England 3 - 1 Switzerland
Rooney 10’ Shiqiri 71’
A Johnson 69’
Bent 88’
This was a night many predicted to be the toughest England would face on their fixture list for the European Championships. This was a Swiss team that defeated Spain at the World Cup and that also have a reputation for being miserly. On top of this, they have plenty of attacking talent in the form of midfield creator Gokhan Inler, goal-scoring striker Frei, and youngster Shiqiri.
With the score at 2-0, the latter gave England a kick up the backside with a pearler of a strike from 25 yards as Jo Hart was beaten. It was a night where he looked deciedly shakier than he has before in spite of the fact he twice saw fit to wait before the Swiss striker had closed him down to within one metre.
In the England team there was only one enforced change with Dawson out through injury being replaced by Man City’s Joleon Lescott. With Ashley Cole making his 85th cap and Fabio Capello his 30th, England were looking to give each something to remember.
England, as they had against Bulgaria, started brightly, using the right flank plenty to expose Ziegler against the rapidity that is Theo Walcott. Ziegler would not have to worry about this particular menace for long though. With 10 minutes gone, Walcott played Glen Johnson on the over-lap. Johnson then cut the ball back across for Rooney to finish strongly from close range to make a dire week of heinous allegations have a silver lining of sorts with his 26th international goal.
However, whilst the England boys were celebrating, Walcott was on the floor writhing in pain. It transpired that he had been caught by one of the Swiss defenders as he dummied the ball that found Rooney and caught an ankle injury that will see him out of action for about 5 weeks. With Ziegler likely blowing a slight sigh of relieve that Walcott was not to torture him any longer as the stretcher took him off, he would sound have re-drawn breath as Adam Johnson strode to the field as replacement.
With 20 minutes gone England had taken control, having had 59% of the possession and a goal’s advantage that was nearly doubled when Gerrard played a crisp through ball that Defoe could not quite manage to bring under his touch. Three minutes later Defoe missed a chance when Johnson beat Ziegler with great skill to deliver across for the Tottenham striker to scoop the strike as he leant back.
As the England fans sang proudly and raucously, their team were maintaining their performance. Ashley Cole, ever marauding, delivered a ball across, and with Defoe closing in again, the ball took a telling deflection to knock it out of his path with the goal gaping.
After a narrowly wide effort from Adam Johnson, Switzerland began to put pressure on with 10 minutes remaining in the half. They kept the ball around the England area, waiting for a gap to appear. They managed to win a wide free-kick from this pressure, but the danger passed.
Defoe worked himself another chance brilliantly, as he shifted his marker and turned to sting Benaglio’s hands. On the half time mark, Adam Johnson was causing trouble yet again as he made a defence-slicing run to play in Rooney. Rooney then went round the keeper, but took the ball too wide.
Again like against Bulgaria, England probably deserved to have increased their one goal margin by half time, but had not managed to. This could be something they will want to look into as against higher opposition they may get punished.
Glen Johnson had Benaglio scrapping to palm round his post as he cut in on his left foot as he likes to and hit a strong effort on the hour. Hart then started to look off form as he spilled a couple of easy takes, fortunately with no consequences. Seeing this, Switzerland started re-applying a little pressure. Frei managed to chop across a cross to no avail as no one got onto the end of it.
This strain was lifted as Lichtsteiner received his marching orders after a rash tackle on James Milner earned him his second yellow of the game. After an injury-stricken Defoe was replaced by Bent, England responded to this impetus change almost immediately. Steven Gerrard, who enjoyed a quieter game going forward than usual, played a wonderful through ball to Adam Johnson, with supreme coolness and confidence, Johnson then rounded the keeper and finished with his left foot to make it 2-0.
Despite the loss of a man and the concession of a goal, this was the moment youngster Shiqiri decided to produce the game’s piece of magic. 25 yards out from Jo Hart’s net, he decided to cut in to his left foot and let a rocket go, one that cannoned into the top corner of the England net and one that left Hart chanceless.
With the scores at 2-1, England wanted a goal to make sure of their victory. With four minutes to go, Shaun Wright-Phillips (who had replaced Rooney 5 minutes earlier) beat the offside trap with Bent waiting for the square back. Wright-Phillips failed to deliver a strong enough pass and delivered one that was instead intercepted.
Bent put Wright-Phillips’ mistake right with 2 minutes on the clock as he was played in by a good Ashley Cole ball and finished fiercely inside Benaglio’s near post.
England had secured another 3 points, and hold a 100% record in their qualifying group. It was a performance that Steven Gerrard summed up by saying “We just tore them apart and (after all his bad press) Wayne was terrific”. It was indeed good to see Rooney score after a year-long blank patch. This victory will instil yet more confidence into the team and the fans and hopefully will propel them along Group G.
No comments:
Post a Comment