Euro 2008 qual. - England should make light work of Group D whipping-boys
Estonia and anything less than a big win will be seen as failure for Steve
McClaren, according to Reda Maher.
Steve McClaren will still be gloating at the creditable
1-1 draw against Brazil on Friday night - despite conceding an injury-time
header to the smallest man on the pitch - but his oft-repeated claim that
there are no easy games left in international football will fall on deaf
ears if his England side do not trounce an Estonia team only marginally
better than Andorra.
England were greeted with a cacophony of boos while drawing at half-time
and even after grinding out a 3-0 win at Andorra, and much of the abuse
was directed specifically at McClaren. While Estonia have a somewhat larger
pool of talent than the Pyrenean principality their international record
is only slightly superior.
Since their return to the international stage after over half a century
as part of the Soviet Union, Estonia have slowly improved, with star player
Andres Oper scoring a creditable 32 international goals by the age of
29 and registering five wins in their last world cup qualifying campaign.
But those victories were against Latvia, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg
and, despite a draw against Russia and decent defeats to Portugal (1-0)
and Norway (2-1) ,they have been poor against the tougher opposition in
this Euro 2008 qualifying section, losing all five of their games and
failing to score a goal.
They have since slipped to 110th in the FIFA rankings - behind Ethiopia,
Benin and Hong Kong. And star man Oper, who plays for Roda in Holland,
is absent through injury, meaning Estonia will be leaning on former Derby
and Sunderland keeper Mart Poom, who has just joined Watford, Tromso winger
Joel Lindpere and Heracles midfielder Ragnar Klavan.
England cannot be complacent, however, as Estonia are relatively speaking
no pushovers - many of their players ply their trade professionally in
one of the Scandinavian or Russian leagues and they held Turkey to a friendly
draw just before the World Cup. And England's conquerors Croatia only
ground-out a 1-0 win last weekend in Tallinn.
Estonia will pack the midfield and defend deep, looking to use the home
crowd and exploit any nerves England develop should they not get an early
goal. McClaren will be secretly sighing in relief that he was forced to
recall David Beckham, with England's only other genuine match-turner -
Wayne Rooney - suspended for the clash.
But if the former Middlesbrough boss is to prove that England's indifferent
record under his tenure to date is merely the result of teething troubles
and that the half-decent game against Brazil is their real level, a comfortable
victory and entertaining performance is essential.
Reda Maher
,
06 Jun 2007
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