England Defeated Andorra 2-0 in the Opening Match of 2010 World Cup Qualifying
England started their 2010 world cup qualifying campaign with a 2-0 victory over Andorra on Saturday. However, English fans are not very happy with the victory margin against world’s 182 ranked Andorra. Ahead of a big clash with Croatia on Wednesday, England supporters expected an emphatic victory over the Andorrans, but at the end of the match, the three points were all to make England players happy. In fact, England’s performance was not anything like dominating. Still, the good thing is that Fabio Capello started his England job with a comfortable victory.
England will travel to Zagreb to face Croatia in a mouth-watering battle. Croatia was the team who destroyed England’s hope of playing Euro 2008 after a 3-2 victory over England last year in Euro 2008 qualifying round. England will also be gearing up to take a sweet revenge of that loss at Wembley. From that point of view, the victory over Andorra has been pretty satisfactory because starting world cup qualifying campaign with a victory was England’s priority in the match and they already achieved what they were looking for.
Chelsea man Joe Cole’s double strike earned an easy victory for England. English players were in their good form throughout the first half as Theo Walcott and Glen Johnson created some good chances. English players were jeered by the three lion’s fans when the score was 0-0 at the half time. Joe Cole and Emile Heskey came off the bench to replace Stewart Downing and Jermain Defoe respectively. Cole opened scoring in the 49th minute when the Chelsea player put Manchester United ahead 1-0 thanks to an excellent volley goal. Emile Heskey also produced some excellent performances, creating lots of chances.
The victory could have been bigger if English players did not miss the chances coming on their way. Coming on the ground in place of Frank Lampard, David Beckham had 10 minutes to open a three-goal difference with an excellent free-kick. John Terry also had a good chance in the closing minutes, but his header went over the bar. So, England had to keep themselves satisfied with the 2-0 victory over Andorra.
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