World Cup qual. - England see off Kazakhstan

Eurosport - Mon, 13 Oct 12:37:00 2008

England beat Kazakhstan 5-1 in a World Cup Group 6 qualifier at Wembley but Fabio Capello's side produced a poor display and were humiliated when the visitors scored.

Wayne Rooney found the net twice as England secured the third straight win of their bid to reach South Africa in 2010, but Italian Capello must reflect on a largely listless, complacent performance.

After a goalless first half, Rio Ferdinand headed England ahead on 52 minutes before Alexandr Kuchma's own-goal made it two.

Zhambyl Kukeyev, astonishingly, pulled one back on 68 minutes after a mind-boggling error by Ashley Cole, before Rooney made the result safe with a glancing header and a close-range tap-in. Subsitute Jermain Defoe added a fifth late on.

If England turned a corner when they beat Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb, they slammed the car into reverse and went back where they came from with this performance.

In Zagreb, England were like dervishes, snapping into tackles and attacking with speed and verve.

This was as flat a performance as England have produced under any of their last three managers - totally devoid of urgency, dynamism or finesse for 70 minutes.

Only Theo Walcott posed an English threat in the first half; not afraid to turn on his pace to get behind Kazakh left-back Alexandr Kirov.

However, other than in the third minute when he found Emile Heskey, whose effort was blocked, the Kazakh penalty area was notable for the almost complete absence of white shirts.

Capello partially rectified the situation at half-time when he brought Shaun Wright-Phillips on for Gareth Barry.

Although it remains a mystery why anyone would bank on a Frank Lampard-Steven Gerrard central midfield partnership after so many years of failure.

Early in the second half, left-back Cole found himself caught woefully out of position early in the second half, allowing Sabyrkhan Ibrayev to cross from the right.

Luckily for England, Sergey Ostapenko failed to get hold of his downward header and the otherwise excellent debutant Tanat Nusserbayev skied the rebound, but it was the best chance of the first 50 minutes for either side.

Three minutes later relief coursed around Wembley when Ferdinand headed England in front thanks to some poor defending from the visitors.

Lampard curled in a routine corner from the left, Alexandr Mokin missed his punch and Ferdinand met the ball with a firm header without even jumping.

Far from inspiring England to greater things, the goal encouraged yet more complacency and uncertainty.

On the hour mark, Lampard played a corner to Gerrard at the edge of the box. Had he been playing for Liverpool, Gerrard would have smashed the ball into the top corner without thinking. But this is England, and he switched feet several times before losing possession in abject fashion.

To their credit, England did create a second goal on 64 minutes - again from a Lampard set piece - as Kuchma glanced Lampard's free-kick into the top-left corner of his own net with unfortunate aplomb.

Then Cole produced his party piece, lobbing a showy, reckless pass across the face of the English defence. Kukeyev could hardly believe his luck as he ran onto the ball, steadied himself and fired into the bottom-left corner.

As England threatened to fall apart, Rooney finally asserted himself. With 15 minutes remaining he found himself alone in the penalty box and headed a Wes Brown corner precisely into the corner.

Then, as time ran down, he pounced after Kazakhstan failed to deal with a free-kick delivery from David Beckham.

There was still time for Jermain Defoe to add further gloss to the scoreline, running through alone and slotting past Mokin from the edge of the box.

Ukraine 0-0 Croatia

England received another boost when Ukraine and Croatia cancelled each other out in a drab qualifier in Kiev.

Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko's men had won their opening two encounters but now sit two points behind Fabio Capello's men.

The result leaves top-seeded Croatia five points off the top of the table, although they can expect maximum points when they play Andorra on Wednesday.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 226 - 245 of 245

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  1. Against a team like Kasakastan i would have preferred if DEFOE was included from the beginning. HE'S got pace good dribbler and at the moment he is playing with confidence.WELL this win should fill England with confidence for the next game.

    From surgent, on Sun 12 Oct 9:44PM

  2. No wonder England are seeded better than Scotland!!.. Since when was Kazakhstan a major threat in the footballing world?.. Let me see, now... Scotland v's Norway or England v's Kazakhstan??.. Which will be the more exciting match to watch?? Tough call, eh??

    From Singin' Ginger!!, on Sun 12 Oct 9:19PM

  3. You @#$% are never happy

    From True_Blue, on Sun 12 Oct 7:45PM

  4. I AND THOUSANDS MORE HAVE NO INTREST IN INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL AND THE FOOTBALL AUTHORITIES ARE KIDDING THEMSELVES IF THINK THE MAJORITY OF FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS GIVE A T..S ITS JUST AN INCONVIENIENT DISTRACTION FROM THE PREMIERSHIP, GET A GRIP.

    From STEPHEN, on Sun 12 Oct 6:42PM

  5. Time to understand that England have quality individuals, we fail when the emphasis is placed on these guys to see us through. Mix in the team, formation used,and without doubt desire to want to play for the national squad are the problems the Manager needs to overcome. We missed the battle cry from Terry, and the sharpness and bite in midfield, however given time and SUPPORT I see a brighter future for the team than I have for several seasons.

    From beverleygunton@..., on Sun 12 Oct 1:58PM

  6. What the hell in the world that you English moron fans with a 5-1 result? Capello is doing a good job...booing your own player isn't a smart thign to do.

    From Minh, on Sun 12 Oct 1:31PM

  7. Most of the time it wil be very hard to play brilliant football when a strong team plays a weak team becoz weak team wil raise their game to 120% n strong team only play 70%....in the first half england played 60% becoz they underestimated the khazahks they think the can score 3-4 goals easily...if u watch the game u know it...in the 2nd half u can see england raised their game after realize the khazahks were stronger than they thought n after the final whistle the came out on top wit brilliant 5-1 demolition...after 1st half england gave their suppoters 5 goals to make them jumped out from their seat n that shud be a gud thing...3 is enof for me....keep up the gud work england!

    From mustahil, on Sun 12 Oct 1:19PM

  8. Why has Darren Pattinson been overlooked again?
    Come on the Dazza

    From David, on Sun 12 Oct 1:01PM

  9. Guy D in post nr 230....get a life son!!!

    From Dale D, on Sun 12 Oct 12:47PM

  10. Some of the comments made on here must surely be in jest. Wasnt a great performance but who cares! 5-1 is still a good win. The Lampard bashing is a joke. Fans need to see beyond the clubs players work for. He set up two of the goals! for some people if Frank scored a hat-trick he'd still be ridiculed. When England plays we should be behind ALL the players, the Cole incident (Booing) is an embarassement to all things English. Would those fans be happy playing brilliant football and not qualifying? its all about topping the group isnt it?

    From pfrisch@..., on Sun 12 Oct 12:43PM

  11. Les O, comment 234: "once they play a proper team it will be back to getting arse kicked as usual"

    Croatia 1-4 England. Idiot.

    From godmachine78, on Sun 12 Oct 12:37PM

  12. just grow up there are more important things than petty nationalism. all the decent football is played in the premier club competitions because that's where the best players are blended into a coherent team. all natinal squads are part-time because they spend the majority of their working football lives in the club structure. we all live on the same planet (alhough we've endangered our future on it with our greed and destructive habits) look at the earth from space there are no national boundaries. just grow up.

    From lanegold@..., on Sun 12 Oct 12:15PM

  13. Having just seen the news article with rio (drugs cheat) Ferdinand. I do feel asahmed to be an england fan and dare to boo Ashley (Over rated obscenely paid wife cheating) Cole for a pass that was so poor it would have caused concern in a childrens playground. What is the air like on planet RIO? Most of those england players are not fit to lace the boots of david beckham. If you earn £120,000 a week you should be able to pass better than a pub player and be man enough to take the consequences if you can't.

    From WEMs Rule, on Sun 12 Oct 12:13PM

  14. struggled against a part time team
    even rooney managed to score!
    say no more
    once they play a proper team it will be back to getting arse kicked as usual

    From Les O, on Sun 12 Oct 12:00PM

  15. What do you english morons want? 5-1 not good enough? slagging A Cole off for making one mistake!!! Get a grip; the result was good, 85% share of the ball is in my books complete domination of the game; i still think Lampard and Gerrard cannot be on the pitch together, sacrificing Barry to keep both of them on the pitch is an indication to me that Fabio has made his mind up as well. You will not see Lamps and SG on at the same time in the future, add to that the return of Hargreaves and Carrick. Walcot is one of the stars who will take England to the top but he is a long way from being that player yet; he needs to be nurtured as his club manager is doing. Will you be in SA in 2010? of course you will..

    From Fjk, on Sun 12 Oct 11:53AM

  16. Englands lack of confidence came through in the first half ,but when the formation was changed to a 4-4-2 and the Kazaks began to tire the English took advantage ,I think not enough credit is being given to Kazakastan ,they were very well organised,and quick they had a game plan ,get men behind the ball and try and hit the English on the break ,It really only fell apart when they tired

    From Kelly E, on Sun 12 Oct 11:53AM

  17. So because England won 1 game when Gerrard didn't play he should be dropped what has Frank done for England in the last couple of years ? Stevie had a poor game yesterday but at least he didn't go missing like Frank if it wasn't for Frank taking corners you wouldn't have known he was on the pitch.Stevie is not a natural playmaker but he got the game by the scruff of the neck and England won 5-1 i say put Hargreaves or Carrick in when fit and let Gerrard off the leash instead of making him sit,did Frank even track back once the lazy ba*tard

    From alan.darlow, on Sun 12 Oct 11:46AM

  18. England will never win anything. It`s not just Wembley every stadium is full of thick-headed morons. English football fans are evil.

    From guy d, on Sun 12 Oct 11:37AM

  19. ENGLAND SHIRTS £9.99 AT JJB SPORTS,SCOTTISH AND WELSH SHIRTS BUY NOTHING AND GET ONE FREE.HA HA HA.

    From steveyboy1954, on Sun 12 Oct 11:36AM

  20. I thought Beckham changed the game when he came on... What he lacks in pace, he makes up for in touch and passing and sheer quality!

    Was a shame to see Cole being boo'd... WTF do people pay for tickets for and then boo people? So he made a mistake... Not the first time it's happened!

    From Jay, on Sun 12 Oct 11:35AM
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