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Capello faces Euro dilemma as England youngsters impress
Jack Rodwell, Phil Jones and Kyle Walker win boss’s praise after Wembley victory over Sweden
IT WAS not just the fact that England overcame Sweden for the first time in 43 years that gave Fabio Capello cause for celebration at Wembley last night, but the performance of the youngsters in the team.
After the game the Italian heaped praise on Jack Rodwell, Phil Jones and Kyle Walker and hinted that he now faced a selection dilemma ahead of Euro 2012. "The competition to play at the Euros will be really, really strong and I hope that competition involves all these players," he said.
Writing in The Times, Matt Hughes said: "Capello believes that the young players are not troubled by fear of failure, which has inhibited some of their more experienced team-mates in the past, particularly at Wembley."
"They are part of England's changing football face," believes the BBC's Phil McNulty. He points out that the national set-up is now awash with young talent, from Joe Hart in goal to Daniel Sturridge up front, who made his debut against Sweden.
Despite the team's promise, only 48,876 fans turned out to watch the match at Wembley, won by an own-goal from Daniel Majstorovic, which initially looked as though it had come off the head of Gareth Barry.
It was the home side’s 2,000th goal in internationals and ensured that England finished 2011 unbeaten, the first time the Three Lions have achieved such a feat in a calendar year since 1994. Capello later described the run as "just a statistic. It will be important now what we do in the Euros, not what we've done this year".
At the other end of the age spectrum 30-year-old England captain John Terry was the centre of attention before the game thanks to the police and FA investigation into racism allegations against him.
The Chelsea centre-back had a relatively quiet evening in defence with Sweden having little to show in the way of strikepower, and afterwards Terry said resigning the captaincy has never occurred to him. "I would never step down. I always dreamed of this since I was a boy of four or five when I used to watch England games." ·
