ENGLAND 1 (Fowler 62) v   Italy 2 (Montella 66, pen 91)             World Cup football home page
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This friendly between England and Italy took place on Wednesday 27 March 2002 at Leeds Elland Road ground at 8pm GMT. Please click here for the full squad and preview. The team that played in the match is shown below:
 
The England team was:
 
                                                        Nigel Martyn
                                                        (David James 46)
                                                       
 
  Danny Mills                    Gareth Southgate                    Sol Campbell               Wayne Brisge
  (Phil Neville 46)              (Ugo Ehiogu 46)                     (Ledley King 46)         (Gary Neville 85)
 
  David Beckham (Captain) Nicky Butt                             Frank Lampard        Trevor Sinclair
  (Danny Murphy 46)          (Owen Hargreaves 46)          (Joe Cole 46)       (Teddy Sheringham 70)
 
 
                                 Michael Owen                    Emile Heskey                           
                                 (Darius Vassell 46)             (Robbie Fowler 46)               
 
 
The Italian team was G Buffon, F Cannavaro, A Nesta (sub D Adani 82), C Panucci (sub F Cocu 73), M Materazzi (sub M Iuliano 57), C Zanetti (sub D Albertini 57), G Zambrotta, L Di Biagio (sub G Gattuso 57), C Doni (sub D Tommasi 73), M Delvecchio (sub M Maccarone 73), F Totti (sub V Montella 46)
 
England played a 4-4-2 formation starting with Heskey playing along with Michael Owen up front. Paul Scholes, Ashley Cole, Kieron Dyer and Rio Ferdinand were in the squad but could not start due to injury.
 
The game started quietly but on 24 minutes, Heskey got to the by line and was brought down by Nesta just outside the box. From the resulting free kick, Michael Owen mishit his shot but Sol Campbell got to the ball and made Buffon, the Italian goalkeeper, make a good reflex save over his bar.

Italy had a couple of long distance shots but generally it was a quiet first half. Most of the England team changed at half time - Joe Cole played the second half at left wing with Trevor Sinclair moving to the right wing and Danny Murphy and Owen Hargreaves in central midfield.

                    
Cole wins the ball in midfield and passes to Fowler              Fowler scores to make it 1-0
(Fowler shown at bottom right of picture)                            (Joe Cole at top of picture)

After 62 minutes, England took the lead. Joe Cole won the ball in midfield and passed to the second half captain, Robbie Fowler - Fowler took his only real chance in the game and scored at the near post to make it 1-0 to England.

After 66 minutes, Italy equalised. Having made the England goal a few minutes before, Joe Cole now showed his weaker side by losing the ball on the left side of midfield to Albertini - from his tackle the ball went to Montella who from outside the box curled an excellent shot past James and into the corner of the goal to make it 1-1.

After 72 minutes, Montella could have scored for Italy but he hit his shot straight at James. From a corner in the 89th minute, Montella headed the ball down and more accurately but James saved again near his left post.

In the 91st and last minute of the game, late Italian substitute Maccarone (who had played in the Under 21 game the previous night) got ahead of Ugo Ehiogu from Montella's pass and was brought down by James - the referee gave a penalty and Montella converted it to give Italy a barely deserved 2-1 win.


                                                                  

Who played well: England played better in the second half and Robbie Fowler took his one chance to score and almost certainly booked his flight to Japan. Wayne Bridge had another solid game at left back (he could have got forward more but he did deliver one very good cross into Italy's penalty area). The first half central defensive partnership of Sol Campbell and Gareth Southgate looked much more assured at the back than their second half replacements.

Who could have played better: Teddy Sheringham only played for the last 20 minutes but has lost a bit of form of late. Joe Cole made a goal and lost the ball to give a goal away to show both his undoubted talent and his inexperience. Darius Vassell had a quiet game after his excellent one against Holland and Trevor Sinclair could also have played better. Ledley King also had a tough first start for England at centre back in the second half.

Unfortunately with most players playing for only 45 minutes, there were different sides out for the first half and the second half and so the players did not get a full game to prove themselves - the second half was more exciting to watch but England lost it 2-1 - England could be accused of having played this game too much as a friendly with not enough commitment.