Red Card For Referee - World Cup Qualifier, England 1-0 Austria

09.10.2005                     <<< Previous           Next >>>

England won the World Cup Qualifier against Austria by the skin of their teeth and the Referee deserved a red card himself for harshly sending off David Beckham in quick successive yellow cards in the 2nd half. 

England started the match well with assured defending from a backline full of experience in Sol Campbell, John Terry, Jamie Carragher and Luke Young. Austria tried to probe for signs of weakness by running their forwards at Luke Young early in the match.  But Luke Young who started in the absence of Gary Neville, reacted with a confident display, helped by the enormous presence of his fellow defenders.  Austria were stubborn in defence and worked well in limiting England the space to conjure up a goal. In the 24th minute, Crouch made a teasing flip on for Michael Owen just inside the penalty area. Michael Owen was held back by Paul Scharner and earned England a precious penalty. Frank Lampard stepped up to the penalty spot and the Chelsea midfielder converted England's first spot-kick since Euro 2004.

  Crouch a constant thorn to Austria's back.

In the 2nd half, Beckham was booked twice in the space of 2 minutes and was sent off for the second time in an international. His second booking looked harsh as the midfielder's second challenge on the same player, defender Andreas Ibertsberger, made minimal contact on the heel. Beckham's departure left England without their captain to hold on to a narrow lead for a full half-hour. Eriksson soon removed Joe Cole and played Ledley King in a holding role in midfield. Then Campbell limped off soon afterwards as he aggravated his hamstring when he cleared a loose ball. Ferdinand was called up to replace Sol Campbell. Eriksson played with two strikers until Kieran Richardson replaced Owen in 81st minute. England held on to win the contest 1-0. 

Soaring Magpies

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