Agbonlahor and Milner did the job
Seeing the England under-21s beat Portugal in the their qualifying UEFA under-21 Championship was refreshing. The senior team can learn a lot from them, this team had hunger and they looked proud wearing the England shirt. Seeing the England senior teams in action in the past was torture..BORING! This England team however in their eight qualifying matches stayed unbeaten winning seven games and drawing one and that against Portugal, but now this team have to go into a two-legged play-off to book their place in Sweden next summer for the UEFA under-21 Championship.
England were crisp in their tackles and passing, Agbonlahor was a reveleation, though he has sparringlly appeared for England senior team, he should been blooded in on a regular basis and the same can be said of Muamba and Mancienne. Most of these players were not from the top four clubs accept Mancienne and Frazier Campbell from Chelsea and Manchester United (A good peformance by Campbell too though brieflly in the last few minutes as a sub).
Portugal on the other hand who are known to have a great senior team and also one of the best youth teams in the world did not live up to the tag. They were toothless and lost all the lose balls they were soft in their tackles and could not handle the English tackles. The first goal was unlucky, but valid a penalty given to England for a foul on Muamba and James Milner dully converted it.
The second goal was a fast counter attack and a long raking pass by Mark Noble of West Ham United found Agbonlahor on the half-way line, he burst through despite a Portuguese player "tagging" along with him and when faced with the goalie he somehow managed to slot it in past the goalie via a deflection.
This England team can go far. The senior team will take on Andorra in their first qualifier of the World Cup, but the real test will be the match against Croatia.
Manchester United meanwhile had a shocker last week with Zenit St. Petersburg in their European Super Cup Match, if you think the English play with pace you should see the Russians. The same brand of play that the Russian national team played in the Euro last last summer was displayed by Zenit.
Zenit loved to attack in a fiery pace down the middle, unlike the English team who hit the ball wide when attacking, the Russians were not only good in pace, but the interchange of passes between them was pleasing to the eye. They also have the knack of signing bargain players in the form of Dominguez and CSKA Moscow have done with a few bargains of their own too, notablly Brazilian Jo who is now in Manchester City.
Either way Juventus and Real Madrid had better watch out for Zenit in their Champions League group matches. The Russians are coming.
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