For the third time in history, England gets a magic ticket to the second round of the World Cup finals at the very last game of the group stage. Fabio Capello’s players were once again not very convincing, and even though the overall performance of the team was much better today, England got a stressful victory in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium of Port Elizabeth. Slovenia was also in the second qualifying spot of Group C until the last minute of the game, but the United States scored a goal in extra time and therefore leaving them outside of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
England came strong in the first half of the game, and right away showed that they were after the three points and would not settle for a tie this time. England had good rhythm, the ball possession, and had the first big chance of the game in 15′ when Frank Lampard threatened goalkeeper Samir Handanovič with a foul shot. Eight minutes later and after many good opportunities the goal finally came for England: Wayne Rooney gave the assist to Jermain Defoe that opened the score with a powerful shot past Handanovič. The game slowed down a bit after the goal, but England was still making chances with most important the one with Steven Gerrard in 30′, barely missing the target and keeping the score at 1-0 until half time.
The break did not slow down England that came back on the field even stronger than during the first half. John Terry missed a close header in 57′, and Rooney sent the ball to the left post a minute later, with both players failing to double up for England. Slovenia saw that their opponents were unable to hit the target, and started attacking also looking for paths inside England’s defence. In the 68th minute of the game Slovenia lost three fantastic chances in a row, with Zlatko Dedič, Milivoje Novakovič, and Valter Birsa all missing shots from inside the penalty area.
The game started to slow down, and the two teams seemed happy with the result that was sending both England and Slovenia to the second round of the World Cup 2010 finals. But the United States had not said their last world, scored a goal in extra time and sent Slovenia from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.
