There was never any question whether Roy Hodgson's side would win this European Championship qualifier, just a case of how many they would score. San Marino are ranked 208th in the world - joint bottom alongside Bhutan - and did well to restrict England to just a 5-0 win in the Group E clash at Wembley. The country with a population of 32,576 - roughly the same as Fleet, Coalville and Leighton Buzzard - held firm until the 24th minute, when Phil Jagielka nodded home after a comical defensive miscommunication. San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini then did well to keep the scoreline down, but was unable to stop Wayne Rooney's fiercely-struck penalty as half-time approached. Danny Welbeck turned home soon after the restart and, having seen Adam Lallana wrongly denied a fluky first England goal, substitute Andros Townsend lashed home from the edge of the box. Alessandro Della Valle completed the scoring by turning past his own goalkeeper to the delight of the 55,990 fans inside Wembley - the lowest attendance for a competitive England fixture since the stadium opened in 2007. Rooney and Jack Wilshere were denied as England continued to pepper the San Marino goal, which Andros Townsend found in the 72nd minute.
comment on this post
0 comments:
Post a Comment