When McClaren's England won 3-0 against Andorra many fans and pundits attacked the manager and team for not winning against a poorer opposition, tonight Cappello's England only managed a 2-0 victory.
So does this mean that once again that England will struggle and even fail to qualify for a major tournament? Not according to Capello, in a post match interview he said he was satisfied with his teams performance.
England started well. Walcott certainly was a good choice to begin the match as he had two chances in the first three minutes. However Andorra defending with nine men sat behind the ball began to frustrate England. Downing's crossing was poor and Defoe was muscled off of every ball he had by strength and numbers. England struggled to find space and the travelling English fans to voice their frustration with the manager and team at the 0-0 score at half time.
At half time Capello showed his tactical know how by completely changing the style of his team by bringing on Hesky (who played well) and Cole whose attacking prowess achieved two goals for England. England where a different team in the second half and found it alot easier to find space against the tight and dogged nine man defence of Andorra.
It was also good to see Capello try different things such as Beckham in middle and constantly telling Cole to stay forward and stop chasing every ball like a six year old. So all in all I believe it was a good performance because Capello was man enough to realise his tactics where so wrong in the first half that he made drastic changes to win the match.
Capello at the end of his post match interview stated that he was confident of the upcoming match against Croatia. Certainly England's next match is the match that will test Capello's skills to the limit, personally I am begging to the football gods for an emphatic victory!
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