Football News

England beat Israel

England beat Israel


England beat Israel

England have kickstarted their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign thanks to a 3-0 victory over Israel at Wembley. Goals from Micah Richards, Michael Owen and Shaun Wright-Phillips sealed the rout.

Israel did look threatening at times, but looked like they had a chip on their shoulder throughout. Consistently going in aggressively on Steven Gerrard and John Terry (who both came through relatively unscathed) could not dampen England's spirits.

Steve McLaren will be delighted with the overall performance and several players previously under pressure including Paul Robinson and Michael Owen will all be delighted with their performance.

Special mention must go to Micah Richards who linked up well with Shaun Wright-Phillips on the right; and he leapt up to get his head on a corner to grab his first England goal.

On 87 minutes Michael Owen should have doubled his tally, if not for the excellent defensive tackle from Israel.

Overall, an excellent work out, and while Russia also won today so are still one point ahead of England; the big one is coming next week.