England 3 Belarus 0
England: Foster, Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, Bridge (Milner 78), Lennon (Beckham 58), Lampard, Barry, Wright-Phillips, Crouch, Agbonlahor (Carlton Cole 66).
Subs Not Used: Hart, Upson, Ashley Cole, Carrick.
Goals: Crouch 4, Wright-Phillips 59, Crouch 76.
The final qualifying game saw a comfortable victory for England. Belarus were not too bad, and indeed showed some glimpses of thoughtful football. Nonetheless they were not strong enough to compete consistently during the match, and England were able to mostly outplay their opponents.
Agbonlahor and Crouch started upfront, with Wright-Phillips given the left side of midfield position. Fabio does not seem to think of Milner as a potential solution to this position.
An early goal by Crouch took England to half time with a 1-0 lead. The game ambled along, neither a dirty nor unentertaining spectacle, but certainly had an end of campaign feel to it.
Beckham was introduced in the second half and livened things up a bit. Wright-Phillips got a second goal, and Crouch grabbed a poacher’s goal after Carlton Cole’s (on for Agbonlahor) shot was parried by the Belarus goalie.
The defence made no errors and Ben Foster did make one very good save on what was a quiet evening for him. Beckham was given man of the match inexplicably. England have now a 100% home qualifying World Cup strike rate at the new Wembley. One thing that characterises Fabio’s reign as the new manager is that he has made the new Wembley feel like a home and the fans have now expereinced sustained success there.
So the qualifying comes to an end and now we must prepare for the tournament. There will be many players eager to impress and to try and make the squad for South Africa 2010. December 4th will see the draw for the finals and we will see who are group opponents will be.
Well done to all the players in the successful qualification campaign. It has been quite entertaining.
