Russia send England crashing
England u17 1-2 Russia u17
April 1 2006
By Andrew Haigh, Glanford Park, Scunthorpe.
England U17s' impressive record of qualifying
for the last five European championships was shattered as they were knocked out of the tournament after a 2-1 defeat
to group winners Russia.
Elsewhere, Italy overcame Bulgaria 3-0, a resulted that proved insignificant as Russia went through with seven
points from three games.
England had taken the lead through Michael Nardiello but were pegged back by two strikes in eight minutes.
Coach John Peacock shuffled his team for the vital match, making five changes from the team that dominated in the
draw against Bulgaria. Peacock’s counterpart, Igor Kolyvanov, made just one change from the team that drew 0-0
with Italy, with Pavel Mochalin came in for Amir Kashiev.
A quick-fire strike from Nardiello got England off to the best possible start on five minutes. Paul Rodgers’ superb
cross from the right hand side was met Nardiello on the edge of the six yard area. His sweetly struck volley flew
into the top left of the goal.
The game then opened up and Russia had two corners in the space of five minutes. Both were cleared by the new-look
England defence. As England broke Scott Sinclair had the chance to cross for two of his colleagues but his wayward
cross came to nothing.
The Russian pressure then took its toll and on 13 minutes, Dmitry Ryzhov flicked the ball on to Alexander Prudnikov
who set up the on rushing Igor Gorbatenko to drill the ball across David Button in to the bottom right of the goal.
Against the run of play England strung two-dozen passes together to force a corner. Russian keeper Evgeny Pomazan
fumbled the delivery but the ball fell kindly to a Russian defender who sent a fantastic long ball to Ryzhov. The
striker was then hacked down by defender Lee Molyneux on the left hand side of the penalty area.
The resulting free-kick was cleared by the English defence but Semen Fomine pounced on the ball and struck an instinctive
25 yard volley which looped over Button into the top left hand corner to give Russia the lead.
England striker Daniel Sturridge had been quiet early on but he showed his promise as he jinked between three players
and struck a speculative shot from 25 yards.
With five minutes left before half time, Artem Samsonov went down under a challenge from Nardiello but the Russians
played on and Prudnikov could have extended the lead but for an impressive one handed save by England number one
Button.
England came out after the break and began to dominate but Russia just sat back and managed to soak up all that
England had to offer.
A long ball by Jamie Chandler sent substitute Jake Thomson down the right only for Scott Sinclair’s header to be
cleared.
England were now camped out in the Russians half but had nothing to show for their second-half efforts.
Josh Wright’s miss-hit drive almost fell kindly for either Chandler or Nardiello, but they couldn't connect as
the ball ran across the front of goal.
With England still needing two goals for a chance of a place in the finals, hopes began to slip away as Russia
constantly had bodies behind the ball.
England’s luck were summed up by an injury-time move which included more than half a dozen passes only for Jake
Thomson to strike the ball straight at the Russian goalkeeper.
After the match John Peacock said:England Under-17s impressive record of qualifying for the last five European
championships was shattered as they were knocked out of the tournament after a 2-1 defeat to group winners Russia.
Elsewhere, Italy overcame Bulgaria 3-0, a resulted that proved insignificant as Russia went through with seven
points from three games.
England had taken the lead through Michael Nardiello but were pegged back by two strikes in eight minutes. The
three lions failed to claw back the one goal advantage as Russia sat back and soaked up everything they had to
give.
England Under-17s head coach John Peacock shuffled his team for the vital match, making five changes from the team
that dominated in the draw against Bulgaria. Peacock's counterpart, Igor Kolyvanov, made just one change from the
team that drew 0-0 with Italy, with Pavel Mochalin came in for Amir Kashiev.
A quick fire strike from Micheal Nardiello got England off to the best possible start on five minutes. Paul Rodgers'
superb cross from the right hand side was met Nardiello on the edge of the six yard area. His sweetly struck volley
flew into the top left of the goal.
The game then opened up and Russia had two corners in the space of five minutes. Both were cleared by the new-look
England defence. As England broke Scott Sinclair had the chance to cross for two of his colleagues but his wayward
cross came to nothing.
The Russian pressure then took its toll and on 13 minutes, Dmitry Ryzhov flicked the ball on to Alexander Prudnikov
who set up the on rushing Igor Gorbatenko to drill the ball across David Button in to the bottom right of the goal.
Russia then dominated the next five minutes, with Vadim Gagloev and Gorbatenko causing England major problems down
the flanks.
Against the run of play England strung two-dozen passes together to force a corner. Russian keeper Evgeny Pomazan
fumbled the delivery but the ball fell kindly to a Russian defender who sent a fantastic long ball to Ryzhov. The
striker was then hacked down by defender Lee Molyneux on the left hand side of the penalty area.
The resulting free kick was cleared by the English defence but Semen Fomine pounced on the ball and struck an instinctive
25 yard volley which looped over Button into the top left hand corner to give Russia the lead. England fans were
left to applaud the strunning 21st minute strike, which any professional footballer would have been proud of.
England striker Daniel Sturridge had been quiet early on but he showed his promise as he jinked between three players
and struck a speculative shot from 25 yards. Sturridge however couldn't repeat Fomine's effort, as the flew flew
two yards over the bar.
Russia continued to cause England trouble at the back Gorbatenko's cross was headed on to Anton Vlasov who blazed
over the bar from seven yards.
With five minutes left before half time, Artem Samsonov went down under a challenge from Nardiello but the Russians
played on and Prudnikov could have extended the lead but for an impressive one handed save by England number one
Button.
England looked to press before the break but found it difficult to get into the box. Another speculative effort
on 38 minutes, this time from left back Lee Molyneux, failed to trouble the keeper as it flew over from the edge
of the box.
The teams went in at half time with Russia odds on favourites for qualification from group seven. Their lead meant
that the 2-0 score line in the game between Italy and Bulgaria was insignificant.
England Head coach John Peacock reacted by taking off defender Paul Rodgers and replacing him with midfielder Jake
Thomson, reverting to a 3-4-3 formation.
The change took effect immediately as England dominated the first five minutes of the second half but they were
let down by their attackers whose final ball was consistently poor. Russia began to sit back and comfortably managed
to soak up all that England had to offer.
A long ball by Jamie Chandler sent substitute Thomson down the right only for Scott Sinclair's tame header to be
cleared.
Both managers then shuffled their teams, Russia brought on Alexander Marenich for Ryzhov while England made a like
for like switch in the centre of midfield with Josh Wright replacing Matt Richards.
England continued to dominate possession and forced four corners in the space of five minutes but those efforts
were yet another an indication of England's poor final ball, as none of them troubled the Russian defence.
England were camped out in the Russians half but had nothing to show for their second half efforts. Peacock made
his final change with 14 minutes remaining; Manchester United striker Febian Brandy replaced Scott Sinclair.
Russia reacted with a defensive substitution by bringing on midfielder Jan Bobrovskiy for striker Prudinikov.
The young Three Lions then went in search of a winner by converting to a 3-3-4 formation and after a foul on the
edge of the Russian area, Molyneux struck a curling free kick high over the bar.
Josh Wright's miss-hit drive failed to fall kindly for both Chandler or Nardiello, who missed the ball by a couple
of inches as it ran across the front of goal.
With England still needing two goals for a chance of a place in the finals, it became every more unlikely that
Peacocks team would not qualify, as Russia constantly had 10 bodies behind the ball.
England's efforts were summed up by an extra time move which included more than half a dozen passes only for Jake
Thomson to strike the ball straight at the Russian goalkeeper.
The final whistle blew with the Russian bench delighted with their efforts and a place in May's finals secured.
John Peacock said after the match:
"We're disappointed, I think the best team won today and won the tournament and I have no complaints about
that. Having got into an early lead I was hoping we could have pushed on from that but I think Russians had a bit
too much for us both physically and technically and on the day they were the better team."
"The goal was probably the highlight of the game for us. It was in the first five minutes and we created a
really good move down the right hand side and it was a great finish and I was pleased for Michael but then we just
seemed to back away a little bit, we didn't remain in the ascendancy but all credit to Russia, they got themselves
back in the game and they didn't look under any great threat in the second half.
"Russia knew a draw may have been enough for them when they came here today, they had a better goal difference
than all of us but to be fair they had to come out when we went a goal up and they did that. When it was 2-1 at
half time all they had to do was sit back and let us worry about trying to brake them down and we couldn't do that
today.
"The players are very disappointed. We've had a very good record in the last four or five years so to not
to be going to the finals is a big disappointment to us all but we have to move on from that now and look towards
next season.
"We have take stock of what we have achieved over the last week and hopefully create better international
players for the future."
England:
David Button, Jack Cork, Lee Molyneux, Ciaran Clark, Paul Rodgers (Jake Thomson, 40), Matt Richards (Josh Wright,
53), Jamie Chandler, Josh Walker, Scott Sinclair, Michael Nardiello, Daniel Sturridge.
Subs: Ben Amos, Ryan Bertrand, James Tomkins, Nathan Porritt, Febian Brandy,
Russia:
Evgeny Pomazan, Artem Samsonov, Sergey Morozov, Pavel Mochalin (Alexander Sapeta, 80) Roman Amirkhanov, Vadim Gagloev,
Igor Gorbatenko, Anton Vlasov, Alexander Prudnikov (Jan Bobrovskiy, 69), Semen Fomine, Dmitry Ryzhov (Alexandr
Marenich, 53),
Subs: Roman Savenkov, Evgeny Korotaev, Denis Shcherbak. |
