Hart admits error as England draw in Poland
After England and Poland eventually got their match completed on Wednesday evening, it rounded off an eventful couple of days in the 2014 World Cup qualification fixtures.
For Roy Hodgson and England, it was a frustrating night but it could have been a lot worse. After comfortably beating San Marino on Friday, the Three Lions were held to a 1-1 draw in Poland and in truth it was the most they deserved.
A draw wasn’t the worst result though and after arguably the toughest game of the campaign, England are top of the group and on course to qualify for Brazil in two years time.
The same cannot be said for Scotland who crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Belgium. Craig Levein’s men are now bottom of their group and the Scottish FA have admitted they will consider the future of the current manager.
For the other home nations, it was a defeat to Wales in Croatia, while Republic of Ireland recovered from the hammering to Germany with a much needed victory on the Faroe Islands.
The story of the night has to be Northern Ireland though. They managed an excellent 1-1 draw in Portugal. Having led from the 30 minute mark, they almost held on to a famous win, but they will be delighted with an unexpected point.
The same can be said for Sweden. In arguably the most entertaining fixture on Tuesday evening, they incredibly came back from 4-0 down against Germany to rescue a draw.
Italy then made reasonably light work of Denmark, while France grabbed an injury-time equaliser in Spain to secure a more than valuable point. It was Arsenal striker Oliver Giroud that cancelled out Sergio Ramos’ early strike.
Overall, it was a very entertaining evening in the European qualification for the 2014 World Cup with some nations much happier than others. There is now a long wait before the next round of competitive matches in March 2013.
