Match Summary

England Team

Russia Team

    Match Report by Mike Payne

Without a doubt this England performance was one of the best under Steve McLaren's reign as manager and his team took a giant step towards the European Championship of 2008.  He was helped by two goals from a rejuvenated Michael Owen and a brilliant performance from Emile Heskey.

The first half was an even affair, possession wise, but the big difference on this night was in England's ability to take the chances that came their way.  Another player who had a big impact was Gareth Barry who dominated the central midfield.  England made a positive start and an early goal really settled the team and the home crowd.  It came in the seventh minute when Barry took a corner.  The ball came back out to him and his second cross found Owen, who had time and space to shoot home off the inside of a post.  The home players showed their obvious delight and three minutes later it could have been 2-0.  Heskey, a thorn in the Russian side all night, put in a shot, which rebounded off goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev.  Unfortunately for England Owen just lost his balance at the vital time as he tried to latch onto the loose ball.

It was not all England though and the Russians showed their pedigree on a number of occasions.  Paul Robinson was called into action to stop shots by Andrei Arshavin and Dmitri Sychev, and the visitor's approach play was impressive at times.  But, unusually for a Guss Hiddink side, the Russian defence looked less than secure and on 31 minutes England did score their second goal.  Again Heskey caused mayhem in the heart of the penalty area and his clever knock-down into the path of Owen gave the striker another opportunity to close in on Bobby Charlton's goalscoring record for England.  His fierce dipping drive brought Owen his 40^th International goal and Malafeev had no chance.

Although England were two goals up the Russians were far from finished and the defenders had to be on their toes throughout the rest of the half.  Arshavin was particularly dangerous and once, only a brilliant tackle by Barry prevented the Russian breaking through.  The visitors did have the ball in the net when Arshavin's cross found Konstantin Zvryanov who brilliantly turned and shot past Robinson.  As the Russians celebrated the Swedish referee indicated a handball by the scorer and the goal was ruled out.

The second half began with Sychev twice going close and there was still plenty for England to do.  But their players all stood up to be counted and the back four all played well, with everyone in the team working so hard, especially during a period of dominance from Russia in the middle of the half.  But when England teams play like this, with all eleven players pulling their weight, they are a match for anyone, and in the end it was the Russians who finally crumbled.

There were just six minutes to go when Owen's short pass found Rio Ferdinand, of all people, marauding into the Russian penalty area.  Ferdinand shot hard and the ball squirmed under Malafeev to clinch the result for England.  This was the sort of performance the fans love, lots of effort, good goals and an excellent win.  Rightly the cheers resounded around the ground as the players went off and the new Wembley Stadium had at last had a memorable England win to start a new list of games to remember.