(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
He will not have been pleased by what was to follow as England slowly let their grip on the game slip through a combination of sloppy play in possession and a lack of incisiveness in both their moving and decision-making in key areas of the pitch.
Rooney was the only player whose level of performance had not visibly dropped as he surged past three flailing defenders with consummate ease before scorching a shot past Pitaov's near post.
One player who had flattered to deceive, Aaron Lennon, was replaced shortly into the second half by Beckham. An incident where Lennon aimlessly floated the ball onto the head of a defender after more sumptuous build-up play by Rooney seemed to convince Capello that he had seen enough.
Despite this understandable substitution, what Lennon lacks in quality of delivery he makes up for in pace and Beckham's introduction failed to add impetus to the home side's performance. So much so that it was the Eastern Europeans that levelled the scores when fellow high-profile replacement Shevchenko proved his many doubters wrong by latching on to a loose ball in the six-yard box to fire past a helpless David James.
Game on.
Capello and his staff reacted to this shock by bringing on Shaun Wright-Phillips for a waning Crouch, who had worked tirelessly to deny the Ukrainian defenders an easy route out of defence.
The diminutive Manchester City winger moved to the left-flank, Gerrard slotted in behind lone striker Rooney, and Beckham remained on his favoured right side. While this reduced Rooney's impact on the match, Beckham came to the fore—just in the nick of time.
In similar circumstances to those which led to England's opener, a headed knockdown set up a simple close-range finish, this time for the deserving captain John Terry, who was commanding throughout.
Five matches, 15 points, no more injuries. A good night's work? Perhaps...but Capello will rightly expect more from this talented group of players.
Full Time
England 2 (Crouch '29, Terry '85) Ukraine 1 (Shevchenko '74)
Ratings
England—James 5, Johnson 6, Terry 8, Ferdinand 7 (Jagielka n/a), Cole 5; Lennon 5 (Beckham 6), Lampard 7, Barry 5, Gerrard 6; Crouch 6 (Wright-Phillips 5), Rooney 8
Ukraine—Piatov 6; Yarmash 6, Mykhalyk 6, Chigrinsky 6, Shevchuk 7; Aliev 6, Slyusar 6, Tymoschuk 7, Valyaev 6; Voronin 5 (Shevchenko 7), Milevskiy 5
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