Quick report: England 3-1 Egypt

(GSM) – England delivered a solid second-half performance to beat African champions Egypt 3-1 in a friendly on Wednesday.

It was no easy encounter for Fabio Capello’s side however as a very motivated Egyptian team impressed the home crowd at Wembley stadium in the first half.

The Africans even got the opening goal on 23 minutes, as Mohamed Zidan picked up the ball near the halfway line, got past a defender and struck past Rob Green for 0-1.

But England improved in the second half and equalised three minutes before the hour mark. Gareth Barry delivered the ball in the penalty area and Peter Crouch side-footed it home at the first post.

And the hosts went on to take the lead in the 75th minute, as keeper Al-Hadari initially parried a shot from James Milner but could not prevent that Shaun Wright-Phillips scored on the rebound.

The game was all but decided five minutes later. Crouch appeared to be offside when receiving a pass from Wright-Phillips, but was allowed to go on and netted the home team’s third of the night, 3-1.

England play the United States in their first group game on June 12, and face Algeria and Slovenia in the following matches. Egypt failed to qualify for the World Cup.