One-sided scoreline hides truth for England
Sunday, October 12, 2008
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It is not often that a 5-1 win is received with a sigh of relief rather than a glow of satisfaction, but the margin of England's triumph over Kazakhstan at Wembley did not tell the whole story according to Frank Lampard.
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Late goals
A young Kazakhstan team including five debutants deservedly held England at 0-0 until half-time, and even after a tactical switch from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2, Rio Ferdinand's header and an Aleksandr Kuchma own goal had seemed to put the home team in control, Zhambyl Kukeyev pulled one back. Yet Wayne Rooney scored twice and substitute Jermain Defoe added another to ultimately give England a decisive victory to take them two points clear of Ukraine in FIFA World Cup qualifying Group 6, but midfielder Frank Lampard – whose set-pieces led to the first two goals – admitted that it had been hard work to break down the visitors.
'Impressive result'
"We got there," Lampard said. "An early goal would have been beneficial. We plugged away, played decently in the first half without a cutting edge around the box; we got there or thereabouts without finishing it off. In the second half we relaxed a bit more and the goals started to flow." Even then it was not so simple. "There were a couple of dodgy moments in the second half, they had a couple of chances and got a goal," the Chelsea FC man added. "But we reacted with good set-pieces and Wayne Rooney scoring goals; he is a massive player for us. To win 5-1 in any game is an impressive result."
Defoe delight
Although Defoe was only introduced from the substitutes' bench in the 87th minute he got on the scoresheet to justify his place in the squad ahead of one of England's all-time leading strikers, Michael Owen. "As a forward it is always nice to get a goal, particularly for your country," he said. "It was a good performance by the lads, so we are delighted. Kazakhstan played some good stuff in the first half – I thought they would just sit back and frustrate us. They passed the ball and looked like a good side; at this level every side is going to be difficult. But we scored five goals and got the points."