Wednesday, 19 November 2014

England easily shrug off Scotland


Scotland 1 Robertson 83
England 3 Oxlade-Chamberlain 32, Rooney 47, 85

Scotland Marshall (Gordon 45), Whittaker, R Martin, Hanley (May 66), Robertson, Maloney (Russell 81), Mulgrew, Brown (Fletcher 45), Anya (Bannan 61), C Martin, Naismith (Morrison 45). Subs not used Bryson, Berra, Dorrans, Greer, Burke, Macleod, Forsyth, Paterson, Gilks
Booked Mulgrew
England Forster, Clyne, Cahill (Jagielka 45), Smalling, Shaw (Gibbs 66), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Lambert 80), Wilshere (Barkley 87), Downing (Lallana 45), Milner, Welbeck (Sterling 66), Rooney. Subs not used Foster, Chambers, Henderson, Walcott, Berahino.
Attendance 49,526 at Celtic Park, Glasgow Referee Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)
Kick-off 8pm. Live on ITV1 and Skysports 1.


IN-FORM Wayne Rooney closed in on the England goalscoring record as the Three Lions eased past Scotland at Celtic Park in Glasgow.

Rooney scored twice in the second half for his 45th and 46th international goals, a tally which leaves him just two behind Gary Lineker and three off the current record holder Sir Bobby Charlton.

And, having hit a rich recent vein of form in an England shirt, it now seems unfeasible that he will not make it past Charlton's total.

Of course, last night's match in general was never meant to be as easy as it ended up being. 

Scotland had arrived into the fixture in impressive form having lost just once in 10 games under Gordon Strachan. Meanwhile, a ferocious atmosphere had been cooked up in the cauldron that is Celtic Park. 

Paradoxically, though, the din seemed to have a positive effect on England, and they played at a good tempo throughout to rack up a sixth win in the last seven games in this fixture. 

From the start, indeed, England refreshingly revelled in the noise and the sense of occasion rather than being cowed by it. 

In the first five minutes, Gary Cahill put an early chance from a corner just wide before Danny Welbeck stung the fingers of Scottish goalkeeper David Marshall. 

Nevertheless, gradually, Scotland found their footing. Hull City left-back Andrew Robertson drove deep into the England half and almost pulled the ball back for Scott Brown - and then, after a couple of meaty challenges, there followed the first lull.

It lasted for just a few minutes though until Jack Wilshere - picking up the ball just inside the Scotland half - flighted a beautiful diagonal ball towards the penalty area.

A well-timed run and glance of the head from Arsenal team-mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and suddenly - just after the half-hour mark - it was 1-0 to England.

Scotland struggled to launch much of a response before the break with Friday's hero against Ireland, Shaun Maloney, hitting an effort horribly wide.

And then, after the break, it got much, much worse for the hosts. A defensive mix-up ended with the unlucky Robertson unwittingly diverting the ball to Rooney.

The Manchester United striker was just eight yards out and opportunistically poached his first to double the Three Lions' lead with a stooping header.

At this point, it was a long way back for the tired-looking Scots - and England could have actually gone further clear if Chris Smalling had diverted his header from just five yards out on target.

A belated response did eventually come from Strachan's men and it was no surprise to see the impressive Robertson involved.

The left-back easily slipped past a half-hearted challenge from Raheem Sterling before playing a lovely one-two with Johnny Russell and finishing neatly in the bottom corner. Game on.

Except as soon as Scotland had given the home fans some new found hope, Rooney promptly snuffed it out, this time applying the finish to a blistering counter-attack led by Adam Lallana.

England had won 3-1 and, in doing so, retained an unbeaten streak north of the border which goes back to 1985.

Looking at the overall record, this victory took England up to 47 wins with Scotland having enjoyed 41 and there having been 24 draws.

And, while last year's marvellous season-opener at Wembley suggested this fixture should be played more often than once every 15 years, tonight's cakewalk confirmed restoring an annual contest would probably be a waste of time.

Of course, the pair could resume their rivalry on neutral territory at Euro 2016 with, in fact, all of the Home Nations still in decent shape after last week's qualifiers.

England top their group with four wins out of four after a lacklustre first half and an own goal from Jordan Henderson prompted a decent comeback against Slovenia.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, Wales also remained unbeaten in their group following an excellent backs-to-the-wall 0-0 draw against Belgium.

In perhaps the most fascinating of the Euro 2016 sections, the aforementioned Maloney scored a gem of a goal as Scotland beat Ireland at home for the first time since 1961.

However, Northern Ireland could not make it a clean sweep, going down 2-0 to Romania in Bucharest.

Nevertheless, three previous wins should stand them in good stead for some time yet with the next Euro 2016 qualifiers taking place at the end of March 2015.   


MATCHDAY FOUR FIXTURES
14-Nov Group D, Group F, Group I
15-Nov Group C, Group E, Group G
16-Nov Group A, Group B, Group H

GROUP A Netherlands, Czech Republic, Turkey, Latvia, Iceland, Kazakhstan
16-Nov17:00Netherlands6-0LatviaAmsterdam
16-Nov19:45Czech Republic2-1IcelandPlzen
16-Nov19:45Turkey3-1KazakhstanIstanbul

GROUP B Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Israel, Wales, Cyprus, Andorra
16-Nov17:00Belgium0-0WalesBrussels
16-Nov17:00Cyprus5-0AndorraNicosia
16-Nov19:45Israel3-0Bosnia-HerzegovinaHaifa

GROUP C Spain, Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus, FYR Macedonia, Luxembourg
15-Nov17:00Luxembourg0-3UkraineLuxembourg
15-Nov19:45FYR Macedonia0-2SlovakiaSkopje
15-Nov19:45Spain3-0BelarusHuelva

GROUP D Germany, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Georgia, Gibraltar
14-Nov17:00Georgia0-4PolandTbilisi
14-Nov19:45Germany4-0GibraltarNuremberg
14-Nov19:45Scotland1-0Republic of IrelandGlasgow

GROUP E England, Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, San Marino
15-Nov17:00England3-1SloveniaLondon
15-Nov17:00San Marino0-0EstoniaSerraville
15-Nov19:45Switzerland4-0LithuaniaSt Gallen

GROUP F Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Northern Ireland, Faroe Islands
14-Nov19:45Greece0-1Faroe IslandsPiraeus
14-Nov19:45Hungary1-0FinlandBudapest
14-Nov19:45Romania2-0Northern IrelandBucharest

GROUP G Russia, Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, Moldova, Liechtenstein
15-Nov17:00Austria1-0RussiaVienna
15-Nov17:00Moldova0-1LiechtensteinChisinau
15-Nov19:45Montenegro1-1SwedenPodgorica

GROUP H Italy, Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Malta
16-Nov17:00Azerbaijan0-1NorwayBaku
16-Nov19:45Bulgaria1-1MaltaSofia
16-Nov19:45Italy1-1CroatiaMilan

GROUP I Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, Albania, [France]
14-Nov19:45Portugal1-0ArmeniaFaro
14-Nov19:45Serbia1-3DenmarkBelgrade
14-Nov19:45France1-1AlbaniaRennes

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