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873 vs. Ukraine

Saturday, 28 March 2009
A Nationwide International Friendly Match

England 4 Slovakia 0 [1-0]
 

The National Stadium, Wembley, Brent, Greater London
Attendance:
85,512; Kick-off: 5.15pm GMT;
Live on Setanta Sports One (UK) -
Commentator: Jon Champion

England - Emile Heskey (four-yard tap-in 7 6:46), Wayne Rooney (seven-yard header 70 69:54, six-yard shot 90+2 91:38), Frank Lampard (ten-yard shot across goal 82 81:12).
Note: Lampard's goal was England's 500th at Wembley Stadium.
Match Summary
England Squad
Slovakia Squad
Results 2005-2010 Slovakia - Marek Sapara (77).

England kicked-off. 93 minutes (46 & 47).

 

Match Summary

 

Officials from Luxembourg

England

Type

Slovakia

Referee (red) - Alain Hamer
43 (10 December 1965), Stad Lëtzebuerg, FIFA-listed 1993;

Assistant Referees - Francois Mangen, 43 (12 October 1965) and Christian Holtgen, 41 (21 April 1967).

Fourth official - Andre Marriner, 38 (1 January 1971), Birmingham, England.
 
Lord Treisman, Sir Dave Richards & František Laurinec (Slovakian FA President), presented to the teams.
England had FIFA permission to remove the numbers on the front of the shirts and the shorts .

15 Goal Attempts 5
9 Attempts on Target 2
0 Hit Bar/Post 0
10 Corner Kicks Won 5
6 Offside Calls Against 0
5 Fouls Conceded 13
55.7% Possession 44.3%

England Team

 

Rank:

FIFA (11th March 2009) 9th
EFO ranking Group 2

ELO rating 6th
Colours: The 2009 home uniform - Plain white collared jerseys, plain white shorts, plain white socks. - no front shirt or short numbers
Capt: John Terry, twentieth captaincy Manager: Fabio Capello, 62 (18 June 1946), appointed 14 December 2007, effective 7 January 2008, 
12th match, W 9 - D 1 - L 2 - F 29 - A 10.
England Lineup
1 James, David B., off 46th min. 38 1 August 1970 G Portsmouth FC 47 39 ᵍᵃ
2 Johnson, Glen M. 24 23 August 1984 RB Portsmouth FC 12 0
3 Cole, Ashley 28 20 December 1980 LB Chelsea FC 70 0
4 Barry, Gareth 28 23 February 1981 CM Aston Villa FC 28 1
5 Upson, Matthew J. 29 18 April 1979 CD West Ham United FC 14 1
6 Terry, John G. 28 7 December 1980 CD Chelsea FC 50 5
7 Lennon, Aaron J., off 46th min. 21 16 April 1987 RM Tottenham Hotspur FC 10 0
8
Lampard, Frank J. 30 20 June 1978 CM Chelsea FC 68 14
9
Heskey, Emile W.I., injured off 15th min. 31 11 January 1978 F Aston Villa FC 52 6
10
Rooney, Wayne M. 23 24 October 1985 F Manchester United FC 49 20
the 328th (195th post-war) brace scored the 18th & third youngest player to score twenty England goals
11 Gerrard, Steven G., off 46th min. 28 30 May 1980 LM Liverpool FC 71 14
England Substitutes
scoreline: England 1 Slovakia 0
19 Cole, Carlton M., on 15th min. for Heskey, injured off 35th min. 25 12 November 1983 F West Ham United FC 2 0
20 Crouch, Peter J., on 35th min. for C.Cole, off 74th min. 28 30 January 1981 F Portsmouth FC 32 14
17 Beckham, David R.J., on 46th min. for Lennon 33 2 May 1975 M AC Milan, Italy, on loan from LA Galaxy, United States 109 17
21 Foster, Ben A., on 46th min. for James 25 3 April 1983 G Manchester United FC 2 1ᵍᵃ
18 Downing, Stewart, on 46th min. for Gerrard 24 22 July 1984 M Middlesbrough FC 23 0
scoreline: England 2 Slovakia 0
16 Carrick, Michael, on 74th min for Crouch 27 28 July 1981 M Manchester United FC 17 0
result: England 4 Slovakia 0
unused substitutes: 12-Rob Green, 13-Phil Jagielka, 14-Joleon Lescott, 15-Leighton Baines.
team notes: Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry have now each played in a record ten of the eleven home matches at the new National Stadium. Joe Cole has nine.
Wayne Rooney's two goals puts him on five at the new Stadium, make him the new top scorer.
Coach Fabio Capello played for Italy against England in June (scoring one) and November 1973 (scoring another), and in May and November 1976.
 
4-4-2 James (Foster) -
Johnson, Upson, Terry,
A.Cole -
Lennon
(Beckham), Lampard, Barry, Gerrard (Downing) -
Heskey
(C.Cole (Crouch (Carrick))), Rooney.

Averages (Starting XI):

Age 28.0 Appearances/Goals 42.8 5.7

 

Slovakia Team

 

Rank:

FIFA (11th March 2009) 53rd
EFO ranking n/a

ELO rating 57th
Colours: Made by Adidas - Blue crew neck jerseys with white sleeves/side panel, blue collar/sleeve panel with white Adidas sleeve trim, blue shorts with white/red/blue Adidas side trim and white hem, blue socks.
Capt: Robert Vittek,
Miroslav Karhan for the second half.
Manager: Vladimir Weiss, 44 (22 September 1964), appointed 11 March 2008;
9th match, W 4 - D 0 - L 5 - F 16 - A 17;
Slovakia Lineup
1 Senecký, Štefan 26 6 January 1980 G Ankara SAŞ, Turkey 12 0
2 Pekarik, Peter 22 30 October 1986 RB VfL Wolfsburg GmbH, Germany 9 0
3 Škrteľ, Martin 24 15 December 1984 CD Liverpool FC, England 31 5
4 Čech, Marek, off 46th min. 26 26 January 1983 LB West Bromwich Albion FC, England 34 3
5 Zabavník, Radoslav 28 16 September 1980 DM AA Kadyrov RFC Terek Grozny, Russia 34 1
6 Karhan, Miroslav, off 83rd min. 32 21 June 1976 DM 1. SV Mainz 05, Germany 89 13
7 Šesták, Stanislav, off 72nd min. 26 16 December 1982 RM VfL Bochum 1848, Germany 22 6
8 Kozák, Ján, off 62nd min. 28 22 April 1980 CM ŠK Slovan Bratislava 16 1
17 Hamšík, Marek, off 79th min. 27 27 July 1987 LM SSC Napoli, Italy 21 6
21 Valachovič, Jozef 33 12 July 1975 CD ŠK Slovan Bratislava 33 1
11 Vittek, Róbert, off 46th min. 26 1 April 1982 CF Lille Olympique SC, France 60 17
Slovakia Substitutes
scoreline: England 1 Slovakia 0
13 Hološko, Filip, on 46th min. for Čech 25 17 January 1984 F Beşiktaş JK, Turkey 32 4
18 Jendrišek, Erik, on 46th min. for Vittek 22 26 October 1986 F 1. FC Kaiserslautern VfL, Germany 4 1
10 Sapara, Marek, on 62nd min. for Kozák 26 31 July 1982 M Rosenborg BK, Norway 19 2
Sapara was cautioned in the 77th min for Unsporting Behaviour, for a late challenge on Stewart Downing.
scoreline: England 2 Slovakia 0
14 Jakubko, Martin, on 72nd min. for Šesták 31 26 February 1980 F FK Moscow, Russia 18 3
9 Mintál, Marek, on 79th min. for Hamšík 31 2 September 1977 F 1. FC Nürnberg VfL, Germany 45 14
scoreline: England 3 Slovakia 0
16 Štrba, Zdeno, on 83rd min. for Karhan 32 9 June 1976 M MŠK Zilina 12 0
result: England 4 Slovakia 0
unused substitutes: 12-Ján Mucha, 15-Roman Kratochvíl, 19-Marián Čišovský, 22-Martin Dobrotka, 23-Branislev Obzera, 25-Ľuboš Kamenár.
Coach Vladimir Weiss played for Czechoslovakia as a substitute against England in the April 1990 friendly, also at Wembley.
 
4-2-3-1 Senecký -
Pekarik, Škrteľ, Valachovič, Čech
(Hološko) -
Zabavn
ák, Karhan
(Štrba) -
Šesták
(Jakubko), Kozák (Sapara),
Hamšík (Mintál) -
Vittek
(Jendrišek).

Averages (Starting XI):

Age 27.1 Appearances/Goals 32.8 4.8

 

    Match Report by Mike Payne

This warm-up friendly match was supposed to give manager Fabio Capello a chance to try a few striking options.  It did, but not quite in the way he expected.  England were soon in command of the game, scoring their first goal after just seven minutes.  Wayne Rooney was the instigator with a fine pass to Steven Gerrard who had made one of his typical bursts into the penalty area.  After showing lovely control he then crossed for Emile Heskey to beat Martin Škrtel to the ball and score.  Heskey should have scored again two minutes later but headed Rooney's cross over the bar.

Fourteen minutes had passed when Heskey became the night's first casualty when he had to go off with muscle cramp.  On came Carlton Cole and he was given a chance by another piece of Gerrard power play but he overstretched and injured his groin.  He had only been on for half an hour and he too had to be replaced, this time by Peter Crouch.

The early goal had sparked Slovakia into life and David James had to be alert to make good saves from Miroslav Karhan and Robert Vittek.  But England missed other chances too, notably when Rooney shot over from a good position just before the break.  Aaron Lennon's pace was causing the visitors problems, but once again the final ball from the Tottenham winger was a cause for concern.  Capello had another re-think at the break and brought on David Beckham for his 109th cap, thus breaking Bobby Moore's outfield player's record appearance total.  Ben Foster and Stewart Downing also came on, with James, Lennon and Gerrard going off.  All these changes did nothing for England's continuity or preparations for the Ukraine game and Slovakia almost scored when Erik Jendrisek, yet another substitution, fired a shot into the side netting after John Terry's mistake.  Terry then went up the other end and got a touch on a Crouch goalbound shot, only to find himself given offside, thus depriving Crouch and England a goal.

Beckham's influence then began to take a hold on the game.  Terry shot wide from one of his crosses, but in the 70th minute, when Beckham collected a Gareth Barry mishit, this time the cross was perfect for Rooney to score with an easy header.  The game was now safe and England continued to press forward.  Unbelievably for the manager though, yet another forward had to limp off with an injury as Crouch took a knock.  His replacement, Michael Carrick, was soon in the action and eight minutes from the end he threaded a lovely pass through to Frank Lampard and it was 3-0.

In the last minute England set the seal on the win when Lampard turned provider to set up Rooney for number four.  Rooney had been outstanding and pulled the Slovakian defence all over the place with his darting runs and pace.  His movement with Gerrard was superb and it was great to watch.  There was no doubt that England deserved to win, and at times they were playing within themselves.  Saving themselves perhaps for the harder battles ahead.

Source Notes

BBC Sport
TheFA.com
SkySports.com
Mike Payne - football historian and contributor
Marcel Hoefsmit - friend and contributor

____________________

CG