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| Emphatic: “[Jermain] Defoe is always important for us,” said England manager Fabio Capello. “Performance was really good for us.” A Defoe hat-trick in a Man of the Match performance helped England get off to a fabulous start in their bid to qualify for Euro2012. Wayne Rooney played a different role than usual and was very effective in an emphatic 4-0 win over Stanimir Stolilov’s Bulgaria team that clearly has work to do if they wish to book their trip to Poland and the Ukraine. “Most important thing is to win,” Capello said emphasising the importance of getting off to a flying start. “I know a lot of things about Bulgaria’s system. I asked him [Rooney] to stay just in front of central midfielders and go forward. He did very well.” The talismanic Manchester United forward played a slightly withdrawn role to great effect. He bagged three assists and a half-assist for the first goal. England get dream start, taking the lead on three minutes. A delightful reverse pass by Wayne Rooney found left-back Ashley Cole – fresh from his divorce today – in the six yard box. Nikolay Mihaylov, the son of Bulgaria’s most capped player and fellow goal-keeper Borislav, parried and Cole squared for Jermain Defoe to score from six yards out. The Prodigal Son: While Rooney was savouring having won over the fans again, his Manchester United team-mate Dimitar Berbatov is having a similar experience for his club. Few can argue that Berbatov – a hit at Spurs – has failed to deliver at Old Trafford, especially for the price. Berbatov was missed by his nation tonight. He chose to retire from international football two months ago. “Obviously for Bulgaria it is a big loss not to have Berbatov,” Stoilov told us. “He will always be missed here in our national team and if he had played here today it would probably be a different result, but our forwards should be more concentrated without Berbatov. We had chances and we should have taken them.” He was then asked if he had tried to persuade Berbatov to reverse his decision. “I don’t want to make comment on that,” Stoilov said. “It is Berbatov’s decision and we should respect that.” The Drawing Board: Although this Bulgaria team is no threat to the Golden Generation of 1994, they refused to be overawed. After twenty minutes Glen Johnson almost put past Joe Hart from close range, but England and Manchester City’s new number one keep saved easily. It was the closest that Stoilov’s team came to equalising, although a timely intervention was required from Everton’s Phil Jagielka to prevent Valeri Bojinov testing his former Manchester City team-mate. Clear cut chances were at a premium at either end, illustrated by Mexican waves starting with ten minutes left of the first half. Walcott has been lively and with four minutes of the first half remaining Mihaylov took one for the team as Defoe connected in his follow through. England’s first half performance, especially Theo Walcott’s provided areas for hope, but James Milner and even Gareth Barry looked out of their depth at this level. It was a better performance than many, but hardly convincing. Ivelin Popov went close, but dragged his shot just wide. He took ‘revenge’ on Michael Dawson with an appalling tackle on Tottenham Hotspur’s centre-back. Dawson stayed down and was stretchered off to sympathetic applause ten minutes into the second half. “A little bit concerned about injury to Dawson,” Capello said. Popov was not even booked for the tackle. “The referee booked only two players,”Capello said. “[He] used the same system, the same value for all the players.” Harry Redknapp will not be impressed and Capello will need a new centre-half for next week’s match again Switzerland. Defoe looked to pick up a niggling injury later too, but Capello was not concerned by that. With an hour gone Stanislav Angelov should have done far better after being found in the area by former Manchester City midfielder Martin Petrov. His profligacy proved costly as Hart parried and England broke. Rooney provided the assist for Defoe to grab his second. Bojinov’s evening came to a close as he was replaced by Dimitar Rangelov. Within seconds he had a golden opportunity with just Hart to beat, but England’s number one stuck out a firm hand to foil him. “Joe Hart made two fantastic saves,” said Capello. “He is the keeper for England. I pick him.” On 84 minutes Defoe found Rooney in space. Rooney passed to Adam Johnson who cut into the area and shot through Stanislav Angelov’s legs. A dreadful goal-keeping blunder gifted England their third goal and a minute later Rooney bagged his third direct assist – he had an indirect one as well – with his pass to Defoe, who celebrated his recall with a hat-trick in a Man of the Match performance. “[It was] very hard for us to lose this game with this result,” said Stoilov. “By the end of the game we didn’t play with discipline, tactically. England scored three goals on counter attack. We were completely destroyed on counter-attacks. We left too much space in the middle.” Meanwhile, Capello savoured the sweet taste of victory and demanded respect with a phlegmatic aside at media that had turned on him after the World Cup fiasco. “You write enough when I lose.” |
