European minnows Montenegro qualified for the European Championship play-offs with a late 2-2 draw against England in Podgorica, as England qualified as group winners.
England took the lead as Ashley Young headed home from Theo Walcott’s pinpoint cross.
England doubled their lead Wayne Rooney putting Ashley Young through on goal and Young squared to Darren Bent for a close-range tap-in.
The complexion of the game changed just before half-time as Elsad Zverotic deflected shot beat Joe Hart in the England goal. One of the major talking points of the game happened in the 73rd minute as England striker Wayne Rooney was dismissed for kicking Miodrag Dzudovic.
It was a terrible moment for the Manchester United striker and he will now miss now some of the games in the European Championship finals.
Against ten men Montenegro looked more likely to equalise and in injury-time Andrija Delibasic headed home from close-range. The draw seemed a fair result in the end and the Montenegrin fans went crazy at the final whistle.
Wales helped Montenegro’s cause with a 2-0 victory over Switzerland at the Liberty Stadium. One of the key moments of the game came in the 55th minute as Swiss full-back Reto Ziegler was dismissed for a tackle on Wales full-back Chris Gunter.
Wales were in front five minutes later, Chris Gunter was brought down in the penalty area by Switzerland’s Timm Klose. And captain Aaron Ramsey made no mistake from the penalty spot. Tottenham winger Gareth Bale made it two in the 71st minute.
Steve Morison’s pass found Bale and the winger stroked the ball into the bottom corner of the net. The result meant that Switzerland could not catch Montenegro for a place in the play-offs. Although the result didn’t meant much in the context of the group for Wales, it showed that they are fast improving under boss Gary Speed.
The Republic of Ireland kept themselves in contention for a play-off place with a 2-0 victory in Andorra. Ireland took the lead in the 7th minute as Kevin Doyle finished from close-range.
The Irish doubled their lead in the 20th minute Aiden McGeady’s effort taking a deflection off Andorra’s Iidefons Lima and finding the net. It was then just a matter of how many Giovanni Trappatoni’s men would score.
However the Republic seemed happy to conserve their energy and take home the 2-0 victory. The victory put Ireland within two points of group leaders Russia, who play Andorra in their next game. Ireland will face third place Armenia at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday knowing that a draw will be good enough to guarantee a place in the play-offs.
Northern Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for the European Championships are over after they were beaten 2-1 at home to Estonia. The home side took the lead in the 22nd minute captain Steven Davis scoring from close range after good work from striker Kyle Lafferty.
And it looked like Northern Ireland had the points wrapped up until the 77th minute. Northern Ireland defender Craig Cathcart brought down Konstantin Vassiljev in the penalty area. The striker drilled home the resulting spot kick.
Vassiljev then won the game for the visitors with a superb long-range strike in the 84th minute. The Northern Irish fans wasn’t pleased at the final whistle and chants for boss Nigel Worthington to lose his job rang around Windsor Park.
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