England (0) 1 Crouch 86
France (1) 2 Benzema 16 Valbuena 55
Att. 85,495
Entrance: £15
Programme: £6
Mileage: 100/5,060
Match Report
France were the one nation that came home from South Africa with even less dignity intact than England. The players behaviour following the expulsion of Nicolas Anelka led to debate in the French Parliament, suspensions and the removal of Raymond Domenech. Laurent Blanc was hired to lead the recovery and on the evidence of Wednesday’s international they have progressed much, much further along that road than their hosts.I cannot remember, especially at the new Wembley, watching a team outplay England quite like the French did during the first half. Mitigating factors were the loss of several first choice players, but the French were also missing the likes of Frank Ribery. Fabio Capello chose to introduce Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll to the senior set-up and Keiron Gibbs was given his first start. Unfortunately for Henderson, he was swamped in a midfield that was totally dominated by the very impressive Samir Nasri, Yoann Gourcuff and Florent Malouda. England’s makeshift back line with Phil Jagielka appearing ridiculously uncomfortable at right back were sliced apart with by a text book one-two between Malouda and Karim Benzema that allowed the Real Madrid striker to drill a shot between Ben Foster and his near post.
As the French midfield dominated, England’s spent 45 minutes chasing shadows. Gareth Barry looks less an international midfielder with every game, Henderson looked lost and the wingers Theo Walcott and James Milner suffered from a lack of service normally supplied by the absent Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole.
Andy Carroll, at least, can look back on his first cap with a sense of satisfaction. As the wingers were seeing very little of the ball, he similarly suffered from a lack of service, but he dropped deeper to collect the ball to run at defenders. His great strength, his aerial ability, was evident but only amounted to a couple of headers that were comfortable saves for Hugo Lloris. Carroll was substituted to warm applause after 70 minutes and when Steven Gerrard was replaced by Peter Crouch on 85 minutes it was ironic that the self-proclaimed last resort striker took only a minute to cushion a volley into the net for England’s consolation.
Just where are we at with Capello? Technically, we are no match for the better nations of the world. France might have been seen to be fragile following the World Cup, but they were way ahead of England in this department. Is that Capello’s fault, perhaps not. He has limited time with the players, who are entrenched in the hurly-burly but technically deficient Premiership. But France were also tactically much better than England and this is where Capello should be held to account. England actually looked defensively sounder in the second half when Rio Ferdinand was withdrawn. This is no reflection on the England skipper, but with Micah Richards slotting in at right back and Jagielka occupying his natural position the balance was improved. So why start with players out of their regular positions, Capello takes the blame.
The Sun produced one of their mischievous headlines, reproduced here, and have been on Capello’s case since the World Cup. We have taken small steps forward following the Wally with the Brolly, but is the Prat in the Hat any better than Sven, it is certainly difficult to mount a case for that argument.Defeat is not the end of the world on this occasion. This was a friendly international and had England been able to call on the services of Ashley Cole, John Terry and Wayne Rooney it is conceivable that the result may have been different. But the gulf in quality exposed a lack of depth in the squad that is not going to be remedied short term and is unlikely to be remedied during the tenure of Capello.
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