Euro 2012: Evans earns Northern Ireland victory
It was a fantastic night for the travelling Northern Ireland fans who braved it to Slovenia, as their team pulled off a wonderful 1-0 victory to leave them joint top of Group C.
Corry Evans scored the all-important winner in the 70th minute, converting a cross from debutant Craig Cathcart, the goal was Nigel Worthington side’s first in nearly 700 minutes of football.
It was very much the defence that will claim all the plaudits for the victory as they somehow held on against an avalanche of Slovenian attack in the last 20 minutes, Zlatko Dedic and Robert Koren went closet for the unlucky hosts.
Wales’ hopes of qualifying from Group G were dealt a huge blow, even at this early stage, as they suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Montenegro.
Mirko Vucinic grabbed the only goal of the game mid-way through the first half as the hosts celebrated their first ever competitive game as an independent country with a relatively simple win over a lacklustre Welsh side. On this viewing England look to have nothing to fear when they face the two sides later on this year.
Montenegro were on top from the start and went ahead after half an hour as Vucinic escaped his marker down the left flank and fired a shot which somehow beat Wayne Hennessey at his near post.
The eastern Europeans continued to dominate in the second period and went close when Ashley Williams somehow blocked a goal-bound effort from Radomir Djalovic. Simon Church went closest for the visitors, when he struck the bar in the dying seconds.
The Republic of Ireland opened their Group B campaign with a scrappy 1-0 victory against Armenia courtesy of substitute Keith Fahey’s late strike.
Liam Lawrence played in Robbie Keane, who had earlier hit a post, to pull the ball back for Fahey to confidently knock in his first international goal.
Giovanni Trapattoni said he would have settle for a victory by the only goal, even if he had to suffer, and his side did just that, by looking well-below par for most of the game. Both Yura Movsisyan and Henrik Mkhitaryan had guilt edge chances in the second half that they should have converted to give the hosts a deserved point. Next up is Andorra in Dublin on Tuesday for the Irish where Trapattoni will fancy his chances of making it six points from six.
Scotland were held to a 0-0 draw in Lithuania despite creating numerous chance throughout the 90 minutes, but enough was seen to suggest that under new boss Craig Levein Scotland could put up a challenge to qualify from their tough looking group.
http://www.senore.com/Euro-2012-England-v-Bulgaira-full-time-report-a25342http://www.senore.com/Euro-2012-Fabio-Capello-I-am-focussed-to-the-game-not-the-critics-a25347
http://www.senore.com/Euro-2012-France-humiliated-by-Belarus-a25349
Tags: