This B international friendly between England and Belarus was played on 25 May 2006 at Reading's Madejski stadium at 8.05pm (BST - British Summer Time).

England's line up (as predicted) was:

 
                                                        David James
                                   (Robert Green 45, sub Scott Carson 53)
 
  Owen Hargreaves             Jamie Carragher         Sol Campbell                     Ashley Cole

  Aaron Lennon                  Michael Carrick           Jermaine Jenas                Stewart Downing
                                                                              (Joe Cole 61)              (Michael Dawson 78)         

                                          Michael Owen             Peter Crouch
                                          (Theo Walcott 61)      (Jermain Defoe 78)

The team from Belarus was Zhevnov (Khomoutovsky 46), Kulchy, Lentsevich, Omelyanchuk, Shtaniuk, Korytsko, Yurevich (Shahoika 61), Bulyga (Kornilenko 46), Romaschenko (Kashevsky 74), Kalachev (Pankavets 80), Kutuzov (Kontsevoy 64).

The starting line up was effectively England's second team apart from Ashley Cole and Michael Owen who were coming back from injury and needed match practice. In the match itself, Michael Owen played (after recovering from injury) for an hour, Peter Crouch was always in the action and had a goal ruled offside and Aaron Lennon was the man of the match. Early on in the game Owen should have given Crouch an easy assist for a goal but had his shot saved by the Belarus keeper.

                                 
        Owen heads the ball onto the crossbar and Jenas (right of picture) gets ready to head in the rebound

After 35 minutes England were lucky to take the lead -  Stewart Downing took a free kick on the left wing and an offside Owen came back onside to head the ball onto the crossbar - Jermaine Jenas headed in the rebound to put England 1-0 ahead. Just before half time Belarus almost equalised after Kutuzov headed against the post..

In the second half the only England change was goalkeeper Robert Green for David James.

Second half substitute goalkeeper Robert Green picked up a groin injury after making a save five minutes after coming onto the pitch - from the resulting goal kick Green fell over injured and the Belarus attacker Vitaly Kutuzov  put the ball in the net to level the score 1-1. Robert Green was then replaced with reserve goalkeeper Scott Carson and is doubtful for the World Cup itself as the third goalkeeper.

Seventeen year old Theo Walcott came off the bench to replace Owen after 60 minutes but apart from one long shot he had a relatively quiet game.

England should have had a penalty when Shtaniuk clearly handled the ball in the penalty box but it was not to be England's night.

Belarus then had Omelyanchuk sent off after Aaron Lennon was persistently fouled on the right wing. With 10 men Belarus were still matching England with possession and they scored the winning goal with ten minutes to go - Kornilenko took the ball and made a strong run into England's penalty box before shooting past Carson to win the game for Belarus.

The biggest plus point for the night from England's point of view was that Michael Owen got through the game without injury and will probably start the next England "A" warm up game too.

Who played well:  Aaron Lennon played very well and his speed gave England another dimension on the right wing. Peter Crouch had a good game too and could have scored a couple of goals..

Who could have played better: Robert Green (goalkeeper) gave a goal away when injured and is now unlikely to go to the World Cup as England's third keeper. Jermaine Jenas scored a goal but did not look back to his best and Stewart Downing would have hoped for a better game too.

Please click here to see the preview of this game

Please click here to see the full England squad and click here for the latest on Wayne Rooney's injury.