adminSlovenia. — A late Wayne Rooney strike gave England a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Slovenia yesterday, after Jack Wilshere scored two outstanding goals from range for Roy Hodgson’s side.
Milivoje Novakovic put Slovenia head and after Wilshere’s double gave England an advantage, Nejc Pecnik’s 84th minute header appeared to have rescued a point for the hosts.
But then Rooney pounced upon a defensive lapse by Slovenia to win the game.
England set out to punish Slovenia in the opening ten minutes, playing on the front foot and focusing on a front three that is capable of blowing teams like this out of the water.
Instead, when that trio failed to score, the frustration set in and England very quickly ran out of steam. It turned out to be another brutal lesson.
It was hard to work out whether Phil Jones was throwing in the towel or attempting to throw the ball to an England player deep in Slovenia’s half in the moments that led to the opening goal.
Either way it ended up in the back of Joe Hart’s net a few seconds later when Slovenia cut through this England team with speed and conviction.
The goal, scored by the much-travelled Milivoje Novakovic, undid an awful lot of good work.
Raheem Sterling has struggled in red of late, distracted perhaps by the likelihood that he will be leaving Liverpool this summer.
Here, wearing England’s change strip, there had been a marked improvement after he was restored to his favoured position out on the left.
He had decent chances, steering Rooney’s third minute lay up over the crossbar of Slovenia’s mightily relived keeper Samir Handanovic.
Just behind him was his minder, the snarling figure of Fabian Delph making the crunching tackles and timely interceptions that are required at this level. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter