England 2, Slovakia 1

By Kyle Braithwaite
June 16 2003

TWO goals by Michael Owen gave England a much needed victory at the Riverside Stadium on Wednesday night as they overcame a 1-0 deficit to beat a strong Slovakian side.

Michael Owen celebrated his 50th cap for England by sparking an international rescue at The Riverside on Wednesday night.

England went in at half time 1-0 down thanks to a poorly defended free-kick taken by Slovakia's Vladimir Janocko, which found its way through a bunch of players and straight pasted the helpless David James in goal.

In the very first minute of the game England's Michael Owen raced clear of Slovakia's defence only to put his shot straight at the goal keeper.

Then in the 31st minute Slovakia's Vladimir Janocko scored a free-kick that should have been cleared by the England Defence only to find its way into the back of David James' net.

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson decided to make a tactical chance after 43 mins and took right-back Danny Mills off and replace him with Bayern Munchen midfielder Owen Hargreaves. The tactical chance around see Phil Neville moved to right back, and put in a soiled second half performance.

In the early stages of the second half England continued to find it hard to push pasted a Slovakia side happy to defend their 1 goal lead.

In the 53rd minute the England Coach decided to remove 17 year-old Wayne Rooney and replace him with the Aston Villa's Darius Vassell.

Just seconds after the Villa striker came on he had a chance to pull England level with a lob, but he couldn't connect completely with the ball and put it into the keeper's hands.

However just a few minutes later Liverpool striker Michael Owen was brought down in the area and German referee Wolfgang Stark awarded England a penalty, and the England Skipper got up to take the penalty himself and slot it past the helpless Slovakia goalkeeper Konig.

And after Frank Lampard had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside, Owen was on the mark again to put England ahead with 17 minutes left.

Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard was the provider with a perfect cross which Owen headed powerfully past Konig.
It gave England a vital win and kept alive their hopes of automatic qualification for Euro 2004.

Line-ups;
England: James, Mills (Hargreaves 43), Cole, Upson, Southgate, Gerrard, Scholes, Neville, Lampard, Rooney (Vassell 57), Owen (c).
Subs not used: Robinson, Bridge, Terry, Joe Cole, Heskey.

Slovakia: Konig, Petras, Zabavnik, Demo (Mintal 55), Hanek, Zeman, Vladimir Labant (Debnar 39), Janocko, Michalik, Nemeth (Reiter 75), Vittek.
Subs not used: Rezeszoto, Karhan, Kisel, Kozlej.