Austria Euro 2008: England V Greece Friendly

They were supposed to be European Champions! European Champs should display class, fantastic passing and penetration but the only quality that was present on the cold August night were wearing the red of England.

John Terry started his captaincy the right way with a goal early on and followed on by a deflected shot by his club team mate Frank Lampard. Soon after that Peter Crouch knocked in a simple rebound to make it three nill.

All of us at Old Trafford could sense a fourth before half-time. We thought it would come when the ball through over the six yard box only for lanky striker to duck under to the bemusment of the home fans. He didn't disappoint as ten seconds later he nodded home to seal a comfortable half time lead of 4-0.

All the action was in the Greece half during the first 45 minutes as Greece were truly woeful. Come the second half England stepped off the pace and Greece came back into it following a gaggle of substitutions.

England simply out-performed the Greeks throughout the match and showed that they are rightfully second-favourites for the Euro 2008 tournament.

Match Details
England: Robinson (Kirkland 45), Gary Neville (Carragher 78), Ferdinand, Terry, Cole (Bridge 80), Gerrard (Bent 78), Lampard, Hargreaves, Downing (Lennon 69), Defoe (Richardson 69), Crouch.Subs Not Used: Young, Phil Neville, Brown, Dawson, Jenas, Wright-Phillips, Foster.
Goals: Terry 14, Lampard 30, Crouch 35, 42.

Greece: Nikopolidis, Fyssas (Lagos 29), Dellas (Anatolakis 64), Katsouranis, Antzas (Kyrgiakos 45), Vyntra, Zagorakis (Basinas 45), Karagounis, Giannakopoulos (Salpigidis 45), Samaras (Amanatidis 45), Charisteas.Subs Not Used: Chalkias, Kafes, Gekas, Papadopoulos, Georgeas.

Attendence: 45,864

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany).
Ref rating: Pants

Game Rating: 7/10

Highlight of the Game: A fantastic performance from Owen Hargreaves.

Moan of the Match: Poor refereeing, poor performance from Steven Gerrard (from where I sat in the South Stand) and worse than poor performance in the first half from Greece.

Match Videos:
John Terry scores to make it 1-0