England drew their first game of their Euro 2012 campaign against France; the Englishmen took the lead in the 30th minute from the head of Joleon Lescott from Steven Gerrard’s freekick into the box. But that lead only lasted nine minutes before Sami Nasri unleashed a 20 yard strike which Joe Hart almost got fingertips on in a game where the England defense shone to keep the score at 1 – 1!
England played reasonably well in the first 30 minutes even if they had less possession, making the breakthrough on 30 minutes, Lescott heading Steven Gerrard retaken free-kick past the French keeper. But then England sat deeper and deeper in their own half and gave the Frenchman way too much space which ultimately allowed Nasri to unleash the rocket that brought France level on 39 minutes, England’s defense were solid, which kept the scoreline at 1 – 1 despite French pressure!
The referee didn’t help England’s cause; denying the Englishmen multiple stonewall free-kick appeals, I genuinely thought that the referee was on the French payroll; hopefully UEFA will remove this referee from the pool of officials, he had a piss poor game in Donetsk this evening!
I really don’t agree with pundits on ITV, who seem to think the performance was a good one from England. At best it was average, there wasn’t a great deal of attacking punch from England, seeming a little on the sluggish side, although the defense were very solid, which kept England in the game.
A point from the first group game is a good start, but I feel that England will need to improve to progress past the quarter finals, they should be able to get through the group stages, but competition will be much tougher in the quarters; giving away the ball like they did today will be punished massively. No disrespect to France but they are not the force they were five years ago!
I downloaded the game and watched and I must confess that I thought aside from the first half hour of the game, it was one of the most boring games ever played in any competition. Only two games come to mind that were worse: One was the recent Runners-up Cup final (involving Chelski) and the other was the final back in the late 80’s or early 90’s, between Marseille and Steua Bucharest (ended 0-0 and finished on a penalty shootout).
It’s more fun watching paint dry that watching football like this and Hodgson totally messed things up. England can’t hold a lead and they can’t break on the opposition after a prolonged period of surviving pressure. They just don’t have good enough players to get anything done really. I’m sorry, but if they make it out of the group, that’s as far as they’ll go, because they won’t survive the quarter finals, whoever they play against, not on this performance.
Indeed, it was very lacklustre; As I said, Hodgson and England better improve significantly if they hope to progress to the quarter finals. The English gave away the ball in the middle of the field too much and gave acres of space to the attacking Frenchmen!