England Maintain Perfect Record with Victory in Kazakhstan

Fabio Capello’s Three Lions extended their one hundred percent record in World Cup Qualifying with their sixth consecutive win after running out comfortable 4-0 winners against Kazakhstan.

However, the match was not without its scares for England as Kazakhstan started brightly, and indeed could and perhaps should have scored inside the opening 20 seconds.

England appeared to be labouring on what was best described as an “uneven surface” in Almaty, but eventually broke the deadlock on forty minutes through Manchester City new boy Gareth Barry before Emile Heskey doubled the lead just prior to half-time.

A Wayne Rooney overhead kick and a Frank Lampard penalty added further gloss to the scoreline as England ran out comfortable winners in a professional if unspectacular performance.

Yet it could have proved an altogether different story after an early flurry from the home side came very close to embarrassing England.

Within the first minute Glen Johnson dithered on the right and was dispossessed with the dangerous cross into the box eventually being cleared by John Terry after Matt Upson and Rob Green—making his first start at international level—combined to smother the initial attempt on goal.

England struggled to find any rhythm to their play which was fast becoming characterised by over-hit cross field passes that sailed time and time again over the heads of Steven Gerrard and Theo Walcott on the flanks.

At this point Fabio Capello was already on the touchline remonstrating with his side for failing to keep their shape; both in attack and in defence and the team’s frustrations were well summed up when Gareth Barry picked up a yellow card for hauling back the speedy Kukeyev, one that rules him out of England’s next qualifier on Wednesday.

It almost got much worse for England after 17 minutes when the home side had the ball in the back of the net through Ostapenko. A free-kick from the right was swung in and the Kazak forward stole in at the far post to head past the stranded Green.

Fortunately for England the offside flag was correctly raised as Ostapenko had crept a yard beyond the last man.

England eventually settled and came close on the half-hour mark when Emile Heskey’s shot was well tipped onto his near post by the Kazakhstan ‘keeper.

Ten minutes later and England were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as Barry scored the opening goal, heading smartly back across goal from a Steven Gerrard left-footed cross, for his second goal for England and his first in a competitive match.

Gerrard was soon involved in England’s second on the stroke of half-time, his opportunist strike from 40-yards took a slight deflection which the ‘keeper could only parry unconvincingly into his six-yard box where Heskey was able to sweep home left-footed for his first competitive goal for his country since the World Cup of 2002.

Kazakhstan’s early energy had long dissipated by the second half as England controlled proceedings without necessarily creating chance after chance.

Shaun Wright-Phillips had replaced the rather ineffectual Theo Walcott at half-time and the Man City wideman combined well with Glen Johnson down the right.

Johnson’s cross found Rooney unmarked in the middle whose initial shot was well stopped before the Manchester United frontman slammed home the rebound in acrobatic style with an overhead kick, his sixth goal in qualifying.

The scoring was completed five minutes later when Heskey was hauled down in the penalty area giving the referee little option but to point to the spot. Frank Lampard stepped up and confidently dispatched the ball high into the net from the spot.

So England left Central Stadium with a professional win, of which the 4-0 scoreline does not tell the full tale, but most importantly with another three points collected on the road to South Africa in 2010.

Kazakhstan: A. Mokin, A. Kirov, R. Abdulin, A. Kislitsyn, A. Karpovich (c), T. Nusserbayev, S. Skorykh, S. Ostapenko (S. Ibrayev, 27), Z. Kukeyev, E. Averchenko (V. Erbes, 73), Y. Logvinenko

England: R. Green – G. Johnson (D. Beckham, 75), J. Terry (c), M. Upson, A. Cole – G. Barry, F. Lampard – T. Walcott (S. Wright-Phillips, 46), W. Rooney, S. Gerrard– E. Heskey (J. Defoe, 81)

*Catch up with England's progress and all other results in Group 6 here.