10 things we learned from England v Egypt

By Dan Silver in Mirror Football Blog

Published 22:05 03/03/10

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England's friendly victory over Egypt was the proverbial game of two halves, with a brace from Peter Crouch and a Shaun Wright-Phillips goal overturning a first half deficit. But what did we learn from the game, asks Dan Silver?

1) Rooney might be on-song, but he isn't down with the song
Given that it's generally accepted that England's entire World Cup hopes rest on Wayne Rooney's shoulders, would it be too much to ask that he learns the words to the national anthem between now and June?

2) Frank Lampard needs to get scoring tips from John Terry
If the midfielder was as successful in the box (ahem) as his Chelsea team-mate, England would have been a goal-up inside 10 minutes.

3) Wembley really is a Mecca for football
The Egyptian players' prostrate goal celebration merely confirmed what we'd known all along.

4) Dropping John Terry doesn't look like such a good idea now
Matthew Upson is a solid enough defender, but as his - literal - slip-up for Egypt's opener proved, England's back-up central defenders are far from world class. That said, at least the Wembley groundsman won't be in South Africa.

5) There's something about the name Zidan...
First Zizou put England to the sword at Euro 2004, and his near-namesake Mohamed gave England's backline the run-around at Wembley too. You'd think we would have learned by now...

6) England desperately need Ashley Cole back for the World Cup
Leighton Baines looked solid at the back but offered little going forward. Cole might have questionable off-field habits, but this game proved just how good an attacking full-back he is on it.

7) The John Terry scandal has actually improved England's team spirit
It certainly explains why they played so badly in the first half - they wanted to give the Wembley crowd as many chances as possible to spread the booing around the whole team.

8) England need to start with a big man/Rooney combination
And that big man should be Peter '20 in 37 games' Crouch. Well, at least until we come up against a nation who are any good, at any rate.

9) Egypt's goalkeeper is so bad he could almost make the England squad
England will be lucky to come up against a keeper in South Africa who makes the kind of mistakes El Hadary did for Shaun Wright-Phillips' goal. Well, outside of their own inter-squad training matches, of course.

10) Capello really is the Don
Never mind who should play up front, or at the back, or in goal. England's key man is the bloke in the fancy specs. Sven never had a Plan B. Capello seems to have Plans C, D and E all lined up.

What did you learn from England's win over Egypt? Who were the big winners and losers? Sign in below and leave us your comments...

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