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 166 - 185 of 245

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  1. A 5-1 win should be applauded by England fans! Remember that England is just a small piece of land on a small island playing in a big world full of very good teams.

    From Expro, on Sun 12 Oct 3:56AM

  2. Do you know that England is one of the ONLY three teams that from three games they got 9 points????? Sooooo COME ON ENGLAND KEEP IT UP!!!!

    From waynecamilleri83, on Sun 12 Oct 3:23AM

  3. From insert_funny_name_here:
    Yeah, you sound like you've been on the booze too; your "analysis" is about as bright as you are. GET BEHIND YOUR TEAM and be thankful they're winning their games, instead of losing them. They weren't "useless" tonight; they had possession for at least 70% of the first half and scored 5, (let me repeat that in case it doesn't sink in to your thick skull ) 5, that's FIVE goals, so stop moaning like a whimp and GET BEHIND YOUR TEAM. We're going to the next World Cup as group leaders and we're going to WIN, WIN, WIN!

    From Karadekoolaid, on Sun 12 Oct 3:13AM

  4. To Comment 182,

    " France (World cup winners) couldn't beat Rumania; Italy could only manage a boring 0-0 draw against Bulgaria; Germany just beat Russia, thanks to the post "

    Romania are a half decent team with an excellent defence (and the French team isn't exactly crowded with World Cup Winners anymore, in case you didn't notice), Bulgaria are ranked 15th in the World while Russia are at 9............. Not exactly teams Italy and Germany expect to beat by a cricket score is it?

    If you want England to play like this every time fair enough, but if you're not prepared to take the fact that they were USELESS tonight, you're not too gifted in the brain department. . You can give out about the reporter all you like, but how a bunch of Premiership stars who's weekly wage budget would probably be as much as the Kazakhstan's FA's Budget, can concede a goal and not put more than 7 past them seems impossible!!

    From Daniel, on Sun 12 Oct 2:45AM

  5. 5 - 1, great stuff England, keep it up!!!!

    From Desmond C, on Sun 12 Oct 2:27AM

  6. you pathetic little men who think you know anything about football,yes i am talking about the press,what they know about football i could print on the back of a postage stamp.also the little pathetic supporters who boo players,get a life you sad people.England got 3 points,job done.sean dudley

    From seanpailing, on Sun 12 Oct 2:08AM

  7. This journalist must have been on the booze. England 5 Khazakstan 1. France (World cup winners) couldn't beat Rumania; Italy could only manage a boring 0-0 draw against Bulgaria; Germany just beat Russia, thanks to the post; Portugal drew - 0-0; Spain only managed 3 against poor opposition... Croatia 0-0 draw;yet this poor excuse for a pen pusher can only criticise his national team. tell us all, Mr journalist, how many times a national team scores 5 goals?
    You should be assigned to something more acceptable to your arrogant journalistic skills. How about watching turtle eggs hatching? With people like you, who needs enemies?

    From Karadekoolaid, on Sun 12 Oct 2:04AM

  8. Kazakhstan rocks!!! Looks what Kazakhstani U21 team did to England national team.

    From mirror130, on Sun 12 Oct 1:50AM

  9. England 5 Plonkers 1 top of their group three wins in a row and CAPELLO has to beg for the supporters not to boo

    From ernesttipson@..., on Sun 12 Oct 1:30AM

  10. brixtongreen, I was been sarcastic about some claims that Cappello needs to be dropped. The guy has probably got more goals out of England attacks than MacLaren got in his entire reign. He did not lose a game and scoring 2 goals at least has been the standard of his team. Cappello is sold rock. Look how he changed England from an average team to one that wins week-in week-out. I was following Cappello when he was coaching in Italy and Spain and the man is ruthless heartless and results driven. Look at this game. He omit Owen against the thinking of all of us and then his team wins 5-1.. To me the only other active coach who is better than him is Lippi -another Italian. I said it and I say it again. Cappello cares the least about beautiful football. English fans will get used to the fact that in a good day as well as in a bad day, the team gets the appropriate result.. Until then they seem confused between cheering for the large scores or whining about the not-up-to-their-expectation performance. Call me a fool (or barinless :-)) but with Cappello I see a strong England in the next few years

    From Half A Brain, on Sun 12 Oct 1:27AM

  11. Only in England can the national team beat another team 5-1 at home and get put down for it go figure oh and I nearly forgot they are three wins in a row and top of their group being a Spurs fan it's at least giving me something to cheer about!!!

    From ernesttipson@..., on Sun 12 Oct 1:07AM

  12. Toronto, Canada guy here. Now is football not ur #1 sport in England? How is it possible there are so many ignorant football fans? Seems the fans have no understanding of tactical team play capello is trying to play! He is in the early stages of rebuilding ur national team! he is finding out what works and what doesn’t and who to play and who not to play! and while he is doing this ur team is winning! He will find a way to get gerrard and lamp to play together, you will see! U think that u see the game better than capello? lmao I see people talk about getting an english manager, now are there any managers capable of bringing this team to the world cup finals? or are they just capable of wining some games here and there? Are there any english managers considered to be in the top 20 in the world? Booing ur player for a mistake? wdf! I think alot of you guys want your team to lose! Misery loves company!!

    From cas, on Sun 12 Oct 1:00AM

  13. Only Rooney, Heskey, Brown, and the three subs played decently today..
    BTW, Beckham should be up earlier than 80mins; he played nicely and cheered up the team and fans after more than 70 mins of disappointment!!

    From Harriet, on Sun 12 Oct 12:19AM

  14. living in the states, so I have to pay to see the 3 lions. gotta love the 3 points, and boy am I tired of hearing the boos rain down at Wembley. Its no wonder the team prefers playing away games. That said, I think its time to stop trying Lampard and Gerrard together. They just don't work well together, for whatever reason. There's really no point in trying to figure it out anymore. As they themselves say, they aren't getting any younger, and younger players deserve the shot at making a pairing that does work. I really can't blame anyone else out there, as the build-up never gets any footing. Those two either look like they're afraid to get in each other's way, or like they need to appease the other. Its almost comical to watch them deliver pointless passes back and forth as if saying "you take it" " no, you take it"... Just rotate them and keep them fresh. I also agree with getting the Defoe / Crouch pair out there. It clearly works. play Rooney behind them with Lampard OR Gerrard, Barry, and Walcott. 4 across the back and let 'em go at it!

    From shoo, on Sun 12 Oct 12:17AM

  15. wahey

    From dan n shav, on Sun 12 Oct 12:09AM

  16. i reckon cap should've played defoe and crouch from the very beginning. i know rooney is better than defoe (but heskey?!), but defoe and crouch have established a great partnership at Pompey and train together on a weekly basis thus being able to bring that element to the squad. the rest of the team is scattershot across the Prem (plus Becks' retirement home) but these two are an excellent strike partnership. I feel fans are putting way too much pressure on these guys. you saw it today, when the Kazakhs made a run you could see how nervous the back line and James got. It's the same fear Arsenal had playing Hull at emirates and chelsea playing villa at bridge (I'm not saying these teams are bad, they're actually quite good, and Hull if they can keep pace are gonna be in the top 8 at least at the end of the season) but the fans expect comfortable victories. But these 'small' teams aren't playing to win they're playing to not lose (a tactic that served greece well 4 years ago) so it really stops our boys doing their best because they have to resort to desperate tactics to get past 10 bloody defenders. Our boys looked nervous (who wouldn't in front of a hostile home crowd), they're probably going to end up doing really well in away matches and not playing their best at home because of the @#$% we give them. Yday, one of the comments on this site was that no less that 10-0 would do. That sort of pressure is uncalled for. We could've won 1-0 and still won and still got the points. 5-1 is a great result. They're our boys and we should back them regardless. We know they're great players.

    From latin_tempasw4, on Sun 12 Oct 12:06AM

  17. i purposely didnt watch the match but any england team with heskey ashley cole and beckham wont amount
    to much
    i am a chelsea fan but cant understand why cole gets the call over wayne bridge mind boggles!!!!!!
    heskey waste of space 1st division player at best
    beckham showed his allegiance by sodding off to states via spain
    cole just plain daft should have left him at arsenal

    From steveborrisdiscus, on Sat 11 Oct 11:44PM

  18. Brainless is just showing how rediculous Philip C is as it was his comment about Capello.

    From marcus, on Sat 11 Oct 11:38PM

  19. fair enough, they got the job done, 5-1 is a good score. but everyone knows tht the ukrainians and croats will get around 7-8 goals up against kazakstan, and all tht adds up, so we need 2 get better results against the weaker teams

    From Ben Smith - KP, on Sat 11 Oct 11:36PM

  20. Its all good. 9 goals in 2 games is some feat. If Brazil did that ( and I watch them all the time) everyone thinks its great. ONLY english fans boo their team for making one mistake, for not playing every game like the Brazil 1970 World Cup squad.

    It stinks.

    The only thing i might have queried was playing both Lamps and G, but I can understand Capello wanting to see it for himself. Where better than against this type of opposition....better than finding out against germany.

    Defoe comes on, Heskey puts him through with a sublime touch, he nets. When was the last time we saw something like that?? Come on people, Capello is onto something here.

    From irwin.ford@..., on Sat 11 Oct 11:36PM
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