England 1-0 Germany

UEFA European U21 Championship Play-Off first leg
Friday 6 October 2006
Ricoh Arena, Coventry City FC

A screamer from Leighton Baines gave England a well-earned and extremely valuable 1-0 first leg advantage from a pulsating match in Coventry.

Wigan defender Baines struck with 13 minutes left of a game that looked destined to finish all-square, courtesy of some remarkable goalkeeping from Germany’s Michael Rensing.

With a trip to Germany to come on Tuesday, Peter Taylor’s men knew how vital it would be to take a lead with them. But for Rensing, they could have had the play-off, not just this first part, wrapped up by half-time. Instead, Baines’ belter is all that separates the sides.

Playing the same formation, 4-5-1, that served them well in Switzerland a month ago, England made all the running in the opening half hour, forcing Rensing into a series of solid saves.

The central midfield trio of Nigel Reo-Coker, James Milner and, in particular, Tom Huddlestone were strong in the tackle, giving their defence protection, while providing the required support for the forward-line, spearheaded by David Nugent.

Full-backs Baines and Micah Richards were also very lively, getting forward at every opportunity and giving Rensing some extra work. While Anton Ferdinand and Steve Taylor were throwing themselves in front of anything Germany had to offer.

With nine minutes played, Huddlestone was the first to test Oliver Kahn’s Bayern Munich understudy. The Spurs man’s left foot drive on nine minutes was easily collected low to his right.

Rensing needed to be on his toes again moments later when Richards had a couple of chances. First a header from a corner, which drifted just wide, then he latched onto a David Nugent miss-hit. The Manchester City defender looked certain to get the shot off, but Rensing was out sharply to smother.

But it was England’s pace that was causing Germany the problems. Out wide Wayne Routledge, on the right, and Theo Walcott, on the left, were trying to give their markers a difficult night.

Milner did have the ball in the net on 18 minutes after combining well with Routledge but the Fulham winger was offside before he pulled back for his team mate.

That set off a spell of England pressure that had everything, except the vital breakthrough.

Baines delivered a deep cross for Routledge to crack a low strike from a tight angle. Rensing saved.

Baines again arrived in support on the left, but this time had a shot of his own – a fierce left-footed drive. Rensing saved.

Another Baines cross which took a deflection off a German head was diverted goalward by Anton Ferdinand. Rensing saved.

But the best chance of the first -half arrived just before the break, as Nugent showed a turn of pace to get past the German defence. It was a great through ball from Reo-Coker to release the Preston hitman, and as he bore down on Rensing he cut inside his marker to make the route clear, but the slippery surface caused him to slip to the floor.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Carson was largely untroubled as his defence restricted Germany to shots from range. Mario Gomez had the best of them, but his left-foot strike from the edge of the box rolled tamely wide.

Carson’s first real save came six minutes into the second period. Following a loose pass from Taylor, Gonzalo Castro was able to carry the ball forward and unleash a shot from 30-yards. A deflection added to the greasy grass, which endured a downpour at the start of the game, made a routine save tricky, but Carson held well.

Finally, though, on 57 minutes it came - Rensing was beaten. But unfortunately England, Routledge’s vicious 18-yard strike skipped off the surface, past the keeper’s diving arms and clattered the outside of the post.

Normal service was resumed five minutes later. The impressive Huddlestone set England off on another attack which ended in Reo-Coker shooting across the goal looking for the far corner. Rensing had other ideas and his strong palm snuffed out the danger.

The game began to open up, but neither side could find the breakthrough. Even when Baines, faultless up to that point, made an error that set Kiessling through with a clear sight of goal, Ferdinand helped out the Wigan man to get anything in the way and prevent the shot coming in.

What could have been agony, soon turned into ecstasy for Baines. As he lined up to shoot from 25-yards, the Ricoh Arena crowd drew breath and watched as his sweet effort soared into the top right hand corner of the net.

It was only his second goal in senior football, and his last one – for Wigan against Ipswich – was a screamer too. But it needed to be special to beat Rensing.

TheFA.com Man of the Match: Tom Huddlestone

England (click for profiles)
1 Scott Carson, 2 Micah Richards, 3 Leighton Baines, 4 Steven Taylor, 5 Anton Ferdinand, 6 Tom Huddlestone, 7 Nigel Reo-Coker (c), 8 James Milner, 9 Theo Walcott (17 Ashley Young, 66 mins), 10 David Nugent (15 Ben Watson, 81 mins), 11 Wayne Routledge (18 Gabriel Agbonlahor, 71 mins)
Subs: 12 Justin Hoyte, 13 Lee Camp, 14 Matthew Kilgallon, 16 Peter Whittingham.

Goals: Baines 77

Coach Peter Taylor

Germany
1 Michael Rensing, 2 Dominik Reinhardt, 3 Patrick Ochs, 4 Markus Brzenska, 5 Marvin Matip, 6 Gonzalo Castro, 7 Kevin-Prince Boateng, 8 Eugen Polanski (18 Andreas Ottl 46 mins), 9 Stefan Kiessling, 10 Aaron Hunt, 11 Mario Gomez
Subs: 12 Phillipp Tschauner, 13 Pascal Bieler, 14 Sascha Dum, 15 Sebastien Freis, 16 Roberto Hilbert, 17 Marc Andre Kruska.

Coach Dieter Eilts

Colours
England: White Shirts, Blue Shorts, White Socks
Goalkeeper – Blue Shirt, Blue Shorts, Blue Socks

Germany: Red Shirts, White Shorts, Red Socks
Goalkeeper – Gold Shirt, Black Shorts, Black Socks

Match Officials (All From Italy)
Referee: Matteo Simone Trefoloni
Assistant Referees: Stefano Ayroldi And Flaviano Lanciano
Fourth Official: Luca Palanca 

Attendance 30,919

Build-Up News
O'Neill's faith in Gabriel - 05/10/2006
GALLERY: U21s prepare for Germany - 05/10/2006
Getting to Coventry - 05/10/2006
Eilts pleased to be back - 04/10/2006
Ricoh is a sellout - 03/10/2006
Taylor wants noisy Ricoh - 02/10/2006
Milner determined - 28/09/2006
U21s to face Germany - 08/09/2006
U21s learn fate on Friday - 07/09/2006

Second Leg details, click here