ATWC : GROUP H

The group, the schedule, the stadiums, the squads, the games (please click on the pictures for a better view).

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14NUbMiazh0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LKKwvpkweI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A8k86vqxeI

THE GAMES

DAY 1 :

SWITZERLAND - NORTHERN IRELAND at Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal (capacity 52.000)

 

SWITZERLAND - NORTHERN IRELAND: 0 - 0

Switzerland seemed to dominate during most of time, but without being able to score. It could have cost them a defeat as Northern Ireland had more shoots at the goals during their last quarter of an hour than during their first 75 minutes.

Yellow cards : McIlroy (36'), Lichsteiner (81').

Man of the Match : Frank Séchehaye. He was the boss in the air, and on his line when Northern Ireland created more chances for themselves in the last quarter of an hour of the match.

RATINGS :

Switzerland :

Séchehaye 8 - Lichsteiner 5 - Minelli 5 - Geiger 5,5 - Akankji 5,5 - Rodriguez 5,5 - Xhaka 5,5 - Shaqiri 5 (Freuler 85') - Sforza 5 - Freï 4 (Türkyilmaz 80') - Chapuisat 4 (Fatton 75'). Tot. : 58.

Northern Ireland :

Jennings 7 - Nicholl 5 - Hughes 5,5 - Evans 6 - Donaghy 5 - O'Neill 5,5 (Gillespie 79') - Blanchflower 5 - Davis 5 - McIlroy 4,5 (McParland 71') - Best 4,5 - Armstrong 4,5 (Healy 85'). Tot. : 57,5.

The threat of defeat has been removed mainly by the goalkeepers. Here is Séchehaye of the Swiss team.

ENGLAND - PERU at Estadio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal (capacity 68.000)

ENGLAND - PERU : 3 - 2

One of the most awaited games of the group stage matchday one, this England vs. Peru met the expectations, both teams showing much caracter and the will to win.

GOALS (Lineker, Joya, Robson, Cubillas fk, Charlton).

13' : Lineker is found by Matthews. Classic goal. 1-0.

25' : served by Cubillas, Joya finds a shooting position after he cutted in from the left. Banks is beaten and Peru are already back in the game.

41' : corner-kick... in the middle of a forest of legs, Robson tackles the ball which ends its run in the back of the net.

64' : Wright unecessarily fouled Cubillas at the 25 yards. His supersonic free-kick beat Banks.

76' : Charlton advances right through the middle of the park... and sends a smashing left-footed shot from the 20 yards ! 3-2.

Yellow Cards : Guerrero (11'), Wright (63').

Man of the Match : the complementarity between the players of England still has to be found (as to know who covers when one is bombing forward) but Charlton, placed at the centre of the team, shown some consistency in his efforts and... he has scored that goal ! It could have been Banks, but conceding two goals made it difficult. On the loosing side, it was impossible to miss the beautiful performances of Joya and Cubillas, the left arm of the Peruvian team, who brang punch, one with his breakthrough, the other with his passes and with his shots (what a free-kick!). We also noticed Cueto and Sotil, but they lacked efficiency.

RATINGS :

England :

Banks 6 - Neville 4 - Wright 4,5 - Moore 5 - Cole 5 - Robson 5,5 - Edwards 5,5 - Matthews 5,5 (Ball 78') - Charlton 6,5 (Keegan 83') - Finney 5 - Lineker 5,5 (Shearer 83'). Tot. : 58.

Peru :

Valdivesio 4 - Solano 5,5 - Melendez 5 - Chumpitaz 4,5 - Diaz 4,5 - Velasquez 5 - Cueto 5,5 - Cubillas 6,5 - Sotil 5,5 (Advincula 72') - Guerrero 5,5 (Pizarro 76') - Joya 6 (Farfan 79'). Tot. :57,5.

These two men...

... delivered !

DAY 2

ENGLAND - SWITZERLAND at Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal (capacity 52.000)

ENGLAND - SWITZERLAND : 2 - 2

Without having made a big impression, England seemed to have the win in hands... but two-goal late Switzerland were leveled in the last minutes.

Five Manchester United players were part of England starting eleven : Robson, Edwards, Charlton, Neville and Beckham.

GOALS (Charlton, Shearer, Yakin fk, Akanji)

18': Séchehaye mows Lineker down. Penalty ! Tom Finney is the penalty taker it seems... it is a miss ! Finney missed ! It is wide of the target. 0-0.

39' : Charlton with a sudden shoot... it's in ! If it was a sudden shoot, it was not that powerful however, but Séchehaye let it pass under his chest. 1-0 England.

82' : Moore... Shearer with a bicycle-kick after a rebound !!

85' : Hakan Yakin with a free-kick !! The Swiss are only one goal late after all, so let's see !

90+3 : corner-kick Shaqiri... headed goal A-kan-ji !

90+8 : final whistle. 2-2.

Yellow cards : Séchehaye 18' (it is still incomprehensible how this was not a red card), Minelli 54', Cole 60'.

Man of the Match : Akanji.

RATINGS

England :

Banks 4 - Neville 5,5 - Wright 4 - Moore 6 - Cole 5,5 - Robson 5,5 (Rice 86') - Edwards 5,5 - Beckham 5 (Ball 86') - Charlton 6 - Finney 5 - Lineker 3,5 (Shearer 71'). Tot. : 55,5.

Switzerland :

Séchehaye 2,5 - Lichtsteiner 5 - Minelli 4 - Geiger 4,5 - Akanji 6,5 - Rodriguez 5 - Xhakha 5,5 - Sforza 5,5 (H. Yakin 72') - Shaqiri 5 - Barnetta 5 (Chapuisat 72') - Türkyilmaz 4,5 (Frei 80'). Tot. : 53.

Banks : he's been impregnable, until that free-kick by the Swiss substitute Yakin.

Neville and Wright : on the right hand of England's defense, Neville and Wright have been caught a couple of times by Barnetta, but without any damage in the end. Neville globally had a better partnership with Bekcham, but without causing any damage to the Swiss as well.

Moore : he was true to his reputation and image with his defensive presence worth of a lord. He's not been on big help in the aerial duels when the Swiss won set-pieces though.

Ashley Cole : as strange as it can sound, he's been less attacking than Neville, as both him and Lichtsteiner neutralized each other at about the half-way line. Cole globally had a solid game but suffered a couple of times in his duels with Shaqiri, the proof with that yellow card.

Robson and Edwards : they divided the tasks with more efficiency than during matchday one. Robson commited the fould that offered to Yakin the possibility of scoring that brilliant free-kick. Was it clearly a fool? Maybe not in the First Division.

He was subbed out for Rice to come in in the last minutes, after the goal made by Yakin. Which did not prevent the scoreboard to evolve one last time.

Beckham : he's been preferred to Matthews for this match with the Swiss team. He did a good contribution in that right half of the midfield which is his home even though doing a bit more was certainly expected from him.

He was replaced with Ball who made here his second appearance from the bench, only to see Switzerland score one goal then another one to make it 2-2.

Charlton : thanks to the support of his four teammates of the midfield, he was able to find some shooting positions and was even able to score with a shoot which was the less expected one to be transformed into a goal. As a playmaker, he had a correct to real good game. Most of all, we'll remember that is ability to score goals was once again vital for his team. It is simply his second goal in two games. Good ratio.

Finney : he's been playing in a very median position, guaranteeing some balance to the Three Lions team. For that reason, it's difficult to judge on his game. Perhaps, he could have done more offensively. He attacked, and well, but too sporadically. Maybe he is not at 100% physically. Which could explained that missed penalty...

Lineker : he won a penalty since the very start of the game, unless it was most of all an offering from the Swiss keeper. Apart from that, we lack of highlight moments from Gary in this match.

He was subbed out by Alan Shearer who looked erratic in a first time before scoring that brilliant half-volley bicycle-kick goal which at this very moment was synonymous for a win.

Séchehaye : he turned from hero (in the first game against Northern Ireland) to almost zero in this game. Maybe his performance had an influence on his teammates, which led to this final result though ?

Lichsteiner and Rodriguez : the laterals of five-man Swiss defense had about the same performance. A very serious one. The did not brang much offensively though as surely asked to play conservatively.

Minelli : the sturfy fellow Minelli had a more difficult game than against Northern Ireland, even against a not 100% fit Finney, who deceived him a couple of times thanks to his "intelligent dribbling" but also thanks to his remaining speed.

Geiger : the libero of the Swiss team did not venture much himself much ahead of his colleagues of the defense. Also, he was not able to fill the holes on those two English goals. But we saw a talentuous player i nhim all throughout the game, though.

Akanji : his aerial presence and exit of the ball have been precious to his team during the game and he scored the equalizer at the very end...so what to say? The jury made their decision : Man of the Match.

Xhaka and Sforza : the Swiss midfield was very complementary with Xhaka in the most defensive role and Sforza to do the transitions.

Shaqiri and Barnetta : had the most offensive role at midfield but they also were clearly asked to defend. Which maybe took away too much energy from them to be decisive in the last tier of the pitch. Shaqiri kicked the corner-kick that found the Akanji's head, that said, so his technique was used, in the end.

Türkyilmaz : he was supposed to turn into gold the few chances he'd be provided by his teammate (once again asked to defend, first and foremost) and hey, he did not do that bad. But it was still to difficult, until that England scored that second goal...

Coming from the bench : Yakin let guns do the talking with his brilliant free-kick goal which he scored less than fifteen minutes after he entered the pitch. Chapuisat and Frei, who did not convice in the first game against Northern Ireland, have been here more interesting in only a few minutes of play, finding each other in a couple of occasions. But it is well Akanji who was the hero.

PERU - NORTHERN IRELAND at Estádio do Dragão, Porto, Portugal (capacity 50.000)

PERU - NORTHERN IRELAND : 3 - 1

Northern Ireland used a new formation with more ambition, in order to get the win. But they were betrayed by their fullbacks tonight (or this afternoon in Peru).

Northern Ireland even was globaly outclassed by the red and white team.

GOALS (Velasquez, Davis, Cubillas, Donaghy o.g.)

8' : corner-kick Farfan... Velasquez with a header !

14' : George Best in a right winger position crosses the ball... it's deflected... and Steven Davis is there, in the penalty area, to propel the ball in the nets ! 1-1 !

70' : Cubillas to Joya to Guerrero to Cubillas, just behind him, goal ! Gol, Gol, Gol, Cubillas ! His second goal in the competition.

83' : Mal Donaghy own goal. After a brilliant sequence from the team of Peru who sensed that the Northern Ireland team was on the verge of breaking down.

Yellow cards : Evans 41', Rice 86'.

Man of the Match : Cubillas once again delighted us. He reigned supreme in his stadium of Porto.

RATINGS

Peru :

Gallese 5,5 - Solano 5,5 (Duarte 80') - Melendez 4,5 - Chumpitaz 6 - Diaz 4,5 - Velasquez 6 - Cueto 5,5 (Del Solar 72') - Cubillas 7 - Farfan 6,5 - Guerrero 5,5 - Joya 5,5 (Sotil 78'). Tot. 62.

Northern Ireland :

Jennings 5 - Nicholl 4,5 (Rice 74') - Hughes 5 - Evans 4 - Donaghy 2,5 - Blanchflower 4 - Davis 6 - O'Neill 5,5 - Best 5,5 - Armstrong 4 (Healey 60') - McParland 3,5 (Whiteside 71'). Tot. : 49,5.