Gabriel Agbonlahor was handed his second start for England and immediately combined with his strike partner, squaring the ball for Crouch to open the scoring at Wembley.
Wright-Phillips added a second with a shot from the edge of the box before Crouch rounded off the win as he reacted quickest when Carlton Cole’s shot could only be parried.
England started brightly with Wright-Phillips flashing a shot a yard wide and took the lead after just three minutes when Barry slid in Agbonlahor down the left who picked out Crouch to tap the ball into the visitors net.
Capello’s team dominated early possession and Crouch came close to adding a second from Lampard’s corner but headed wide.
Agbonlahor was soon given his first chance to run at the Belarus defence when England broke quickly after defending a corner. The Aston Villa striker drove into the box and his low shot was saved by Yury Zhevnov.
Belarus were able to string neat spells of possession together but England’s high-energy pressing prevented them from causing any danger for Rio Ferdinand and John Terry.
Glen Johnson should have made it 2-0 on the half hour after picking up Aaron Lennon’s quick throw in the box, however after cutting inside he skewed a shot off his left foot and out for a throw-in.
England became wasteful in possession as half-time approached with Sergei Omelyanchuk testing Foster with a low drive which the Manchester United goalkeeper gathered well.
David Beckham replaced Aaron Lennon on the hour and made an immediate impact when he played a short corner to Wright Phillips who cut in from the left and shoot past Zhevnov.
Belarus almost pulled a goal back after some neat interplay on the edge of the England box allowed Omelyanchuk to hit a vicious volley from the right of the box, however he was denied by Foster’s instinctive save at his near post.
Crouch extended England’s lead with 15 minutes remaining though. Cole – on for Agbonlahor – shot well from the right and when Zhevnov could only parry, Crouch was on hand to grab his second goal of the night.
England could have scored more as full-time approached, however Beckham and James Milner both hit the post and the score remained 3-0.
No comments:
Post a Comment