England beats Slovakia 1-0
Sam Allardyce began his England reign by scraping a last-ditch victory against the stubborn Slovaks.
The winner came after four minutes and 45 seconds of added time, when ref Milorad Mazic had signalled for only four.
And it was claimed - shock horror - by none other than Adam Lallana, who had gone his previous 26 appearances without troubling the scorers.
It had seemed up until then the Three Lions, playing against a team ranked one place below Iceland, were going to be toothless again.
Just like they were in the dreary and dreadful goalless draw with Jan Kozak’s side 75 days earlier in France.
Even playing against a side who were without their inspirational skipper Martin Skrtel for the last 36 minutes, England failed to convince.
Slovakia - it was more like SLOW-vakia as they once again played the dreary sort of stuff we’ve become so sick and tired watching.
But in one last desperate surge Danny Rose drove in a cross, Peter Pekarik failed to clear properly and the ball fell to Lallana.
Surely the 28-year-old, who had struck a post with a firm left foot drive 19 minutes earlier, couldn’t convert after all those blanks?
But, yes, this time his shot went through the legs of keeper Matus Kozacik and in.
Big Sam heaved a huge sigh of relief, punching the air with both fists and doubling up as he turned to look at his celebrating bench.
The goal put a totally different perspective on this opening World Cup 2018 Group F qualifier. It had seem like the F might stand for “failure”.
Allardyce had breezed in full of confidence, believing he could lift the team out of the deep depression that followed the disgusting exit to Iceland.
Granted, Slovakia sat back and the grass on a pitch which cut up was quite long, hindering quickfire distribution.
But there was precious little zip to the England game, with the ball moved around too often at a pedestrian pace and players unwilling to have a go at opponents, preferring to wait and hope for something to happen.
Rooney played deep again and showed he is a long way off being our Andrea Pirlo. Harry Kane still looks a shadow of the Premier League top scorer who banged them in for fun and Raheem Sterling continues to have issues at this level.
The first half was particularly bad, typified by a poor attempted cross by Rooney in the 17th minute which was reminiscent of Kane’s shocking late free-kick against Iceland.
Kane’s lack of confidence was highlighted in the 22nd minute when he failed to get any sort of touch at the near post onto an inviting low ball in from Kyle Walker.
The grim half ended with England failing to register a shot on target for the first time since that dire 0-0 game in Dublin against Ireland 15 months ago.
England started brighter in the second half, Sterling, who switched wings with Lallana, having a decent effort knocked for a corner by Martin Skrtel.
The ex-Liverpool man, now at Fenerbahce, was sent off in the 58th minute after bundling over Kane and then stamping on an ankle.
He had been booked for catching him in an aerial challenge in the 25th minute and was lucky to see just a second yellow.
Lallana fluffed a chance when Henderson laid the ball off to him in the 64th minute. It was Henderson’s last act before being replaced by Dele Alli, who was a breath of fresh air.
In the 76th minute Lallana almost got that elusive first goal, but saw his excellent left-foot shot smack against Kozacik’s right post.
Then, would you Adam and Eve it, he pops up to get that late, late winner. Allardyce, if he wants to succeed where so many others have failed, will need good fortune galore in the future.
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