England Cruise Past Estonia
European Championships - Qualifying Group E Result
England's 3-0 defeat of Estonia means that European Championship Qualifying Group E has come down to a three-horse race between Croatia, Russia and Steve McClaren's side.
England 3 Estonia 0
With regular skipper John Terry missing due to injury, Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard took over the Captain’s armband and Portsmouth’s Sol Campbell, returning to the England team after almost a year and a half, filled the Chelsea player’s position in central defence.
After dominating the early play England took the lead on eleven minutes with a goal from Shaun Wright-Phillips. Following some precise interplay on the edge of the Estonian penalty area between the Chelsea winger and full back Micah Richards, the Manchester City player slid a pass through to Wright-Phillips who drove the ball through goalkeeper Mart Poom’s legs from a tight angle.
Whilst Estonia looked occasionally dangerous on the break, England maintained a large territorial advantage but had to wait until the thirty second minute to double their lead through a deflected Wayne Rooney shot.
Midfielder Joe Cole created some room for himself on the left to play in a cross, that was left by Michael Owen, and hit by Rooney. His strike was deflected by an Estonia defender past Poom and into the net.
Only a minutes after Rooney’s goal Estonia once again failed to deal properly with an England attack down the left and Ashley Cole’s cross was headed into his own net by Taavi Rahn to make the score 3-0.
Ashley Cole injury
Coming into the Estonia game three of England’s starting eleven, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole were all one yellow card away from suspension.
With his side in a seemingly comfortable position at the end of the first half, England manager Steve McClaren surprised some by only replacing one of the trio, Ferdinand, at half time. Unfortunately, this was a decision that would come back to haunt the coach, but not in the way he might have expected.
Early in the second half Ashley Cole fell awkwardly when trying to stop an Estonian attack and had to leave the pitch on a stretcher with an ankle injury which, it has now been confirmed, will keep him out of England’s crucial next game against Russia on Wednesday night.
Cole was replaced by Phil Neville who went straight to right back as part of a defensive reshuffle that saw Ferdinand’s replacement, Joleon Lescott, move from centre back to left back and Micah Richards move from right back to fill the position Lescott had vacated.
England, Croatia and Russia
England’s victory combined with Croatia’s 1-0 home win against Israel leaves a three-horse race at the top of European Championship Qualifying Group E with some huge games still remaining.
Croatia, who currently lead the group with twenty-six points from ten games, meet England, who have also played ten games and now lie second with twenty-three points, at Wembley in both sides’ final match on Wednesday 21st November. Before this, however, England face a tough trip to Moscow this Wednesday to face a third placed Russian side who have only played nine games and have eighteen points.
With such a big match in the offing Steve McClaren will now have to make a difficult choice of who to include at left back to replace the injured Cole and whether to bring Frank Lampard back into a midfield that has seen Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry perform so well together.
