Scotland lost 1-0 to Macedonia in Skopje, but neighbours England ended up 2-0 winners against Andorra despite an unconvincing display. And just like in the game against the Czech Republic, Chelsea winger Joe Cole saved the day for Fabio Capello, scoring a brace in the second half as the Three Lions struggled against their weaker opponents. Do not expect England to win against Slaven Bilic’s Croatia on Wednesday if they churn out another similar insipid performance in Zagreb.
England starting XI formation against Andorra :-
—————————–David James———————————————-
G.Johnson————–J.Lescott——–J.Terry—————————-A.Cole
T.Walcott————-F.Lampard——–G.Barry—————————-S.Downing
————————-J.Defoe———-W.Rooney
Subs used : J.Cole, E.Heskey, D.Beckham.
England were the better side in the first half, but were unable to break Andorra- ranked 186th in the world, down. There were boos at the end of the first half, just as it happened in March 2007. But Cole, replacing Stewart Downing, saved England the blushes by volleying home Lampard’s freekick in the 49th minute and scoring from Wayne Rooney’s pass six minutes later.
Did we see balls continuously being pumped into the Andorran box with no result ?- We did, and Capello and his men will have to come up with something better if Croatia are to be overcome. The Croats kicked off their campaign with a comfortable 3-0 win over Kazakhstan.
well turns out the croatia game was a much bigger success than we all thought it was going to be!