No offence, Wales

Every football fan knows one thing above all about England. The men's team, that is.

We race through the qualifying groups against countries like San Marino and Andorra, scoring bucketloads of goals and ending with a 100% record. Then comes the competition proper. And we struggle against decent teams and...

...get beaten by Germany.

Our (German) coach is leading us through the qualification campaign ready for the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA next Summer. So far we have played 5, won 5, scored 13 goals and conceded none. So when it comes to filling a gap in the schedule with a friendly game, you'd think it would be a great opportunity to find out about the players vying for their spots by playing a match against Brazil. Or France. Maybe Ghana. Definitely not Senegal, we lost 3-1 to them earlier this year (see what I mean?)

But no, we decide to play...Wales. No offence to the Welsh but they are ranked 30th in the world, between Panama and Norway. We know what our players, even those notionally in our second string, can do against Panama, Wales and Norway. What we don't know is how good they will be against Portugal, Croatia and the Dutch. Better to find out now rather than in 9 month's time when it matters.

I don't get it. As the well-known terrace chant goes:

You don't know what you're doing.

Oh and just so you know, it was England 3 Wales 0.