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England 2 - 1 Switzerland

February 6, 2008

Fabio Capellos first game in charge as England manager ended in a 2-1 win over Switzerland. Fabio changed things about, leaving out Owen and Hargreaves from the starting line up.

He went with a 4-1-4-1 formation, David James in goal, a back four of A Cole, Upson, Ferdinand, Brown. Gareth Barry played in front of the back four. The 4 in the midfield were J Cole, Gerrard, Jenas, Bentley and Rooney upfront.

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The opening moments of the match wasn’t great with both sides packing the midfield, it was hard for England to break, Joe Cole as ever looked lively on the left, feeding Rooney who had a one-on-one saved by Benaglio.

It took a while but after some neat build up play from Joe Cole on the wing Jermaine Jenas was able to tap in from 5 yards for his first international goal. It wasn’t a convincing first half with most of the players still trying to work out the new system.

The second half was better with a relaxed England creating plenty of chances, the best falling to Rooney and Jenas.

The first subs came on the 56 minute, with little and large coming on, Wright-Phillips and Peter Crouch, they replaced the goal scorer Jermaine Jenas and Joe Cole.

But the sub seemed to be the downfall as a minute later on his debut Derdiyok slotted past David James to make it 1-1.

It didn’t stay 1-1 for long, a long ball was flicked on by Crouch, Gerrard crossed for Wright-Phillips to tap in. A classic English long ball goal.

Wayne Bridge replaced Ashley Cole who was rubbish, and Gareth Barry who played well was replaced by Owen Hargreaves. As the game went on it opened up a little with England controlling the game with long periods of possessions.

Man of the match Wayne Rooney was replaced by Ashley Young.

Overall a pleasing first match for Mr Capello, we kept the ball well and created chances but didn’t manage to extend the lead. Some will question the decision not to play Michael Owen who is a proven goal scorer at international level. Rooney, Bentey and Joe Cole the pick of the players.

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Written by JPC · Filed Under England, Internationals 


Comments

2 Responses to “England 2 - 1 Switzerland”

  1. singy on February 7th, 2008 12:07 pm

    How you couldn’t name Bentley as man of the match I’ll never know. And I have no idea how Gerrard got it officially.

  2. frank sidebottom on February 7th, 2008 8:12 pm

    same old england. a first game for a manager should produce top performances from the players. if thats the top performance, were doomed!!!!

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