England National Football Team Match No. 777

England 2 Finland 1 [1-1]

Saturday, 24 March 2001

England Pre-Match

All information is complete to and including the match against Spain on 28 February 2001.

Notes

Sunday, 18 March 2001 - Coach Sven-Göran Eriksson summoned a 26-player squad for the World Cup 2002 preliminary matches against Finland at Anfield Road in Liverpool on Saturday, 24 March and Albania at Qemal Stafa Stadium in Tirana on Wednesday, 28 March.  

There were several changes from the unusually large 31-player squad Eriksson chose for his first match in charge, the friendly match against Spain at Villa Park in Birmingham on 28 February 2001, when he sought to play as many senior team candidates as possible in the only preparatory match he had ahead of England's resumption of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

The only addition is Steven Gerrard, who was unavailable for selection to the last squad because of injury.

Six players were omitted, four of them dropped and two unavailable for selection because of injury:  Michael Ball, who played as a substitute against Spain but was named to the under-21 squad this time; Nick Barmby, who scored the first goal in an excellent 90-minute performance  against Spain but was unavailable for selection this time because of injury; Kieron Dyer, who withdrew from the last squad because of injury and was unavailable for selection this time due to injury; Ugo Ehiogu, who scored as a substitute against Spain but was not selected this time; Ray Parlour, who withdrew from the last squad because of injury and was not selected this time; and Kevin Phillips, who was an unused substitute against Spain and was not selected this time.

Four players who were unavailable for selection against Spain because of injury remain injured and unavailable:  Darren Anderton, Martin Keown, Jamie Redknapp and Trevor Sinclair, who is still uncapped.

One veteran player who was unavailable for selection against Spain because of injury but is now fit was not selected, Gareth Southgate.

Several older players available but not selected for the Spain squad again were overlooked: David Batty; Paul Ince; Graeme Le Saux; Paul Merson; Stuart Pearce; Dennis Wise.

In addition to Michael Ball, several players who have been named to previous England senior squads were put on the under-21 squad this time:  Gareth Barry, Francis Jeffers, Seth Johnson and Paul Robinson.  Alan Smith, still uncapped at the senior level, was not named to the under-21 squad because of a three-game suspension resulting from a sending-off.

Thursday, 22 March 2001 - Goalkeeper David Seaman, who missed Arsenal's match against Aston Villa last Sunday because of inflammation of the back, was declared fit to play.

Saturday, 24 March 2001 - Midfielder Steven Gerrard was declared fit to start for England after a week in which he had at times been unable to train because of soreness in his back, one of several physical problems that have plagued him throughout his relatively brief career, apparently because his bone growth has outstripped his muscle growth.  The England squad thus incurred no injury withdrawals emerged from a week of training intact for the Finland match this afternoon. 

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PY/CG