Young Strike Saves Unspectacular England

A meagre second half performance from England saw the Lions limp towards qualification for the 2012 European Championships as they took the points against a battling Wales at Wembley.

One goal was enough for the win, Ashley Young the man to sweep home a Stewart Downing cross late in the opening period, it was the second, though, that will have England fans worried as Wales began to even the game out and they would have had a point to take back acrpss the Severn Bridge had Robert Earnshaw not spooned Darcy Blake's cut back over the bar just five yards from an open goal.

There were two changes from Fabio Capello's Bulgarian teamsheet. Friday's notable admission, Frank Lampard, was restored to the the starting XI in place of Scott Parker, the Tottenham man dropping to the bench for fear of receiving the yellow card that would rule him out of England's final group game. Theo Walcott was the other man to lose his place, a hamstring injury putting paid to his night out, James Milner was his replacement in what would become a three man midfield.

The enforced abscense of star hitman Craig Bellamy weakened the Welsh frontline, Steve Morison the lonely figure at the top of Gary Speed's 4-5-1 formation, while fellow suspendee David Vaughan also missed out, though the returns of Jack Collison and Andrew Crofts to Wales' midfield helped to reinforce the Dragons' quest to frustrate the England attack.

England started patiently, monopolising the first five minutes' possession yet unable to break through the steadfast Wales. It wasn't until the seventh minute that fans had an effort to gasp at, John Terry out-muscling Ashley Williams, only to steer his header wide of Wayne Hennessey's goal.

The Welsh 'keeper's hands were rarely involved in the opening exchanges, though his feet were busy with a spree of backpasses, a punch off the head of John Terry was the first notable piece of glovework the Wolves custodian had to execute.

Whichever wing England attacked down their widemen, Stewart Downing and Ashley Young, looked continually threatening against the opposing full backs and it was the quick feet of the latter who carved out a cross from the left, narrowly evading the head of Wayne Rooney, floating through instead for Downing to acrobatically blaze over the crossbar.

As England produced two consecutive waves of attack came the opening goal of the evening. James Milner twisted himself away from his marker on the right flank, his original cross hacked away as far as Gareth Barry who fed the ball forward immediately, again out to the right, this time for Downing, the Liverpool man working a yard of space on the outside of his defender before scything in a cross that was met with a drilled near-post finish from Young.

England were invigorated and Rooney came inches from doubling the England advantage, Young the instigator once again, this time working a short corner and flashing a cross across the face of goal.

Within the first minute of the second half England had managed a further three attempts on Hennessey's woodwork, intricate passing allowing Young to test the Welsh number one before Downing saw his shot blocked. Gareth Barry swiped wildly at the third attempt to give the Welsh a moment of respite.

Having produced nothing of note for the best part of 55 minutes Wales suddenly had England scampering. Aaron Ramsey was played into the England box only to find his progress halted by a nerveless challenge from Gareth Barry.

The visitors continued to attack and with a quarter of an hour to go missed their golden opportunity. A free kick was whipped onto the far edge of Joe Hart's six yard box, Darcy Blake knocking the ball back across goal to leave Robert Earnshaw, scorer of over 200 career goals, with what should have been the simplest of tasks. The substitute's connection, however, was anything but sweet as he sent his shot off target with the goal at his mercy.

Suddenly the Welsh had some wind in their sails, Joe Ledley pinging a ball across the box which Chris Gunter collected, slamming his effort against the strong right hand of Joe Hart, not that it would have counted anyway, the full back punished for shoving Ashley Cole to the floor as he controlled the ball on his chest.

That move summed up Wales performance, coming so close and fighting so hard, yet fatally flawed when push came to shove in the final third.

England V Ghana Preview

After a comfortable if unspectacular win over Wales on Saturday England now travel back to London for an international friendly against the Black Stars of Ghana, a nation whose 2010 World Cup campaign couldn't have been more different to that of the English.

An Asamoah Gyan penalty got Ghana off to a winning start against Serbia and it was to be the same again to earn a draw with Australia. Their final group match against Germany at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg was watched by over 83,000 people who saw the Germans come out with a 1-0 victory thanks to one of the tournaments stars in Mesut Ozil. But Ghana went through and with the entirety of the African continent and large parts of the rest of the world behind them the west African side faced up against group C winners the USA.

A bright start for Ghana was rewarded with a Kevin-Prince Boateng strike after just five minutes but in the second half they were pegged back thanks to a Landon Donovan penalty. Ghana started the first half of extra time as they started the first of normal time, Asamoah Gyan thrashing the ball into Tim Howard's net to send Ghana into the last eight, only the third African team to reach that stage but, much like England, their campaign ended in controversy in defeat to Uruguay.

Sulley Muntari's strike in first half stoppage time opened the scoring only for Diego Forlan to equalise. As the game drew to a close a ball into the Uruguay area bounced up for Dominic Adiyiah to head towards goal only for Luis Suarez to punch the ball off of the line, denying a goal that would have made Ghana the first African team to reach the semi finals, but as it was a penalty was given. Gyan, who had already scored two penalties in the tournament, blazed his spot kick against the bar, sending the game to a shoot-out which the Black Stars eventually lost.

It was a heart breaking end to a fairytale run that made the world stand up and take note of the new breed of talent coming out of Ghana, many of the squad members being part of the side that won the 2009 U20 World Cup in Egypt.

The last match for Ghana ttok place on Friday and saw the side come out of Brazzaville with a 3-0 victory over Congo in an African Nations Cup qualifier, Adiyiah, Muntari and Prince Tagoe getting on the scoresheet. Meanwhile England saw off Wales in a game they never looked like losing, a Frank Lampard penalty and a Darren Bent tap in within the first fifteen minutes securing the win.

Since then England have released five players back to their clubs, namely Ashley Cole, Michael Dawson, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and newly re-appointed captain John Terry, meaning Fabio Capello had another decision to make as to who will get the armband for Tuesday's game.

The England manager has hinted at changing 'seven or eight' members of his starting line up for this game meaning that Gareth Barry, who briefly held the captaincy during the friendly win over Denmark, will get the chance to lead his nation out at Wembley.

If Capello were to drastically change his eleven it would be more than a tad harsh on Jack Wilshere and Scott Parker who both put in superb performances against Wales on Saturday, although their club managers would gladly see them rested so they are fit for title and relegation battles respectively.

Tuesday's game will, however, give a chance to Andy Carroll and the other strikers in Capello's squad to make a name for themselves and boost their hopes of taking Wayne Rooney's place in England's next tie, a qualifier with Switzerland in June, Rooney being suspended for collecting the second yellow of his qualifying campaign against Wales. In form Gary Cahill will start with Matt Jarvis of Wolves also likely to feature at some stage during the night.

Ghana have five English based players in their squad, John Mensah, Sulley Muntari and Asamoah Gyan all plying their trade at Sunderland as well as Fulhams John Paintsil and Blackpool stopper Richard Kingson. Gyan was suspended for Ghana's Nations Cup qualifier against Congo on Friday but will be available for the Wembley clash and it seems likely he will start the game. Other names to look out for include Andre Ayew, son of Ghana's record goalscorer Abedi 'Pele' Ayew, Anthony Annan of Schalke and Milan's Dominic Adiyiah, currently on loan at Partizan Belgrade, who scored eight goals in the Ghanaian U20 side's World Cup victory.

The two nations have never met in a full international before but numerous squad members were part of the U20 side that beat England 4-0 at the 2009 World Cup, Dominic Adiyiah netting twice with Andre Ayew also getting on the scoresheet.

Ghana are a highly motivated side who have a great team ethic and ranked at 16 in the world they will be no pushover for an England side that look likely to be inexperienced on the international stage.

You can keep up with key updates from the game on HJBSports Twitter feed and don't forget to check back here for our postgame match report.