Finally Euro Cup would start, and my preliminary 30 men squad was names, and a few days later after the friendlies I came up with the final 23 men to defend England in the next Euro!
I made a gamble on Tony Kimble’s injury, as he was returning from an injury. He was signed by Man City and now is one of the most expensive players in England. At the end, I decided to call up the players with the best avg rating defending England in the years of my appointment! If I had to name the star of the team, it would most definitely be Jack Wilshere. But other players like Hart, Smalling, Rodwell, Walcott and Kimble are very likely to be important pieces of my set up!
Our first encounter was against the Czech Republic. We did not play as I expected us to do so. But the three points came in from goals scored by Phil Jones and Jack Rodwell. When I say that we did not play to potential, I say it because of Joe Hart’s man of the match award. Where he was the most important player in the pitch, confirming our win, on the three shots that the Czechs managed to get on target.
Against the Greeks for our second encounter in the Group Phase, a more dominant win with a better collective performance. Both goals on our win where scored by Mr. Jack Wilshere, on a great night! He was also responsible for setting up most of the offensive plays that led to shots on goals. But Meadows and later Kimble feet weren’t on a good night, and they misplaced their shots, or got disarmed. Anyway, the three points is what really interest, and we managed to add another three.
We played Sweden for the last game of the Group Phase, and we did a good job. Again Jack Wilshere was the big name of the night! He scored a goal, and was the man of the match. Les Wingfield and Theo Walcott where the other names on the board. Sweden managed to score a goal, with Ola Anderson, a player that was under my command in Arsenal.
For the following rounds, England managed to knock out tough oppositions, compared to the opponents the other finalist had to beat. We faced France on the round of sixteen and what a match! The English Fans where delighted with the way The English Team walked over the “Le Bleus”! 5×0, and a magnificent collective performance. Though we did not dominate in possession, we managed to score most of our goals off of counter attacks when France was piling up pressure over our defense. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere managed to score twice each one and Theo Walcott was the other name on the board. The bad thing was that Tony Kimble got injured on the beginning of the match, and will not be able to defend England on the rest of the competition.
The 5×0 win against France gave us momentum and Spain were totally dominated by the English Team passing game. By the end of the first half, Theo Walcott and Les Wingfield bagged us two. We returned from halftime break with a more defensive minded midfield, and deeper defense, this gave us huge ball possession, but we kept dangerous upfront with great counters led by my fullbacks. Spain scored a goal on the 70 minute, but too lade to turn this around against a English great performance.
Off we went to face Germany on the Semifinal, and again a great team performance sealed our victory! Theo Walcott opened the scoreboard with less than a minute of game, giving us a huge boost in morale, and split the German defensive system as they had to look for the equalizer. Again, Theo showed up and bagged us another goal in first half. We now had only to pass the ball around and wait for another German slip. It happened on second half, when Howedes was sent off, and yet another slip when Chris Smalling off a corner kick scored our third and final goal!
Arriving at the Euro Cup Final with a huge morale, we where a bit shaken up with the start of the game. When Turkey star Cemil Torun (yes my Lapidated Diamond from Brighton and Arsenal years) opened the scoreboard on the beginning of first half. But just before the end of the half, Jamie Webb bagged us the equalizer. On second half, the Turks where well decided in taking the lead, but the English Defense was pretty solid, and only unclear chances where being taken by the Turks. On the other hand, Theo Walcott and Jordan Henderson got their chances to net the ball, and gave us a great Euro Cup win that England deserved after a great Championship!!!
Nik (9)
