Well, so much for the Master Race, as Wayne Rooney might point out to Sir Alex Ferguson, the next time they meet.
After all the sabre-rattling this went according to form. The best team won, and comfortably. It is not a result that speaks greatly of England’s ability to dominate the true virtuosos of European football, but it tells of a growing resolve in Roy Hodgson’s squad, and at the very least a refusal to be intimidated.
England were in control from the start here and when Scotland briefly threatened to provide an unlikely grandstand finish, they simply went up the other end and scored their third of the night. It was Rooney’s second and he marked it with a cartwheel – the celebration Ferguson banned during his time at Manchester United. That might get a mention in a lounge at Old Trafford, too.
Some still doubt Hodgson’s wisdom in making Rooney his captain, but 18 goals in 28 appearances for this manager tells their own story. True, the opposition has not always been stellar, but it is still a creditable return and does not indicate a player weighed down by the significance of his position.
Rooney seemed to love every moment of this – from silencing a hostile crowd with his first, to strangling hopes of revival with his second. He is in the clear air beyond Jimmy Greaves now – with 46 England goals to the great man’s 44 – and chasing down Gary Lineker and Sir Bobby Charlton as the finest marksman in England’s history.
In a European Championship group offering Lithuania, Slovenia and San Marino as the next competitive opponents, he should not have too long to wait for the record.
Hodgson, too, will now break for Christmas happy. Since the World Cup he has beaten all that has been placed before him, and while England’s fixtures have been favourable, he can do no more than keep winning.
Certainly, Scotland with their dander up cannot be taken lightly, and it is to England’s immense credit that they made them look what they are: inferior, no matter the noise from these neighbours.
From the third minute, when Gary Cahill almost converted a Stewart Downing corner, to the 85th minute when Rooney restored a deserved two-goal lead, England were in charge.
Scotland played well against the Republic of Ireland on Friday and had high hopes, but the moment it became plain that England were sensibly playing the XI before them and not the occasion, the jig was up.
A composite team would not have featured a single Scottish selection – even with Hodgson resting six from Saturday, and that was how the match unfolded. ‘Well done, well done,’ Hodgson told his counterpart Gordon Strachan at the end, but he is a polite man. Scotland did not do well at all.
Outplayed, they came back into the game late – much like England’s rugby union team against New Zealand and South Africa – and then collapsed almost instantly.
It could have been more had Chris Smalling, with a header, and Jack Wilshere, arriving late for a shot, not missed good chances in the second-half and while five may have flattered England, less than a two-goal margin would have been equally illusionary on Scotland’s part.
Unfamiliar silences at Celtic Park summed up the gulf between the teams. This was no disgrace for Strachan but it was a harsh reminder of how far he still has to go – and of how Michel Platini has devalued the European Championship if teams at Scotland’s level now make up the expanded 24 at the finals in France.
It is impossible to imagine that the 2016 edition of the competition will be as compelling from the start as its predecessors.
From the opening exchanges, after Cahill missed with his header, Danny Welbeck should have scored one on one. Instead, it was not until the 32nd minute that the deadlock was broken, with a pass of real class from Wilshere.
The Arsenal man has been earning good reviews as the bottom point in Hodgson’s central diamond – although one imagines sterner tests are to come against better teams – and he was at the heart of much of England’s best work here once more.
It was a deep angled ball of the type once struck by David Beckham that eventually separated these teams. It split Scotland’s defence, allowing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to run clear and divert the ball past goalkeeper David Marshall with the merest glancing header.
It wasn’t the type of goal that a back line of the highest standard would concede, though, underlining the fact that this remained more of a grudge match than a true test of international abilities. A team with ambitions to succeed in France in 2016 would be horrified to let in such a goal. For Oxlade-Chamberlain, however, it was his first since scoring in the Maracana Stadium in 2013, and a reminder that he has an impressive poacher’s instinct, still. And after that, it was the Rooney show.
His header, two minutes after half-time, took the wind from Scottish sails, the breath from the lungs of the crowd and no doubt tore a hole in Strachan’s half-time gameplan. He pounced first after Andrew Robertson had failed to adequately clear a James Milner free-kick, following a brutal foul by Charlie Mulgrew on Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The ball rebounded to Rooney but with little pace and it is to his credit that he used his neck muscles and upper body strength to power it past Marshall.
After all the sabre-rattling this went according to form. The best team won, and comfortably. It is not a result that speaks greatly of England’s ability to dominate the true virtuosos of European football, but it tells of a growing resolve in Roy Hodgson’s squad, and at the very least a refusal to be intimidated.
England were in control from the start here and when Scotland briefly threatened to provide an unlikely grandstand finish, they simply went up the other end and scored their third of the night. It was Rooney’s second and he marked it with a cartwheel – the celebration Ferguson banned during his time at Manchester United. That might get a mention in a lounge at Old Trafford, too.
Some still doubt Hodgson’s wisdom in making Rooney his captain, but 18 goals in 28 appearances for this manager tells their own story. True, the opposition has not always been stellar, but it is still a creditable return and does not indicate a player weighed down by the significance of his position.
Rooney seemed to love every moment of this – from silencing a hostile crowd with his first, to strangling hopes of revival with his second. He is in the clear air beyond Jimmy Greaves now – with 46 England goals to the great man’s 44 – and chasing down Gary Lineker and Sir Bobby Charlton as the finest marksman in England’s history.
In a European Championship group offering Lithuania, Slovenia and San Marino as the next competitive opponents, he should not have too long to wait for the record.
Hodgson, too, will now break for Christmas happy. Since the World Cup he has beaten all that has been placed before him, and while England’s fixtures have been favourable, he can do no more than keep winning.
Certainly, Scotland with their dander up cannot be taken lightly, and it is to England’s immense credit that they made them look what they are: inferior, no matter the noise from these neighbours.
From the third minute, when Gary Cahill almost converted a Stewart Downing corner, to the 85th minute when Rooney restored a deserved two-goal lead, England were in charge.
Scotland played well against the Republic of Ireland on Friday and had high hopes, but the moment it became plain that England were sensibly playing the XI before them and not the occasion, the jig was up.
A composite team would not have featured a single Scottish selection – even with Hodgson resting six from Saturday, and that was how the match unfolded. ‘Well done, well done,’ Hodgson told his counterpart Gordon Strachan at the end, but he is a polite man. Scotland did not do well at all.
Outplayed, they came back into the game late – much like England’s rugby union team against New Zealand and South Africa – and then collapsed almost instantly.
It could have been more had Chris Smalling, with a header, and Jack Wilshere, arriving late for a shot, not missed good chances in the second-half and while five may have flattered England, less than a two-goal margin would have been equally illusionary on Scotland’s part.
Unfamiliar silences at Celtic Park summed up the gulf between the teams. This was no disgrace for Strachan but it was a harsh reminder of how far he still has to go – and of how Michel Platini has devalued the European Championship if teams at Scotland’s level now make up the expanded 24 at the finals in France.
It is impossible to imagine that the 2016 edition of the competition will be as compelling from the start as its predecessors.
From the opening exchanges, after Cahill missed with his header, Danny Welbeck should have scored one on one. Instead, it was not until the 32nd minute that the deadlock was broken, with a pass of real class from Wilshere.
The Arsenal man has been earning good reviews as the bottom point in Hodgson’s central diamond – although one imagines sterner tests are to come against better teams – and he was at the heart of much of England’s best work here once more.
It was a deep angled ball of the type once struck by David Beckham that eventually separated these teams. It split Scotland’s defence, allowing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to run clear and divert the ball past goalkeeper David Marshall with the merest glancing header.
It wasn’t the type of goal that a back line of the highest standard would concede, though, underlining the fact that this remained more of a grudge match than a true test of international abilities. A team with ambitions to succeed in France in 2016 would be horrified to let in such a goal. For Oxlade-Chamberlain, however, it was his first since scoring in the Maracana Stadium in 2013, and a reminder that he has an impressive poacher’s instinct, still. And after that, it was the Rooney show.
His header, two minutes after half-time, took the wind from Scottish sails, the breath from the lungs of the crowd and no doubt tore a hole in Strachan’s half-time gameplan. He pounced first after Andrew Robertson had failed to adequately clear a James Milner free-kick, following a brutal foul by Charlie Mulgrew on Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The ball rebounded to Rooney but with little pace and it is to his credit that he used his neck muscles and upper body strength to power it past Marshall.
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