England’s second world cup qualifier did not go to plan at Wembley last night. As opposed to Friday when the three lions stuffed Moldova 5-0, last night’s opposition put up a better fight.
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Ukraine caused the men in the England football kit a lot of problems, their well organised and stubborn defence proved difficult for England to break down. They got through though, with sharpshooter Jermaine Defoe dribbling through a rare chink in the Ukranian defence to stick the ball in the back of the net.
It was disallowed though thanks to Yarmolenko who crumpled to the ground after being brushed by Defoe’s forearm on his way through. It goes without saying that if it was Gazza or any of the squad from his era, it would have been lauded as a marvelous run. Although that’s football.
It was a pitiful display from a team almost unchanged from the Moldovan game and it showed the class of opposition – and the problems they can create, for a very young England side.
Ukraine scored one of the Qualifier’s greatest football goals so far with a beautiful curling effort from Konoplienka just outside the box which Joe Hart couldn’t reach if he had giant football accessory foam hands.
After going down, England reverted back to their old selves, having good possession at the back but taking too long to move the ball forward and then suffering from poor pass accuracy. Notably Phil Jagielka and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave the ball away many times by misplacing passes. This is a problem that can only be solved by kicking plenty of footballs in training bibs on the practice ground, which I’m sure will feature heavily in training this week.
It was left to Frank Lampard to cooly slot a penalty against the side that England struggled to beat in Euro 2012 to get a draw, to keep Hodgson’s unbeaten record intact.
