Peacock takes stock

England 1-2 Russia

UEFA European U17 Championship
Elite Qualifying Round
Scunthorpe United FC
1 April 2006

England coach John Peacock was a disappointed man after watching his young side slip to a 2-1 defeat to Russia - a result which ended their hopes of qualifying for the European Championship.

England needed to beat Russia on Saturday to have any chance of progressing to Luxembourg in May. However, they found their opponents a tough obstacle, despite Michael Nardiallo giving the hosts a fifth minute lead.

“I think the best team won today and won the tournament and I have no complaints about that," said Peacock.

“The players are very disappointed. We’ve had a very good record in the last four or five years so to not 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.”

Rather than dwell on the defeat, Peacock preferred to look at the positives from the week, which included a terrific performance against Italy, where England completely outplayed the visitors.

“We have take stock of what we have achieved over the last week and hopefully create better international players for the future," he added.

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 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 by 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 centre 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 and into 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.

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,

Goals: Nardiello 5

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.