World Cup qual - Capello won't be drawn

Eurosport - Thu, 11 Jun 13:18:00 2009

Italian Fabio Capello refused to speculate on England's World Cup chances following their 6-0 demolition of Andorra, despite the obvious improvement in the 16 months since his first match in charge.

2009 England Fabio Capello - 0

Victory maintained England's perfect record in Group Six with seven wins from seven matches, meaning they only need three points from their last three qualifiers to ensure their place in next year's finals in South Africa.

It would need a monumental collapse of form for England not to reach the finals but still Capello would not be drawn.

"It is too far away," he said. "But tonight we were very strong. We created two chances to score before Wayne Rooney's first goal. Always when you play against a team that isn't strong you have to win the ball back and we did this."

Rooney scored twice to take his international tally to 24 and become the first player since Gary Lineker in 1990-91 to score 10 competitive goals in a season for England.

Jermain Defoe also scored twice with Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch scoring one each.

The improvement over England's opening qualifier against Andorra in Barcelona last September was also evident.

Then, they failed to score until the second half in a 2-0 win but on Wednesday they were 3-0 up by half-time.

"We did not start so well against Andorra and we suffered," he said. "We couldn't score in the first half but, step by step we have moved on and improved."

Skipper John Terry praised David Beckham after the 34-year-old made his 100th start for England and won his 112th cap.

"Some of his passes were so good, they were some of the best I have ever seen," said Terry, who added that the team wanted to give the fans who battled through a Tube strike something to celebrate.

"I am delighted he is in the team and I am sure the fans who got here despite the Tube strike loved it."

Reuters

Comment 1 - 14 of 34

Sort comments by: Most recent

  1. Am a Cameroonian Mighty RED fan and a perfect England­ fan for the world cup(hey dont question my Cameroonian­ patriotism nor my Pan-Africanism).I want England to get­ the SA Worldcup,so this is my proposal for Fabio:
    1)We­ need to have at least two friendlies with African­ countries say Nigeria,Ivory Coast etc to play under hot­ climate say 3pm to see if our lads can resist the­ sweats and heat in 90mins.(Remember next year is­ SA)
    2)To sideline critics,lets have a friendly against­ Spain and Italy.
    3)Lets cross the globe and fly to­ Latin America and have a friendly with Chile, Peru or­ Ecuador that have just beaten Argentina.
    4)If time­ permits we can cross over to Asia and test ourselves­ with Japan or Singapore.
    WITH THESE WE CAN REALLY­ ASSESS OURSELVES IF WE ARE DOING WELL IN OTHER CLIMATIC­ CONDITIONS LIKE ADVERSE TEMP, HIGH LATITUDE ETC.
    THANKS­ FABIO AND SALUT SG AND THE REST OF THE ENTIRE ENGLISH­ TEAM

    From Michael, on Thu 11 Jun 8:30AM

  2. Here we off again. The press goes crazy because England­ beat ANDORRA and KAHZAKSTAN. Has the press forgotten­ conveniently, that England against a proper team like­ Spain recently got well beaten!! Why all this hype? It­ only creates false hope. England will still struggle­ against good teams!!

    From Uli W, on Thu 11 Jun 7:42AM

  3. Now all England hails San Fabio!!! Thats real funny!!

    From dante, on Thu 11 Jun 6:29AM
  4. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    to Paul11580 You mean winning a world trophy in­ throwing darts! England will never win another world­ cup, one "ghost" cup its enough..

    From dante, on Thu 11 Jun 6:24AM

  5. to Karlg: What happen man! From the very beginning­ when Fabio Capello was appointed you did not like the­ Italian among all the english fans, now all England­ includind the english press have almost made Fabio­ Capello a candidate to the Sainthood, but thats england­ I guess!

    From dante, on Thu 11 Jun 6:18AM

  6. C'mon people, it's only ANDORRA....

    Most­ impressive match of the Capello era is still the 4-1­ win away in Croatia. Let's hope for more of those­ sort of results against teams of that calibre.

    From Han Wei, on Thu 11 Jun 5:47AM

  7. comment 7 said it all... england favorites to win the­ world cup? lol.... dream on~

    From Dada BRZ, on Thu 11 Jun 3:57AM
  8. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Recently, I discovered a hot place -- Mixedmingle Co m­ -- where many sexy singles who like sports and chatting­ there. I'm an open minded girl from US, I also like­ discuss sports and love with handsome guys on it.

    From daivihenry06, on Thu 11 Jun 2:26AM

  9. Karl G:

    England are not favourites for South Africa.­ They are fourth favourites behind Brazil, Spain And­ Argentina.

    James D:

    I think Rooney has never been­ given the continental limelight to be classed as the­ world's best but i certainly agree with you, he is­ up there with the rest of them.

    England still have a­ long way to go, it's ok for everyone to say that we­ played fantastic against Andorra but in all­ seriousness, it was only Andorra. They are ranked 196th­ in the world out of about 206 so i think that 6 - 0 is­ the minimum scoreline a team like England should­ achieve.
    And yes, England did have a fairly easy group­ so it should be no suprise to anyone that a team with­ the players and staff England have that they win seven­ games from seven and lead their qualifying group.

    I­ think thats enough from me so i'll stop but not­ before saying one more thing:

    Come On England, Do Us­ All Proud!!!

    From paul11580, on Thu 11 Jun 2:20AM

  10. "This is the best England team since '66. It­ is also­ the best team in the world at the moment.­ England are­ favourites for South Africa and we should­ win it. We­ should also not get carried away."­

    Are you on drugs my good man? This is not the best­ team since '66 and it's certainly not the best­ in the World. We're never going to be favorites to­ win a World Cup. But your right we shouldn't get­ carried away, cause we're @#$%. But it seems to me,­ you've already got carried away!!!

    From Karl G, on Thu 11 Jun 1:48AM
  11. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    This is the best England team since '66. It is also­ the best team in the world at the moment. England are­ favourites for South Africa and we should win it. We­ should also not get carried away.

    From James D, on Thu 11 Jun 1:37AM

  12. The England of now compared to England aiming for Euro­ 2008 has improved a lot! 8 straight wins that is­ something that I have never seen of an England team.­ Capello is the making of something BIG for England.

    From Ryan, on Thu 11 Jun 12:56AM

  13. Let's not get carried away. It was just Andorra.­ But it was a great result. Let's keep looking­ forward boys! Capello has the right mind-set

    From MilesA, on Thu 11 Jun 12:55AM

  14. It is clear now that Rooney is one of the best, if not­ the best, players in the world. You can take your­ Messis, Iniestas, Ronaldos, Xavis, Torreses but Rooney,­ if it were not for the stifling presence of Ronaldo in­ the United team, would be head, shoulders, knees and­ toes above the lot!

    From James D, on Thu 11 Jun 12:47AM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account