Filed under: Euro 2012, Football, England Football
First things first. England won. They are within a point of qualification for the 2012 European Championships. And they have completed two internationals in five days without conceding a goal, with some inspiring performances in the first outing.So all is good, no? Well, no, not if you listen to the pundits. England went back to default setting at Wembley on Tuesday night, looking more pressured as time went on, with the balls going forward getting longer and longer. Manager Fabio Capello admitted he "suffered" watching the last 20 minutes of the match.
But let's get back to reality. We - and Capello - should have learned from the dismal World Cup in 2010 that the performances in the qualifying fixtures will mean next to nothing when the Euros kick off in Ukraine and Poland.
Which is a good thing. Because just as the new-look England team were held up as representatives of a new dawn for the nation on Friday following the 3-0 win over Bulgaria, the doubters and gloom merchants were back out in force after the hard-fought victory over Wales.
One goal is not good enough, they say, the passing game has somehow disappeared in the space of less than a week. What has happened to England? We'll never get anywhere with those sorts of laboured performances.
You know the drill, the same prophets of doom come out every time there is a below-par showing from Capello's men.
The England manager himself admitted: "I suffered a lot in the last 15 minutes and they got an incredible chance to score. The performance was not the top. We played good football in the first half and started well. But the last 15 minutes we had pressure for the result and we stopped passing and we never went forward quickly."
But how England won is irrelevant. Because as we saw prior to South Africa in 2010, even a qualifying campaign where England maraud over their opponents in positive swashbuckling style means little if the planning and preparation for the tournament itself is awry.
And as Capello said: "We go to Montenegro more relaxed. We need a point against them and they need to win away in Switzerland, which will not be easy."
Or to put it in simple terms, it doesn't matter how England beat Wales - or how they play against Montenegro in Podgorica on October 7. As long as they get to the Euros. And then is when the worrying will really start - and when we will find out whether Capello learned anything from South Africa.
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