Poland 1 England 1: England lack verve but point pleases Hodgson

England manager Roy Hodgson believes his team lost some of their spark during the 24-hour delay to their World Cup qualifier with Poland.

The Three Lions left Warsaw last night grateful for a point after this draw.

Wayne Rooney put the visitors in front and missed a glorious chance to double that lead, but Poland were good value for their draw in the end and could easily have had more to show for their efforts than Kamil Glik’s equaliser which came after a mistake from goalkeeper Joe Hart.

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Hodgson accepted neither side benefited from the postponement caused by Tuesday’s deluge.

But he certainly felt it affected his players.

“On Monday, after the training session on the pitch, the players were looking very sharp and lively,” he said. “I didn’t get that impression (yesterday).

“I don’t want to give the impression we were hard done by and our opponents weren’t.

“But if a game is postponed it is a little bit easier if you are on home soil.

“We had that extra day and night in the hotel.”

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Hodgson labelled the pitch as “dead”, which may have contributed to some uncharacteristically sloppy passing, with Michael Carrick among those most affected.

“There was no question the pitch was playable but it wasn’t suited to quick passing,” he said.

“Both teams made quite a few passing mistakes. At half-time we were quite surprised how many passes we had sent astray.”

The positive, which cannot be dismissed, is that England did not lose and, their Euro 2012 penalty shoot-out defeat to Italy excepted, remain unbeaten during Hodgson’s 11 games in charge.

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Their advantage in Group H is almost certain to have have disappeared by the time they next play again in March as second-placed Montenegro, who are just a point behind, face minnows San Marino next month.

However, England’s durability is something Hodgson is convinced will stand them in good stead.

“When you are in a qualifying group, or you are with a league club, there are days when things don’t always go your way,” he said.

“On those days it is very important you still come away with a result.

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“We would have loved to have won it but we didn’t produce good enough football to do that.

“But we did do enough to avoid defeat and go away with a point.”

So many of England’s players failed to perform.

Rooney was the most obvious example, despite his 32nd England goal, and following his failure to snaffle a chance provided by Manchester United team-mate Danny Welbeck, it was no surprise he was replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

“A bit of both,” was Hodgson’s response when asked whether the reasoning behind his decision was physical or tactical.

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“There was an element of physicality because it looked as though he was tiring.

“He couldn’t reproduce his excellent performance against San Marino and we wanted to get a little bit more life and energy into the central area, which (Tom) Cleverley was capable of giving us alongside (Steven) Gerrard and Carrick, so Wayne moved wider.

“Then, when we thought he was tiring we felt it was the right moment to bring on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who gave us some fresh legs.”

Hodgson believed that move worked, although Poland looked equally likely to snatch a win.

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Hart accepted the blame for the equalising goal. He failed to make contact when he came to punch clear a corner which allowed Gilk to head in and cancel out Rooney’s first-half opener with 20 minutes left. “I came and didn’t get there and the lad did a decent header,” Hart said. “It’s my fault, I should have punch it or stayed in goal. I didn’t do either and it cost us.”

Regarding the result, Hart added: “We’ve got to believe that’s a good point. It’s a tough place to come.”

Rooney said: “It was a hard-fought point. It was a difficult game, a difficult pitch. We weren’t at our best but we dug in and got a draw.

“We knew it was a tough group, but we’re confident. We believe in ourselves and we believe we are the best team in the group, so we are confident of qualifying.

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“Do England have to improve to qualify? Yes, of course. We know we can play a lot better but at least we got the point.”

Gerrard said: “I thought Poland dealt with the conditions and played to the conditions slightly better than us. That’s the reason we didn’t get three points.”

Poland: Tyton, Piszczek, Wasilewski, Wawrzyniak, Glik, Polanski, Krychowiak, Wszolek (Mierzejewski 63), Grosicki (Milik 82), Obraniak (Borysiuk 90), Lewandowski. Unused substitutes: Kuszczak, Wojtkowiak, Komorowski, Murawski, Sobota, Piech, Perquis, Sobiech, Skorupski.

England: Hart, Glen Johnson, Jagielka, Lescott, Cole, Milner, Carrick, Gerrard, Cleverley, Rooney (Oxlade-Chamberlain 73), Defoe (Welbeck 67). Unused substitutes: Ruddy, Walker, Baines, Cahill, Shawcross, Shelvey, Lennon, Adam Johnson, Carroll, Forster.

Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy).

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England were well below their best but managed to cling onto a precious point from their delayed World Cup qualifier with Poland in Warsaw yesterday.

Wayne Rooney’s first-half goal - his 32nd for his country – was cancelled out by Kamil Glik’s header midway through the second period.

England will go into the five-month winter break from competitive action at the top of Group H – and in the cold light of day a point away to the Poles should not be viewed as a calamitous result.

But of concern to head coach Roy Hodgson will be the quality of England’s performance.

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This was an unconvincing display from the Three Lions, similar to some of those under Steve McClaren, and they were second best for the majority of the second half.

England were guilty of giving the ball away too often when in possession after a positive opening with Michael Carrick out of sorts in midfield.

There was a lack of width and Poland found space down their right flank to exploit.

England also lacked creativity with Jermain Defoe having one of his least effective games and it was no surprise that their goal came from a set-piece.

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The game eventually got under way 20 hours late after a waterlogged pitch caused the original game to be postponed on Tuesday night.

This time the stadium’s retractable roof was closed and ensured the match could finally be played, although the surface cut up quite significantly in parts.

Hodgson opted to persevere with the line-up he originally selected for the game with captain Steven Gerrard and left-back Ashley Cole each winning their 99th cap.

There were several hundred England fans inside the stadium although the postponement inevitably mean a sizeable proportion of the 2,500 supporters who made the original trip had already returned home.

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England began on the offensive and James Milner made a powerful run into the Poland box from Gerrard’s knockdown.

His deep cross picked out the run of Tom Cleverley, who struck his volley cleanly enough but saw it bounce off Lukasz Piszczek to safety.

Polish midfielder Eugen Polanski became the first player to be booked, in the 11th minute, for bringing down Defoe.

The hosts exploited space down their right flank and England goalkeeper Joe Hart had to be alert to clear the ball away from the feet of Piszczek after he attempted to make contact with a pass from Kamil Grosicki.

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Home captain Marcin Wasilewski had to be alert to get in front of Defoe at the near post as he tried to take advantage of a low ball by Milner into the danger area.

Poland seriously threatened for the first time when a poor clearance by Hart fell straight to Grosicki. He released Robert Lewandowski, who skipped past the attempted challenge of Cleverley and into the penalty area before firing a cross-shot past the far post.

Rooney silenced the home crowd after 31 minutes when he reacted first to Gerrard’s corner and glanced a header past Poland goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton into the corner of the net, via the shoulder of Piszczek.

Cole picked up his first yellow card of the qualification campaign for time-wasting seven minutes later.

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Grosicki should have done better after getting past Joleon Lescott but he screwed his shot past a post as Poland reacted positively to going behind.

A mistake by Phil Jagielka almost let in Pawel Wszolek for an equaliser two minutes into the second half. The former Sheffield United centre-back miskicked attempting to clear with Wszolek unmarked behind him but Glen Johnson slid in to retrieve the situation.

Hart had to be alert to turn over Ludovic Obraniak’s powerful drive from the angle of the penalty box.

Then Piszczek was only inches off target with a low half volley which hit the side netting.

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Glik was booked a minute later for handball and, from Gerrard’s free-kick, Defoe miskicked at the far post.

But an equaliser was looking increasingly likely and it arrived in the 70th minute as Glik got in front of Lescott to head Obraniak’s corner past Hart, who came for the ball but never made it.

Poland looked the more likely to snatch a winner after Rooney was taken off and replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with 17 minutes remaining.

But England remained firm despite retreating deeper and deeper and have now been beaten only once in 18 meetings with the Poles.