REALITY CHECK IN SEVILLE

 

(Image taken from Sky Sports)

The last time we faced Spain was actually one of those below-par friendlies we had during the Steve McLaren era, '07 to be precise, the result this time round was a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford. The last time we faced the Spanish on their turf was arguably an even bigger disaster. An '04 friendly at the Bernabau with Sven as gaffer which we lost 1-0 with Wayne losing the plot and the home fans turning nasty. The last time we beat Spain was in Sven's first game in charge, back in '01 at Villa Park, 3-0 win, no worries there. The last time the Three Lions conquered Spain? Well, Bobby Robson was the gaffer and Gary Lineker was our main assassin(and playing for Barcelona)at the time. He got four goals at the Bernabau, we won 4-2, the year was 1987!

This time around, well it's now Fabio Capello's show and we were starting to look invincible. Thing is, Spain are now European champions and Fabio wanted us to try our hand against them. And he wanted us t do so on their turf. Thing is, the FA weren't too keen on a repeat of Bernabau '04(we don't like racists) and wanted the game played away from Madrid. No one was sure if the match would even go ahead for a while but finally the Three Lions got to open 2009 at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez, a stadium that hadn't hosted an international game since '01. It was Terry and Everton's Phil Jagielka in central defence, Ashley Cole at left back, Barry and Carrick in central defence, Heskey and Agbonlahor up front. Injuries had hurt us so I can't say I was over-optimistic with that lineup.

Well England had the opening attack and it did seem as though it was taking a while for Spain to warm up. We certainly should have had a free kick at least at one point but what opportunities we had we couldn't convert. At the very least though, we seemed to be matching Spain...and then they put the ball in the net. First time around it was ruled out for offside. Still, our goalie wasn't exactly looking steady and our defenders were looking outright moronic in the 36th minute after they gave the ball to Xabi Alonso who split them with a through ball to David Villa and the Valencia assassin wasn't going to miss. We weren't dead yet, but we were needing to step up our game.

Fabio overhauled the XI at half time that that meant that our latest man in Serie A, aka Becks also became our most capped outfielder. Not that he had the best of games early on. Neither did we to be honest, it was now Spain running the show and after a while I was just waiting for the match to be over. This was not a classic affair and the Spanish were showing us that we shouldn't get too cocky about our prospects in South Africa. In the 82nd minute we were finished off when a Xavi free kick found the head of substitute Fernando Llorente with our defence again nowhere. Our best chance of the match came in the last few minutes with Spain having to clear the ball off the line but overall, we were forced to bow down to our continent's champions.

Elsewhere, Wales faced Poland at the Vila Real De Santo Antonio Sports Complex(an arena in the Portuguese Algarve) of all places. Wales fielded an experimental side that were largely forced to play a defensive game in the first half, but had their share of chances and were certainly giving the Euro 2008 veterans a match. The match continued to be an even affair but the Welsh finally succumbed when Roger Geierro hit the winner for the Poles. John Toshack was in no mood to complain about the result though, and thought that his side put up a solid performance. Hopefully the young Welsh XI picked up some experience from this that they can use in their World Cup qualifying campaign.

There was some World Cup qualifying action going on this week, even in Europe. In UEFA qualifying Group 3, Northern Ireland faced San Marino at the Stadio Olimpico Serraville. Gareth McAuley opened the scoring early on for NI with Grant McCann making it two before half time. Chris Brunt then finished the game off in what will probably be one of the easier games of the campaign for Nigel Worthington's men, the only catch being three players getting themselves suspended for the next game. That moves Northern Ireland into 2nd in the group and the playoff mixer, two points behind group leaders Slovakia and level on points with third place Poland but with a +2 goal difference advantage. Both those teams have a game in hand over them though.

Elsewhere, the Republic of Ireland faced Georgia in UEFA qualifying Group 8 at Croke Park. Things didn't go to plan immediately for the Irish with Alexander Iashvilli opening the scoring for the Georgians. The Irish came back to give their visitors more of a match before half time but were slow in hitting the net themselves. Finally Robbie Keane turned the game round with two second half goals. the Irish dominating the latter stages of the match. That kept the Republic in 2nd place in the table and on course for the playoff mixer. They are level on points with group leaders Italy but with a -1 goal difference advantage and seven points ahead of third place Bulgaria though the Bulgarians have a game in hand.

So, the playoff mixer is currently made up of Hungary, Israel, Northern Ireland, Russia, Turkey, Croatia(2nd in Group 6 after beating Andorra), Lithuania, Republic of Ireland, and Scotland. The main team of interest in that batch are Scotland, but they lie 9th in the virtual group, two points behind 8th place Russia and are not on course for the playoffs. The two Irish sides however are doing much better with Northern Ireland in joint 5th place with Croatia(level on points and goal difference, luckily they won't need to draw lots), three points ahead of Scotland while the Republic are six points ahead of Scotland and top of the playoff mixer. Both Irish teams are currently on course for the playoffs with England still topping their group and heading for South Africa.

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