New Delhi: England concluded their World Cup qualifying campaign with a strong result that perhaps glossed over an otherwise average performance.
Their visiting opposition, Belarus, showed some signs of positive football, with good passages of pass-and-move, but lacked the end produce to really test Fabio Capello's rear-guard.
Whiffs of a walkover began in the fourth minute, when Gareth Barry fed Gabriel Agbonlahor with a well-weighted through-ball that sparked the pacey forward into penetrating the opposition box.
His cut-back pass found a retreating Peter Crouch whose legs seemed to fall away from him but the wrong-footed Belarus goalkeeper, Zhevnov, was helpless as he watched the ball trickle over his line.
A large passage of uninspiring play transpired for the English, as Belarus - under the instruction of Bernd Strange who wanted his side to play positively under the scrutinising eyes of the watching world - aimed to pass the ball out of defence, and play on the floor football. The visitors, though, only thrice managed to properly test Ben Foster.
England's makeshift XI offered Fabio Capello a chance to see how his fringe players would perform in a competitive environment, but many underwhelmed. Glen Johnson - who is widely considered a starter under the Italian tactician - showed only one encouraging sign when he interlinked well with Aaron Lennon on the right moments before the mid-game whistle
Shaun Wright-Phillips, meanwhile, was shunted to the left hand side, but drifted inside, not making as much use of the wide areas as his mirroring winger, Lennon. The diminutive Manchester City starlet would have given Capello something to think about with England's second.
Agbonlahor forced the Belarus defence into conceding a corner. The introduction of David Beckham saw the LA Galaxy man take control of dead ball situations and the veteran midfielder's impact was almost immediate as he played a short corner into the path of Wright-Phillips who, taking advantage of not being closed down swiftly, shot opportunistically and saw his strike ripple into the net after Zhevnov failed to divert the ball clear.
Sixteen minutes later and the Three Lions added the third. Carlton Cole, onside, began to diagonally cut toward the penalty area and sent a powerfully-hit effort goal-ward. The rebounded effort fell into the path of Peter Crouch, who never halted his run, and that willingness was rewarded as a simple tap-in guaranteed his brace.
The last few minutes could have produced a fourth and a fifth goal, but James Milner and Beckham were denied by the right and the left post, respectively.
A fairly routine win for England, but Capello, clearly animated, produced the biggest smile of the qualification process.
Comments
0 comment