[ 2011-09-03 ]

Euro 2012 qual. - Rooney on form as England crush Bulgaria
England barely broke a sweat in a 3-0 Euro 2012
Group G qualifying win over Bulgaria that saw
Wayne Rooney score twice at the Vasil Levski
Stadion in Sofia.

Gary Cahill got the ball rolling early on with a
cool chest-down and finish - his first England
goal - before Rooney added a towering header and a
tap-in to round off a slick one-touch move on the
stroke of half time.
Bulgaria occasionally had good spells of
possession but England goalkeeper Joe Hart only
had one real save to make while his team-mates
were denied further goals by the woodwork and
smart stops from Nikolay Mihaylov.
The win puts England three points clear at the top
of their group with two games remaining, with
Wales doing their old rivals a favour by beating
Montenegro 2-1.
A home victory for England against Wales on
Tuesday would put them on the brink of qualifying
for next year's finals thanks to a vastly superior
goal difference over the Montenegrins.
With Fabio Capello opting for a youthful 4-2-3-1
formation spearheaded by Manchester United duo
Rooney and Ashley Young, the group leaders were
only occasionally tested by Lothar Matthaeus’s
side, the German coach’s intent to attack
England backfiring spectacularly.
Frank Lampard was dropped from a competitive
international for the first time in four years,
with two holding midfielders employed to protect
and serve the attacking quartet of Rooney, Young,
Theo Walcott and Stewart Downing.
Against relatively weak opposition such a ploy is
effective enough, but England will be hoping on
Jack Wilshere’s return to fitness as - despite
winning at a canter - they did not hold on to the
ball nearly as much as would be required against
the likes of Spain or the Netherlands.
There were also question marks over Chris
Smalling, who looked shaky at times in his new
position of right back, while Joe Hart was a touch
slack with his kicking and positioning at times,
not ideal when all his deputies are either injured
or playing prima donna at not being first choice.
The match was won by half-time as a stuttering
start was soon calmed when Cahill controlled
Gareth Barry’s lofted pass on his upper body
before rifling a low shot past Mihaylov as he hit
the deck.
That was on 13 minutes and soon afterwards it was
2-0 as Rooney belied his lack of height with a
leap that would not look out of place at the World
Athletics Championships in South Korea: he was
aided by an almost rugby-style lift by John Terry,
and by some weak defending from the hapless
Bulgarians.
England were happy to sit back and beckon the
hosts who, for all their first-half possession,
only vaguely threatened when Hart and Smalling
lost the flight of the ball.
Any hope of a comeback was put to bed just before
the break when a superb counter attack saw Walcott
thread a lovely pass wide to Young, whose low
drilled ball bamboozled the opposition and found
Rooney alone at the far post for the easiest of
conversions.
Despite Hart’s odd lapse he was able to retain
enough concentration to make a great stop at
point-blank range after Martin Petrov’s
54th-minute corner was flicked on first by Ivelin
Popov and - from no more than a yard - again by
Stiliyan Petrov.
That chance sparked England into an assault, as
Downing hit the post with a looping header from
Walcott’s cross on the resultant counter-attack,
while Scott Parker forced a good one-handed save
from Mihaylov.
It also gave the visitors a reason to retain
possession better as they closed out the final
half-hour with a passing masterclass that largely
reduced the technically-gifted Bulgarians to
spectators.
Walcott missed a sitter after Rooney played him
clean through, although to be fair to one of
Arsenal’s few in-form players the ball bobbled
at the death.
The closing stages saw the uglier side of football
in the Balkans given a cameo, as offensive racial
chanting and a series of missiles came from the
home fans, which England’s players and support
did well to ignore, although Capello spared Young
the brunt of the abuse my taking him off.
But both home and away were all smiles and
handshakes at the end as England moved a step
closer to the finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Source - Eurosport

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