England v Slovakia

28/03/2009

28 March 2009

England 4 - 0 Slovakia
Attendance: 85,512

Despite it being a wet Saturday evening at Wembley, England stormed out against Slovakia looking resplendent in their new all white England kit.

Fabio Capello's were looking to put their defeat last month against Spain behind them and run out winners against Slovakia in this international friendly game before their World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on Wednesday

Emile Heskey opened the score line in the 7th minute with his first goal for England in 6 years. The crowd had hardly finished celebrating however when the Aston Villa striker was replaced after appearing to sustain an injury in turning home his goal.

Carlton Cole came on for Heskey only to be replaced himself by Peter Crouch after limping off the pitch in the 35th minute.

Despite controlling play for large parts of the game, England were unable to find their second goal before half time. At the start of the second half David Beckham replaced Aaron Lennon taking his 109th cap and in doing so making history by passing Bobby Moore's record of 108 caps. Capello also brought on Stuart Downing for Gerrard and Ben Foster for David James.

England Captain, John Terry had a goal ruled out in the 62nd minute but the 85,000 fans inside Wembley didn;t have to wait long, as just eight minutes later Beckham lined up Rooney who found the back of the net making the scoreline 2-0.

England's third goal - and 500th at Wembley - came on 82 minutes courtesey of Frank Lampard and Nationwide's Man Of The Match, Wayne Rooney sealed the victory in added time making the final score 4-0 to England.

It was a comfortable victory for The Three Lions, and proved to be ideal preparation for Wednesday night's World Cup Qualifier against Ukraine when Capello will hope for a similar performance from his team.