Andy Carroll has had a good season at Newcastle, and played for the England U21 side against Greece last night, but England were surprisingly beaten 2-1.
Andy Carroll talks to team-mates Cattermole and Wishere last night
Greece took the lead after 28 minutes after a header was cleared, but only as far as Kyriakos Papadopoulos, who shot home easily.
It was 1-0 at the break but then the Greeks doubled their lead early in the second half on 48 minutes, when a Chris Smalling mistake allowed Ioannis Papadopoulos to put the ball in the net.
England got a consolation goal on 78 minutes from substitute Nathan Delfouneso, but they put in a poor performance last night.
Greece are the group leaders and England’s qualification for the finals is no longer in their own hands and Greece are 5 points clear of England in Group 9.
England under-21 coach and former Newcastle player Stuart Pearce was not a happy man after the game and said:
“We weren’t at the races tonight, we were poor.”
“We didn’t play to a standard that’s acceptable to us. We tried to go from back to front too much, we didn’t play enough through the midfield and we gave possession away too lightly.”
“I’ve got to give credit to the Greeks, I thought they played very well and certainly deserved their victory. We have to learn the lesson from it.”
“Rarely have this team let me down. I’m disappointed with it and, more importantly, the players are as well.”
Newcastle’s Andy Carroll played the whole game and in another European U21 Championship game, Italy U21 beat Hungary U21 2-0 in Italy last night and Newcastle’s Tamas Kadar played central defense for Hungary.
This is the England team from last night:
England U21: Loach, Walker, Richards, Smalling (Delfouneso 74), Bertrand, Cleverley (Gosling 87), Muamba (Sturridge 54), Cattermole, Rodwell, Wilshere, Carroll.
Subs Not Used: Fielding, Tomkins, Mancienne, Delph.
Goals: Delfouneso 79.
5 comments so far
Charlietoon
Mar 4, 2010 at 11:17 AM
Comment #1Apparently Kadar got sent off. Poor greek commentators. Dont know about you but I’d rather have to say Taylor to Taylor than papadopoulos to papadopolous
Davies
Mar 4, 2010 at 11:34 AM
Comment #2Wonder how long it’ll take for someone on here to balme Mike Ashley for this.
lesh
Mar 4, 2010 at 12:06 PM
Comment #3I blame Mike Ashley for that!
komfort
Mar 4, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Comment #4…..& i second that.
komfort
Mar 4, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Comment #5only joking….
…..or am i ?