LONDON: Tottenham striker Jerman Defoe gave England important win in Euro 2012 qualifier match against Bulgaria with his first hat-trick for England as Three Lions won the match with convincing margin of 4-0.
England's Jermain Defoe, celebrates after scoring a goal against Bulgaria. Courtesy: AP
Defoe scored the opening goal in just third minute of the match as England team took control of the proceedings at very early stage. England played well throughout the match and it never looked that they are missing their star players Terry, Lampard and Ferdinand.
At half time England were leading by 1-0. Defoe doubled the lead in the 61st minute of the match while substitute Adam Johnson scored the third goal of England in 83rd minute. This was his first international goal for England which he will remember throughout his career.
England's Jermain Defoe celebrates with team mates Theo Walcott and Steven Gerrard, after scoring a goal against Bulgaria. Courtesy: AP
Defoe completed his first hat-trick for England in 86th minute goal. This was Defoe 15th international goal for England in 44 games. Apart from Defoe, Joe Hart (goal keeper) Theo Walcott (midfielder) and James Milner (midfielder) were also very impressive.
England coach Fabio Capello was very happy about Defoe performance. “Defoe is always very important for us. He can shoot with his left foot and his right and his performance was really, really good and his movement without the ball was fantastic,” he said.
England's Adam Johnson, celebrates after scoring a goal against Bulgaria. Courtesy: AP
On question about Rooney, he said “I played Rooney in a position different than usual. He did very well. I spoke with him before the game. He had to stay just in front of the two central midfielders and from this position to go forward and to be free. The quality of Rooney was really high.”
Capello also happy with Hart performance and said “Hart is playing very, very well. He made two fantastic saves. He is the England ‘keeper and he is playing very well. The most important thing was to win.”
England's Adam Johnson (R) celebrates with Jermain Defoe (L) after scoring during their Euro 2012 qualifying soccer match against Bulgaria. Courtesy: REUTERS
Bulgarian coach Stanimir Stoilov was disappointed on the loss and said “it is very hard for us to lose this game. At the end of the game we did not play with discipline tactically. We were a bit scared in the start and played badly. Just when we had found our game we conceded the second one and the game was over. England scored three goals on the counter-attack which does not speak well for us.”
Stoliov admitted that the retirement of Berbatov was a major reason behind team debacle. “For Bulgaria it is a big loss not to have Berbatov. He will always be missed and if he had played today it would probably have been a different result. We had our chances and missed them and England scored. It’s Berbatov’s decision and we should respect that. England have very fast forwards and we were destroyed on counter attacks in the last minutes. We left too much space in the middle for England,” he said.
Related posts:
Comments are closed.