So, have you recovered yet? No, me neither. Yesterday night's game saw England take on a Sweden team of a reasonable pedigree with Premiership experienced players in Andreas Isaksson, Seb Larsson, Anders Svensson, Johan Elmander, Olof Mellberg, Jonas & Martin Olsson and the class of talismanic captain and striker in Zlatan Ibrahimovic; however you look at it, this is a tricky game but is one England should expect to win.
It started off well and England took a 1 - 0 lead with their pony-tailed striker Andy Carroll climbing above Olof Mellberg to send England into the lead and the whole country in raptures. After half-time the game took a shocking turn as Glen Johnson scored an unfortunate own goal and England's hopefully momentary frailty in dealing with set-pieces was exploited as Mellberg rose to meet Larsson's cross and power a header into the England goal.
England at this point thought, as a whole, 'here we go again'.. and don't say you didn't because everyone's optimism after the France result seemed to diminish as we stared at a scoreline reading England 1 - 2 Sweden. Cries to bring off James Milner were echoed across the country and the people in the venue I was at seemed to shout it so loud Roy Hodgson himself probably heard it. Theo Walcott entered the fray for Milner and made almost an instant impact, thundering a swerving volley past Isaksson from outside the area. Then 14 minutes later came the moment of genius from Danny Welbeck (of course he meant it) which sent England into delirium; so much delirium that pint upon pint were thrown into the air. England were then able to shut the game out, to the relief of everyone.
The game for England in the first half seemed relatively comfortable with solid defending and hard-work in retrieving the ball culminating in a half-time lead, Carroll's first start in the Euro's and his audition to play alongside Wayne Rooney on his return went well with Carroll doing what he was assigned and grasping the chance with both hands, causing the Swedes trouble with his height, scoring a goal and chasing down defenders and Carroll carried on his end of season form with another fine display which will have also done wonders for his confidence. Welbeck yet again impressed, grabbing a goal and continuing from his hard-working display against France. Ashley Young was switched to the left wing as Carroll came in for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and slotted upfront alongside Welbeck and Young gave a performance we came to expect from him, causing trouble with his pace and working hard to support Ashley Cole in defence. Hopefully Walcott's injury worry isn't serious and he can recover because his impact in the game will have given him some confidence and whether he will be used as an impact sub or from the off is probably yet to be decided but either way he looks as if he can do some damage.
During the second half, everyone's confidence from set-pieces had disappeared as we conceded two goals from two free-kicks, but after these blips England went back again to being solid at getting rid of crosses as Sweden didn't really cause much trouble after England took a 3 - 2 lead.
In the Ukraine game I expect to see Wayne Rooney come into the team and maybe a couple of other changes to be made but at least where we finish in the group is in our hands.
And wasn't it quality seeing Ibra's face after the full time whistle?
No comments:
Post a Comment