England 1 - 0 Belgium

We Shall Score One More Than You

The words of Fat Les’ Vindaloo ring true in the ear of many England fans. “We shall Score One More Than You, ENGLAND!” And whilst one extra goal does quantify a victory, an extra two or three may put some of the travelling English fans slightly more at ease.

Roy Hodgson’s men travelled to Wembley for the first time and without a huge weight of expectation. The absence of Wayne Rooney was part of this and the return of the former of Everton prodigy may be something that Hodgson is not looking forward to. Rooney’s talent, whilst obvious even to the untrained eye, may not fit exactly to the England gameplan.

Take Saturday’s affair with Belgium and specifically the goal; a picture perfect through-ball from Ashley Young would glide majestically to the foot of Welbeck who choose to finish with an heir of Samuel Eto’o about his goal. Welbeck took little time to control the ball and chipped Simon Mignolet using his left boot. This incisive breakaway made the score 1 - 0 and that’s how the game finished and I suddenly feel a great sense of déjà-vu from my last blog entry.

England invited pressure and caught their opponents out using a moment of inspiration from Welbeck as they did last week with Ashley Young. And the more I watch the replays the more I think Greece 2004.

1 - 0 no more

It’s not pretty, it’s not impressive and it times it looks lucky. Come the end of 90 minutes you can’t argue with the result. England won. Yes Belgium hit the woodwork through Guillaume Gillet, but Defoe did the same after he came on. And ask either of the Liverpool fans there are no rewards for hitting the woodwork.

Liverpool hit the post, crossbar or upright more than any other Premiership club.

Belgium made many attempts to get back into the game and Lukaku grimaced at the sight of the assistant referee’s flag in injury time. An otherwise brilliant ball from Fellaini put Lukaku through on goal but after the flag went up Romelu Lukaku was been living in the land of ‘what ifs’.


So the final whistle blew and England finish one goal to the good. Shades of Greece 2004 sitting ever present in memory. That year Greece’s best player Stelios Giannakopoulos spent the vast majority of the tournament watching from the sidelines and in Wayne Rooney, England may be feeling the same.


The omens are there... and for the superstitious readers out there, here’s one more. Who hosted the Olympics the year Greece won the Euros?