What Can The Average Fan Learn From England's 5-0 Win In Moldova?

Ahead of England's opening World Cup 2014 qualification fixture in Moldova there was plenty of doom and gloom surrounding the England camp after their usual exit on penalties at the quarter-final stage of a major championship. This summer it was Italy who dispatched of the Three Lions in a shoot-out after failing to score against a dogged England side. Roy Hodgson's men got their own back in a friendly in August, but in what was a very low-key game with both sides under-strength.

So tonight heads turned to see how the nation ranked third in the FIFA world rankings would get on in their latest quest for World Cup glory. Moldova, a country with a population of barely more than 3.5 million, were always going to be making up the numbers, despite being at home. The visitors duly dished out a 5-0 thrashing to make England fans immediately start bigging up their team and their World Cup hopes. Despite the apparent formality of the result for England, this did appear a much more convincing performance than the ones seen under Steve McLaren and in Fabio Capello's last months in charge. 

Roy Hodgson has become the first national manager to get fully behind Steven Gerrard and give him the permanent captain's arm-band. The rewards have been great as the Liverpool has excelled in every recent performance. The way that Gerrard and Frank Lampard played together tonight would have delighted Hodgson, especially after years of the two mid-fielders struggling to strike up a partnership. However it would have been the displays by youngsters Tom Cleverley and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that would really have pleased the boss as they seemingly took apart their opponents with ease. 

The former Switzerland and Finland head coach said: "Cleverley was excellent for 90 minutes and when you watch him, you understand why Sir Alex Ferguson is pleased with him. Alex had an excellent first half. He hasn't played much football, and I think even at half-time, he was tired, and we were worried about leaving him on for too long, because his 15 minutes in the second half weren't as good as his 45 in the first."

Although Hodgson was pleased with his team's blend of youth and experience and an excellent result, it is clear that this match must not be taken out of context. England want to be in a position where they can challenge for major trophies while Moldova are ranked 141st in the world and for whom any points in this qualification campaign would represent a decent result. A convincing win against a team like Moldova is not going to quash any fears that England are still a long way off where they want to be. 

Captain Gerrard has insisted that England could still win in Rio and said: "We have to have that faith and keep believing. You never stop believing in football. Miracles do happen." Nevertheless the use of the word 'miracle' still suggests that he feels that this is a long way from happening with England as they are now. He echoed these thoughts: "When I speak, I'm realistic and honest. At the moment we're not one of the favourites to win the World Cup but that doesn't mean you stop believing, working hard to improve and try to learn from mistakes you have made in previous tournaments."

England will struggle to improve on their last eight exit in the Euros in two years time, but they do have some real quality in the team. First and foremost is this qualification campaign and England face a much tougher assignment against Ukraine at Wembley on Tuesday. A 1-0 win over the Eastern European team secured progress from their group in Euro 2012, although the goalscorer from that match, Wayne Rooney, is absent with an injury. 

England should be able to qualify for 2014 in Rio without too many problems. Poland, Montenegro and Ukraine are all tricky fixtures, but also ones that Gerrard and co. will go into as hot favourites. It will be at the finals where Hodgson and his squad are really put under the microscope. 

England Beat Italy In Euro 2012 Re-Match

Two of Europe's biggest footballing nations met in the Swiss capital of Berne in a re-match of their Euro 2012 quarter-final. On that occasion in Kiev Italy out-passed and out-classed England but only just ended up winning in a penalty shoot-out. This was always going to be a low-key affair but it was pleasantly entertaining as both sides, although under-strength, looked to attack as much as possible. Roy Hodgson's men produced an encouraging display in their first match since that agonising defeat as they won 2-1 courtesy of goals from Phil Jagielka and Jermain Defoe.

The Three Lions fielded a youthful side that included 19-year-old Birmingham City goal-keeper Jack Butland and Team GB representatives Ryan Bertrand (substitute) and Tom Cleverley. New £12 million Manchester City signing Jack Rodwell failed to get off the bench after his new team-mate Adam Johnson started the match. In what was always going to be an experimental game manager Roy Hodgson took the chance to tinker as he named ten players that did not travel to Ukraine two months ago in the squad. 

England started the first half brightly and big Liverpool striker Andy Carroll headed over from a corner early on. However it was the European runners-up who took the lead after a quarter of an hour through a powerful Daniele de Rossi header from an in-swinging Alessandro Diamanti set-piece. England responded well and continued to pass the ball crisply and equalised 12 minutes later when Everton centre-back Phil Jagielka smashed home. Both sides had more attempts before half-time to complete an exciting first 45, but the break came with the scores level.

Hodgson made two changes at the interval as he swapped the brute aggression and heading ability of Carroll with the speed and clinical finishing attributes of Jermain Defoe. The goal-keepers were also swapped as the original third-choice keeper for Euro 2012, John Ruddy, replaced the man who took his spot on the plane in June, Butland. Ruddy was forced into an early stop as he got down well to thwart Roma forward Mattia Destro. Italy boss Cesare Prandelli only used one of his changes at half-time and it was the man he brought on who almost regained the Azurri the advantage on 57 minutes. Atalanta left-back Federico Peluso broke into the area but could only hit his shot on the slide into the side-netting as Ruddy closed the angle.

With the Premier League starting on Saturday the England manager would have felt under pressure to keep his players in top condition. On the hour mark he brought on Manchester City duo Joleon Lescott and James Milner for Ashley Young and goal scorer Jagielka to try and make an impact. England appeared to have taken the lead in the 66th minute thanks to a thumping Gary Cahill volley but the strike was ruled out by Swiss referee Sascha Kever for an apparent push by Lescott. 

Italy came close to breaking the dead-lock came in the 78th minute as a miss-kick by Destro fell kindly for substitute Verratti whose drive was well tipped away by Ruddy. From the resulting corner Bertrand had to head off his own line with his first touch of the ball, but in doing so set up an England counter-attack led by James Milner. Milner found Defoe who turned his man on the left corner of the box before firing into the top corner with plenty of panache. In the closing stages it was England who looked the more likely to score on the counter-attack and a low James Milner cross almost found Defoe who would have had a simple tap-in had the ball reached him.

Photo courtesy of The Guardian