England

2-2

Czech Republic

Brown 45, Cole 90+2

 

Baros 22, Jankulovski 48

International Friendly
8pm, Wednesday 20 August 2008
Wembley Stadium
Live on Setanta

Fabio Capello believes that England took another step forward in their final friendly prior to the World Cup qualifiers, with the England Manager seeing his players performing without fear for the first time.

England secured a draw with Czech Republic thanks to a late goal by Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole, but Capello says that were it not for the work of Petr Cech then the Three Lions would have come away with victory.

Capello said: "It was the first time they played without fear at Wembley - well or not well, but they played with no fear. This is important. This is the style of the English player.

"I spoke with some people in the dressing room and after the first half they were happy, also the players.

"In the first half we shot six or seven times and I think one of the best players was Petr Cech because he made three saves. This is important for me."

Capello also highlighted the importance of both Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, but admitted that both players will be in better shape when the competitive games come around in two weeks time.

"The movement of Rooney and the work that he does in every game is very important for me," Capello explained.

"I think Rooney, Gerrard and other players are not in perfect condition physically at the moment. That will be very important."

Teams

England
1 David James, 2 Wes Brown, 3 Ashley Cole, 4 Gareth Barry, 5 Rio Ferdinand (15 Jonathan Woodgate, 58), 6 John Terry (c), 7 David Beckham (19 Jermaine Jenas, 79), 8 Frank Lampard (17 David Bentley, 79), 9 Jermain Defoe (21 Emile Heskey, 46), 10 Steven Gerrard (20 Joe Cole, 58), 11 Wayne Rooney (18 Stewart Downing, 68)

Substitutes not used
12 Paul Robinson, 13 Glen Johnson, 14 Wayne Bridge, 16 Matthew Upson, 22 Theo Walcott, 23 Joe Hart.

Manager
Fabio Capello

Czech Republic
1 Petr Cech, 2 Zdeněk Grygera (12 Zdenek Pospech, 46), 21Tomaš Ujfalusi (c), 22 David Rozehnal, 6 Marek Jankulovski, 11 Stanislav Vlcek (14 David Jarolim, 46), 5 Radoslav Kovac, (3 Jan Rajnoch, 76), 8 Jan Polak, 20 Jaroslav Plasil (9 Michal Papadopulos, 90+2), 17 Radek Sirl, (Michal Kadlac, 76), 15 Milan Baros (19 Vaclav Sverkos, 46).

Substitutes not used
23 Daniel Zitka.

Manager
Petr Rada

Team Colours

England
White shirts, blue shorts, white socks

Czech Republic
Red shirts, red shorts, red socks

Attendance
69,738