Keeping the dream alive
Friday, 14 September, 2007
Paul Robinson spoke with TheFA.com after keeping consecutive clean sheets for his country.
England 3-0 Russia
UEFA European Championship Qualifier
8pm, Wednesday 12 September 2007
Wembley Stadium
Live on BBC1
England goalkeeper Paul Robinson has hailed his side's amazing defensive record - which is now the best in Europe after two clean sheets in five days.
Michael Owen won all the headlines after England beat Russia 3-0 but Robinson has put the case for the defence.
The Tottenham keeper went into the matches against Israel and Russia with critics insisting his place in the side was under threat.
But Head Coach Steve McClaren stuck by his number one and was rewarded with two 3-0 victories and two clean sheets.
It means England, now up to second place in Group E, have conceded only two goals in nine qualifying games, the best record in the entire competition.
Only Holland come anywhere close. They have also conceded only twice in Group G but have played a game less.
Robinson said: "We’ve had a good ten days training and capped it off with two very good performances.
"To get two clean sheets in a week is fantastic for me personally as well. And it just shows that a week is a long time in football.
"I think we’ve now played nine games qualifying and kept eight clean sheets, the only time we’ve conceded is in Croatia. That's a great record."
England now have a break before facing Estonia at home and Russia away in October and Robinson is confident the Three Lions can reach the Euro 2008 finals.
He said: "We’ve proved that we’re not afraid of anyone. We’ve got a run going now and we’ve got a great team spirit. We’re got to keep it going."
England
1 Paul Robinson, 2 Micah Richards, 3 Ashley Cole, 4 Steven Gerrard, 5 Rio Ferdinand, 6 John Terry (c), 7 Gareth Barry, 8 Shaun Wright-Phillips, 9 Emile Heskey (Peter Crouch, 80), 10 Michael Owen (16 Stewart Downing, 90+2), 11 Joe Cole (14 Phil Neville, 88)
Subs: 12 Wes Brown, 13 David James, 15 Alan Smith, 17 Andrew Johnson, 18 Jermain Defoe.
Goals
Michael Owen 7, 31, Rio Ferdinand 84
Head Coach Steve McClaren
Russia
16 Viacheslav Malafeev, 2 Vasily Berezutskiy, 5 Sergey Ignashevich, 10 Andrey Arshavin, 15 Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, 17 Konstantin Zyryanov, 18 Yury Zhishkov, 20 Igor Semshov (23 Vladimir Bystrov, 40), 22 Alexander Anyukov (11 Alexander Kerzakov, 80), 26 Dmitry Sychev (19 Roman Pavlyuchenko, 63), 27 Alexey Berezutskiy.
Subs: 12 Anton Shunin, 7 Dmitriy Torbinskiy, 13 Pavel Pogrebnyak, 25 Denis Koldin.
Head Coach Guus Hiddink
Kit Colours
England White shirts, Blue shorts, White socks
GK Aubergine shirt, Aubergine shorts, White socks
Russia Red shirts, White shorts, Blue socks
GK Green shirt, Green shorts, Green socks
Match Officials
Referee Martin Hansson (SWE)
Assistant Referees Stefan Wittberg and Henrik Andren (SWE)
Fourth Official Martin Ingvarsson (SWE)
Attendance 86,106