England dominant in stalemate
England u17 0-0 Bulgaria u17
March 30 2006
Attendance - 4,225
By Andrew Haigh, Oakwell Stadium, Barnsley.
A dominant England side misfired in front of goal
and failed to dispatch of a Bulgarian side who were blitzed 5-0 by Russia in their previous group seven game.
The Three Lions were camped out in the Bulgarian half for most of the game but Head Coach John Peacock will be
disappointed as his team missed a hatful of chances against Bulgaria who had only one notable effort on goal.
England started the brighter with attacks down both flanks but Bulgaria were resilient at the heart of defence.
England’s most notable effort of the early stages came on five minutes when Scott Sinclair cut inside from
the left of the area and shot low but Bulgarian keeper Ivan
Karadyov did well to tip the ball around the
post.
Nathan Porritt was causing the Bulgarian left back trouble with his close control but his tame shot on eight minutes
fell kindly for the keeper.
As England dominated Porritt had an opportunity in the 17th minute to put The Three lions ahead.
Jake Thomson’s looping cross was met on the volley by Porritt but his effort was blocked strongly by Daniel Gramatikov.
Porritt was again involved as his 25th minute cross was put on a plate for striker Daniel Sturridge whose header was straight at the Bulgarian number one.
Bulgaria were losing out in the midfield battle with England captain Josh Walker and his compatriot
Josh Wright putting in workmanlike performances.
With ten minutes of the half remaining Sturridge’s sublime back flick set up Sinclair who forced a corner.
Thomson took the set-piece but keeper Karadyov again thwarted England.
In the 32nd minute Sturridge took a quick free-kick but Karadyov was quick off his
line to stub out any chance of a deserved goal.
With six minutes left on the clock Sturridge’s trickery again caused the Bulgarian defence problems. Thomson
ran on to Manchester City striker’s overhead flick but put the ball a foot wide of the right hand post under pressure.
Bulgaria managed their first shot on goal less than a minute before half-time when Mihail Aleksandrov cut in from
the right and hit a curling left foot shot straight at Tottenham keeper David Button.
England again started brightly in the second half when Sturridge won a free-kick on the edge of the box. Walker managed to dip the ball
over the wall but it went wide of the left hand post.
From the resulting goal kick, England broke again and Walker’s shot across the front of the goal fell to Sinclair,
who hit the post from an acute angle.
England then had a penalty shout turned down by referee Kovarik. Sturridge went past three defenders
and was hacked down on the by-line only for shouts from the boisterous Barnsley crowd to go unnoticed.
Three minutes later, Peacock rang the changes with Febian
Brandy and Jamie Chandler, who had both
started Tuesday’s match against Italy, replaced Porritt and Wright.
Almost instantly Bulgarian Coach Filip Filipov responded with his own substitution. Hearts' young striker Branimir Konstadinov traded places with Aleksandrov.
With twenty minutes remaining, England remained dominant and Thomson’s cross rebounded to
Sturridge but his shot was blocked. As the ball was cleared to midfield, a long ball to the left wing fell
to substitute Brandy who was fouled by Konstadin Velkov.
Thomson’s free kick though was headed wide from six yards by Sturridge who missed his best
opportunity for a breakthrough.
In the final two minutes, Nardiello and Sturridge both could have given England victory. Nardiello put the ball wide
of the left post after a flowing move and Sturridge’s powerful shot failed to trouble the Bulgarian keeper.
Teams:
England: D Button, J Cork, C Clark, J Tomkins, R Bertrand, J Thomson, J Wright (J Chandler, 55), J Walker, N Porritt
(F Brandy, 55), S Sinclair (M Nardiello, 67), D Sturridge.
Subs: B Amos, L Molyneux, M Richards, P Rodgers.
Bulgaria: I Karadyov, D Reychev, D Gramatikov, J Velkov, D Dimov, M Aleksandrov (B Konstadinov, 56) G Chakarov,
I Tsachev, N Chipev (G Tanev, 79), V Petakov (T Dimitrov, 67) K Lovkov.
Subs: L Ivanov, V Ganchev, D Zlantkov, T Todorov.
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