The team everyone in England was hoping to see at the World Cup finally showed up on Friday. Fabio Capello’s men secured their place in the last 16 of the tournament by beating Slovenia 1-nil in dominant fashion.
Capello has come under heavy fire for England’s lackluster performances in the first two matches, but today the team looked like the same one that breezed through qualification. The Italian made several changes to the side – Jermain Defoe was preferred to Emile Heskey up front and James Milner was back in the team ahead of Aaron Lennon. Twenty-three minutes in that decision was vindicated when Defoe tapped in Milner’s cross to give England the lead.
From then on, it was only the finishing touch that England lacked as they provided the level of performance that many were expecting from day one against the United States nearly two weeks ago. Defoe, Rooney, Gerrard, and Terry all came close to doubling the lead, but no one managed to cement the victory with a second goal. That inability to kill off the match could have come back to haunt them, as Slovenia carved out several chances late on in the game.
However, England persevered and will now face Germany in the second round of the competition as the second place team in Group C. The United States won the group on goals scored after a last-gasp winner from Landon Donovan earlier in the day against Algeria.
Make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter to get the latest breaking news and analysis!
