England 0 Montenegro 0

Match 24/10/842 - Tuesday, 12 October 2010 -
European Championship Qualifying Group G

England (0) 0
Montenegro (0) 0
Att. 73,451

Entrance: £45
Programme: £6
Mileage: 100/3,710

Match Report

When a 20 yard volley from Milan Jovanovic crashed back off the bar with seven minutes remaining, England got the only piece of luck they deserved from this turgid encounter with a defensively solid Montenegro.

Both sides carried 100% records coming into the fixture and with the Balkan side having not conceded a goal in their three previous qualifiers it was obvious where their strengths were going to lie.

They lined up with a system that was not far removed from the controversial 4-6-0 formation that Scotland had employed in Prague at the weekend. Montenegro had a token forward who played barely five yards in front of the heavily congested midfield.

The first half was almost as bad as it gets. Wembley fell asleep as England played with a tempo that would have made Ann Widdecombe’s salsa seem positively disco.

Steven Gerrard probed away with long raking passes but the emphasis was too much towards the head of Peter Crouch and when after 16 minutes a golden chance arrived for the lanky striker his free header cleared the bar. This ultimately was a key moment in the game, an early goal would inevitably have brought the Montenegrans out of their bunker.

The second half started with a 12 minute period in which the referee brandished six yellow cards. In a rare Montenegro counter-attack, Wayne Rooney took a card for the team for a professional foul and bitter memories of a diving Ashley Young depriving Gillingham of a replay at Villa Park were resurrected as he threw himself to the ground in search of a penalty, for which he was rightly carded.

Kevin Davies came on in the 70th minute to become England’s oldest debutant, at 33, for 60 years and he immediately injected a bit of life into the proceedings, albeit that he, in turn, also received a yellow card, supposedly for leading with a elbow. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that type of offence was an instant red card.

The second key moment of the match came on 77 minutes when Jovanovic clearly handled the ball in the penalty area. In a later interview, Rio Ferdinand said that he might as well have caught it, stuck it up his jumper and run with it . . . well put Rio!

So having got away with the handball there was more than a little justice when Jovanovic’s shot rebounded from the woodwork with Joe Hart well beaten.

Montenegro celebrated their “victory” and their resilience was too be admired but their defensive nature and England’s lack of any guile to break them down made for a frustrating, and for long periods, boring evening.