ENGLAND
vs. FRANCE
I really
do not know why panellists would slate it as “Roy Hodgson vs. Laurent Blanc”. It
certainly would really be more attractive (pause) to pitch anybody
against anybody else on the pitch, no? Like Oxlade-Chaimberlain against P.
Evra? Or perhaps even F. Ribery against J. Lescott? OK, well, maybe not.
Anyway,
after the first 14 minutes, there was nothing really to blag, I meant blog
about apart from F. Ribery nutmegging A. Cole. Then just before the
quarter-hour mark, J. Milner rounded the French goalkeeper Lloris only to miss
an empty net. No, really.
To be
honest, after 24 minutes, it felt as if this was a Bordeaux vs. Stoke City game
in disguise, no disrespect to those teams. On the half-hour mark, J. Lescott
got on the end of a S. Gerrard free-kick to put the Queen’s boys one nil up. It
was a great header by the centre-back.
Ten
minutes later, A. Oxlade-Chamberlain committed a foul down the touch-line that
earned him a yellow card. The resulting free-kick saw J. Hart save a
point-blank Diarra header. The French smelled blood and went in for the kill. A
quick combination of P. Evra and F. Ribery released S. Nasri who unleashed a
thunderbolt from within the 18-yard box that beat his club mate J. Hart.
Half-time scores: 1-1, with the Manchester City boys hogging the lights.
J.
Defoe- who had lost his father recently- joined the action in the 76th
minute, replacing the quite ineffective A. Oxlade-Chamberlain. Then, £20M
midfielder J. Henderson came on for S. Parker. Soon after, J. Cabaye came close
to hitting the target with a nicely-taken volley.
When the
skilful H. Ben-Arfa eventually came on, he replaced his Newcastle team-mate J.
Cabaye. Martin also came on but they still couldn’t break the English defence a
second time. T Walcott also came on for his cameo but he did not touch the ball
once. He had replaced D. Welbeck.
With 89
minutes gone, J Hart resorted to time-wasting. He was jeered all around the
stadium. It was easy to tell that England were the happier team with the
stalemate. 1-1.
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