England v Wales – live! | Paul Doyle

• Press F5 for the latest or use our auto-refresh button below • Email paul.doyle@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Follow Paul on Twitter if that’s your thing • Follow all tonight’s latest scores across Europe On England: “It looks like Downing playing for Liverpool and Young playing for Manchester United is a wing-wing situation for England,” chortles Erlend Andenaes. In other news , Armenia have just taken the lead in Slovakia, meaning Ireland could remain in the runners-up spot tonight following their jammy draw in Russia. Half-time: England are doing enough. After a desultory half hour Downing and Young combined for a fine goal and confidence has coursed through them ever since. They’ve been far from brilliant, but they’ve been better than Wales. 42 min: Wales’ limitations as an attacking force are being exposed now, as despite their attempts to rebel against their apparent fate, England, becalmed by the goal, are comfortably on top, without dazzling. 40 min: Young produces a superb cross after a short corner, but Rooney fails to connect with an attempted header just five yards out. 38 min: Bale attempts a solo burst from deep, but runs into trouble and England launch the ball back forward quickfast. Hennessey is forced to charge off his line to boot it clear just before Rooney could latch onto it. 36 min: Downing has his dander up and that’s bad news for Taylor, who’s starting to look decidedly dizzy. GOAL! England 1-0 Wales (Young 35′) Unsurprisingly the wingers were responsible for the break-through. Downing twisted and darted past Ledley down the right and then cut the ball back into the centre, where Young arrived to drive low into the net from eight yards. 32 min: Gunter dispossess goals deep in his own half and then races forward … and completely loses his head, attempting to blast the ball into the top corner from 30 yards. Keep their composure in such situations and Wales could shock England. 30 min: Wales are working extremely hard to subdue England, a few forays down the flanks from Downing and Young being the only signs of English penetration. The midfield trio of Lampard, Milner and Barry is not, would you believe, offering any ingenuity. 27 min: The Welsh have a solid centre so England can only make any ground down the wings. Young jinks and tries to tempt Gunter into committing himself but the defender holds his ground, though Young still manages to deliver a dangerous cross, which Rooney meet and volleys way, way over. 25 min: A lapse of concentration from Cole gives Wales a corner. The visitors must be beginning to sense an upset given England’s drabness so far. But they’ll have to come up with something better than the weak corner that they’ve just delivered. 23 min: In a nutshell, this has been a typical England Wembley performance so far. Uninspired. 20 min: England are too proud to rough up Wales’ main man. Milner gets a deserved booking for clattering into Bale. 19 min: England have truly twigged that Downing has Taylor on toast, so are feeding him regularly. A fine cross towards Rooney from the Liverpool man prompts Hennessey to scamper off his line to claim. Meanwhile, this from Robin Hazlehurst. “Fancy updates from Norn Iron’s match in Estonia?” chirps Robin. “I’m watching it live on Estonian TV – I would have gone but the game actually sold out. 30 minutes gone, NI had most of the possession but not too many real threats, and Vunk has just put Estonia ahead with a cracking first-time strike from outside the box. Worth looking up. The Irish have now got the vunk on – oh and Estonia have just scored from 30 yards, Kink this time. Vunk and Kink, what a strikeforce.” 17 min: Taylor buys a Downing feint all too easily but the winger overhits his cross. However, encouraged by the ease with which Downing got to the by-line, England work it down the right again, and this time the cross demands an urgent headed clearance. 14 min: Morison gives Terry a bit of the Grant Holt treatment, outrunning and then outmuscling the England captain to reach a long ball first. And then boom a rash shot miles over from 25 yards and an acute angle. “You know, the fact that the crowd applauded a successful sideways pass from Lampard to Cole in the sixth minute tells you everything that is wrong with the English game,” intones Phil Sawyer. “Have our expectations really sunk so low?” Well, in days of yore they’d have been baying at every player to launch it into the mixer, so perhaps that is progress? 12 min: Wales are beginning to emerge as an offensive force, having weathered England’s rather feeble storm. Collison embarks on a fine run through the middle before being halted by an impressive Terry challenge. Cahill attempts to mop up but only goes an spills a bucket of dirty water all over the box, allowing Ramsey to fire off a shot from the edge of the area. A terrible shot, as it turned out. 11 min: As soon as Bale gets the ball, which is rarely, England players converge on him. Young proves the point, by chopping the Spur down mid-way inside the England half. Bale swings in the resultant freekick and Williams nods several yards wide. 9 min: England are dominating possession, and channelling most of their attack down their left, seemingly having identified Gunter as a weak link. Cole is getting a lot of space but so far has not made optimal use of it. 7 min: Blake diverts a Cole cross behind for a corner. Terry meets Young’s delivery but heads behind, then complains about Williams’ holding him even though he had a handful of Williams’ short too. 5 min: You could call England’s start ponderous or composed, depending on your mood. But Lampard, for one, appears to have had enough of the slow sideways passing so launches on long for Rooney to chase. Williams misjudges it but Hennessey hurtles off his line to intercept before Rooney can impose punishment. 3 min: So it’s all England so far, but most in the English half too. In other words, nothing much is happening yet. Or, “the sides are just feeling each other out”. 1 min: England set the game in motion. Immediately they begin stroking the ball around at a somewhat leisurely pace. They eventually work their way down the left before Gunter intervenes, poking the ball out of play from beneath Cole’s feet. 7:42pm: Not to be outdone, some avenging Welsh fans boo (a particularly dreary rendition of) God Save the Queen. 7:41pm: The Welsh anthem is greeted by boos and whistles by a sizeable contingent of heroic Englishmen in the crowd. Well done lads, that’ll learn ‘em. 7:39pm: So much for the kick-off delay. The teams waddle out onto the pitch to moderate applause: Wembley still only seems about half-full … 7:35pm: Word from Wembley is that congestion outside the ground is so bad that kick-off is likely to be delayed. Next year’s Olympics are going to be a right old lark, aren’t they? Preamble: England are on their worst winless streak at home for 30 years and you wouldn’t rule out another bout of Wembley paralysis, and not simply because creaking Frank Lampard has returned to the starting line-up. In the only other change from Friday’s easy victory in Bulgaria, Fabio Capello has drafted in James Milner, both because Theo Walcott has a “knock” and because Wales’ best player, Gareth Bale, needs to be carefully tracked. Can’t leave anything to chance when you’re hosting the team ranked 117th in the world. Bale produced his best ever performance for his country as Wales’ ended an epic slump by beating Montenegro last Friday but two of the other star performers in that match, David Vaughan and Craig Bellamy, got yellow cards booked and are therefore suspended. That was particularly harsh on Bellamy, who was booked for an imaginary foul, but others might say that it’s impossible to be too harsh on Craig Bellamy so there you go. The absent duo are replaced tonight by Jack Collison and Andrew Crofts. Steve Morison was the only Norwich player to look out of his depth when they took on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last week but after a fine performance against Montenegro he may be fancying his chances of giving John Terry a tougher game this time, possibly having got tips off Grant Holt, who tormented the England captain in that narrow Norwich loss. In all likelihood, however, most of the action is going to be around the Welsh box, which means at least someone in red is going to have to replicate the magnificent defiance of Richard Dunne in Moscow this afternoon if Wales are to avoid defeat. Teams: England: Hart; Smalling, Cole, Cahill, Terry; Barry, Downing, Lampard, Milner; Young, Rooney. Wales: Hennessey; Gunter, Blake, Williams, Taylor; Ledley, Crofts, Ramsey; Collison, Morison, Bale Euro 2012 qualifiers England Wales Euro 2012 Paul Doyle guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 6, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.