England National Football Team Match No. 836

England 3 Hungary 1  [0-0]

Tuesday, 30 May 2006

Match Summary and Report

Old Trafford, Manchester, 30 May 2006 - The team that faced Hungary.
Back row - Paul Robinson, John Terry, Jamie Carragher, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard.
Front row - Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, David Beckham (captain), Gary Neville, Michael Owen.
 

Match Summary

England Team

10th in FIFA ranking of 17 May 2006; 3rd in Elo world ranking before this match and 3rd after this match.

England Lineup

England Substitutes

4-5-1, although essentially it was a 4-1-3-1-1 formation

Robinson -
G Neville (Hargreaves), Ferdinand, Terry (Campbell), A Cole -
Carragher -
Beckham, Lampard, J Cole -
Gerrard (Crouch) -
Owen (Walcott) -

Hungary Team

76th in FIFA ranking of 17 May 2006; 61st in Elo world ranking before this match and 62nd after this match.

Hungary Lineup

Hungary Substitutes

4-4-2

Király -
Fehér, Éger, Komlósi (Vanczák), Halmosi -
Gera, Molnár (Vadócz), Dárdai, Tóth (Torghelle) -
Szabics (Polonkai), Huszti.

Match Report

England's World Cup preparations continued with a 3-1 win over Hungary.  Steven Gerrard and John Terry both headed home free-kicks from David Beckham in the space of four minutes early in the second half.  Pal Dardai pulled a goal back with a brilliant long-range shot before Peter Crouch's excellent low strike late on.  Theo Walcott came on to become England's youngest ever international, while in the first half Gabor Kiraly saved a penalty from Frank Lampard.  Sven-Göran Eriksson had promised that the line-up for this match would start against Paraguay in England's opening World Cup match.

Gerrard played as the advanced midfielder, supporting Michael Owen, while Jamie Carragher played as a holding midfield role with Beckham, Lampard and Joe Cole across the middle of the park.  And England almost scored within a minute of deploying their new formation but Terry could not keep his header on target after connecting with a Beckham corner.

The home team dominated possession, pressing and probing, while full-backs Ashley Cole and Gary Neville looked to push forward and provide width as often as possible.  But England's midfield took time to adjust to their new shape and the next serious attempt at goal came from Szabolcs Huszti, who shot wide of Paul Robinson's goal from 20 yards after 22 minutes.  And the Old Trafford crowd, far from capacity, had little to cheer before the game exploded into life five minutes before the break. 

Kiraly made a point-blank save, parrying Owen's header after the striker connected with Beckham's cross.  Seconds later the keeper dived low to his right to save Lampard's penalty after Csaba Feher was harshly adjudged to have brought down Gerrard.  Owen might have scored with the rebound but his header clipped the crossbar.  Joe Cole then made a superbly-timed run across the Hungary defence and appeared to have deftly headed England ahead from Beckham's superb cross but the ball hit the post and was cleared by Laszlo Eger.

Gerrard, wearing the number nine shirt, put England ahead two minutes after the restart. Beckham had supplied the cross for Gerrard's goal with a free-kick - and it was with another dead-ball delivery from the skipper that Terry headed his first goal for England after 51 minutes.

Dardai's curling strike reduced Hungary's deficit - and banished any notion of a second-half rout.  Neville had been replaced by Owen Hargreaves at the break, the defender complaining of a tight hamstring, but the more significant introduction was that of Walcott after 65 minutes.  At 17 years and 75 days Walcott, who has yet to play for Arsenal in the Premiership, became England's youngest full international.  Eger almost equalised with a long-range strike that Robinson superbly saved.

But the final goal came from Crouch, whose neat turn and shot from the edge of the box was followed by an 80s robotics-style celebration.

 

Source Notes

Sources

UEFA.com
FIFA.com
Hungarian FA website
Nemzeti Sport Online

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CG