England beats Slovenia 2-1 in International Friendly – Recap and Video Highlights – Saturday September 5, 2009
England faced Slovenia on Saturday September 5, 2009 ahead of their UEFA World Cup Qualifier on Wednesday against Croatia. The match was a warm-up for both sides and took place in front of over 70,000 at Wembley Stadium.
England beats Slovenia 2-1 in friendly – Video Highlights
England won 2-1 against Slovenia on Saturday but should have converted more chances. Throughout the match, England was the better side with more possession and chances as Slovenia played very defensively. England slowly got chances in the first half but couldn’t convert any in the first few minutes. The first goal for England came in the 31st minute as Frank Lampard converted a penalty kick in the 31st minute. The penalty was earned by Rooney but replays showed it was a gift of a call. There were contact in the box but not much and it appeared that Rooney initiated it as much as the defender. Either way, it was the only goal of the first half as England won 1-0 at halftime.
The second half was both teams make several chances which led to an inconsistent 2nd half. The first several minutes was not very sharp as the substitutes worked their way into the match. Jermain Defoe, who’s been in great form, would finally get the second goal with an assist from Aaron Lennon. Lennon was in the attack when he laid it back for Defoe who took a touch at the end of the box and shot it to the far post past the goalkeeper. It was a great play and could have earned Defoe a spot in the starting lineup for the Croatia match. In the final minutes, England let down a bit as Slovenia scored a goal in the 85th minute by Ljubijankic. It was a cross into the box and a nice header to beat Green.
Overall, England should have won by a few more goals as John Terry had a header that hit the post, Rooney had a shot that hit the post, and had a sitter that he missed. In the end, the team won even though it might have not been as pretty as fans would have liked.
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