Russia - England 2-1

If you read any of the English newspapers on the post match analysis, you would see these lines "Dodgy penalty decision", "England deserverd to win", "Plastic surface" etc etc... attributing the failure to beat Russia to factors other than the poor selection and play from the manager/players. But this is not the case in most of the fans forums... few questions in my mind as well...

1. Why was Lescott playing as the left back... If I'm correct all the back four are center backs for their clubs. Micah Richards as right back (CB for Man. city), Ferdinand(ManU), Campbell(Portsmouth), Lescott as left back(CB for Everton). Nicky Shorey plays as right back for Reading was in the bench throughout the match.

2. Why didnt Robinson tip that ball(leading to the second goal) to the corner. If he had handled it soft it would have gone to a corner and not in the 6 yard box. But the defenders too were the culprits. Should have cleared the danger before palvychenko pounced on it.

Few saves from the Goalkeeping legend(Oliver Khan)


3. If u had seen the build up to the second goal(Youtube), you can easily see how nervous England were. Never really passing the ball but trying to clear it as for as they could inviting next attack by the Russians.



If you look at the stats below, you will never say "England deserved to win" as McClaren and others say.

Goals Russia 2, England 1
First-half goals 0, 1
Shots on target 4, 3
Shots off target 5, 5
Blocked shots 14, 5
Corners 9, 8
Fouls 16, 18
Offsides 1, 0
Yellow cards 2, 2
Red cards 0, 0
Passing success 80.9%, 66.2%
Tackles 24, 27
Tackles success 79.2 %, 66.7%
Possession 66.8%, 33.2 %
Territorial advantage 57.3%, 42.7%