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| It's Wembley, it's Saturday, it's 4.45?! It's football time! |
So the first England game on a Saturday afternoon at Wembley for ages, nice 3pm kick off then? No, not at all. The Derby at Epsom (or something) was this weekend so kick-off was moved to the obvious time slot of quarter to five. Right... Despite the odd kick-off time there was a good turn out for this fairly important qualifier. With Montenegro taking on Bulgaria later on the Saturday night, England needed a result to keep control of the group. Thankfully in search of this both Rooney and Gareth "inanimate carbon rod" Barry were missing through suspension and being colossally crap respectively.
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| The Swiss pressure England |
England started with a flourish they were unable to continue as Glen Johnson did well to meet a corner, only to see the Swiss shot stopper keep it out. The Swiss were finding acres of space inside the English half and were trying their hardest to punish the Three Lions. Derdiyok, Inler and Shaqiri all tested Hart before England could muster a response which, again, came from a corner. Ferdinand burst past his marker to flick the ball narrowly over the bar. This was only a flash in the pan though as the Swiss capitalized on their superb pressure. England conceded a free-kick on the edge of the box and then demonstrated a shocking inability to defend set pieces. Barnetta swang the ball over the helpless Ferdinand, past a statuesque Hart and into the far corner. Three minutes later, another free-kick, more defensive ineptitude and another goal. It was Barnetta again and this time the cross was aimed at the near post. Hart may as well have been asleep as all he could manage was to force the ball over the line after it flashed through a paper-like wall.
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| Barnetta celebrates his second first goal. |
2-0 down with half an hour gone and all the entertainment was coming from the Swiss. If they were to get anything from this England were going to have to pull something out of the bag soon. In the end they didn't need to, Djourou did it for them. Demonstrating the sort of defending that has endeared him to the Arsenal faithful he put in what could be loosely called a challenge on Wilshere, conceded a penalty and was lucky not to be sent off. Lampard duly put the ball away and gave England a half-time life-line. Life-line or not Wembley was not impressed and the players were washed off the playing surface by a tide of boos.
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| England get back in the game. Thanks, Djourou. |
Capello responded by taking off the goal scorer in favour of Ashley Young, who'd strangely lost out on a starting wing place to Walcott and Milner. The questions over Young's omission were amplified when, within six minutes, Baines played in Young for the Villa front man to finish neatly into the far corner. At 2-2, with a better balance, England took charge. Bent first had a good shot saved and then made a miss which defies any description; the word "shocking" doesn't quite cover it. Imagine finding out that you've somehow, miraculously, managed to pull Cheryl Cole, Kelly Brook and Scarlett Johansson; whilst simultaneously finding out that you've become a multi-billionaire and being struck by lightening for the third time in minute. That goes some way to describing how shocking this miss was.
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| A corner with two minutes left? Time to leave... |
Capello will have mixed feelings about Young nearly grabbing the winner, it would be a boost to win but it would have made him look more of a tit than he already does for leaving Young out in the first place. In the dying minutes both sides could have won it. Mehmedi managed to beat Joe Hart but not the post for the Swiss. At the other end Downing did what Downing does, fail in every possible way. With the last kick of the game he, sadly unsurprisingly, failed to get anything meaningful on a shot which dribbled into the side netting. Much like the rest of my season, close but no cigar. It shows just how far England have fallen that the Swiss press are baying for the blood of their manager for failing to win from 2-0 up. Not only that but England were forced to change their system to deal with the Swiss pressure and we were relying on Bulgaria to help us out, which they did; thanks.
So that's the end of my season. 65 games, 24 new grounds, a whole lot of goals and a hell of a lot of rail travel. Was it worth it? Course it was!
See you in pre-season.
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