Ronaldos.’

The overall anaemic effect was discomfiting because England’s little signs of indiscipline – tactical and temperamental – could pass without serious punishment, when you knew that one or more of them may have carried a heavier penalty against better teams than this.

The test Delle Ali faced was of a psychological kind and he didn’t pass it. Ricardo Carvalho brushed his arm into the 20-year-old after they had both leapt for a ball and Ali responded with interest. Incitement is pretty much all the defender could throw at Ali and and his presence, aged 38, in Fernando Santos’ European Championships squad illustrates where Portugal have a problem.

Yet it was worrying to see the needle having its desired effect. It’s ten years since England discovered in a World Cup quarter final the dangers of being successfully provoked by a Portuguese wind-up merchant.

Bruno Alves is sent off in the first half, changing the match (Getty)

The Ali red mist moment passed, though these games are studied closely enough by others for opponents to take the hint. Jamie Vardy escaped a kick at his opposite no 11 Vieirinha midway through the first half, too, though it was vicious and baffling, considering that the game had not worked itself into any kind of contest.

By the hour mark, both of the strikers who were supposed to have put Smalling and Cahill to the test had gone. A 29-year-old Nani was another and the shot he ballooned over the bar from James Milner’s sloppy pass into his path, just short of 20 minutes, spoke for the threat he offered.

What Smalling and Cahill provided wasn’t always convincing, even on such generous terrain. Cahill was booked at the end of the first half for taking Nani’s feet away. Smalling let the midfielder Adrien get in front of him to level a header from Eliseu’s cross moments and Carvalho’s leap to head a free-kick went unchallenged.

The bigger picture was that Hodgson’s muscular, athletic young England were up against ten men, some of them old, and could barely summon a shot on goal. The system looked fine as England went to work, with Wayne Rooney at the top of diamond operating behind Vardy and Kane. But there was no discipline about it, either.

Roy Hodgson considers his options on the side-lines for England (Getty)

Rooney drifted into the front line that looked more like the front structure of 4-3-3. It was him at the far post receiving a ball navigated around the back of the Portuguese defence on ten minutes, prodding at the goalkeeper the kind of chance Vardy has been burying all season. It was him jumping to head Kyle Walker’s threatening high cross – one of those Kane bread-and-butter moments.

Hodgson stroke his bottom lip in that way of his. A Mexican Wave struck up but was not completed. Two Portuguese substitutes - Renato Sanchez and Ricardo Quaresma demonstrated what it was to be creative, Sanchez driving past Sterling and Rooney; Queresma shuffled back and forth in front of the England defence and bending a shot inches wide.

Then, the goal which was as unexpected as it was satisfying at a moment in the international cycle when wins of any kind help build momentum. Smalling’s leap was well timed and Sterling’s drifted cross to find him expert in its weight. England had not beaten Portugal in five previous attempts so the defender’s headed finish had double significance.

The compensations of the night for England also include no injuries for a group who did nothing to invite them yet the squad head into French territory none the wiser about how it will really be for them when the pips squeak. They cursed the winking gamesmanship of Ronaldo a decade ago but here was a night when they could have used him.