Stephane
Chapuisat's double strike brought our Euro 2000
qualifying hopes to a shuddering halt in Zurich.Our hopes had been
boosted by successive group wins against Denmark
and Belarus but Chapuisat dealt their hopes of
qualifying for Euro 2000 a real blow.
The Swiss
striker scored in each half to put the Swiss into
second place.
We lost
keeper Paul Jones, hit the post and had a goal
disallowed.
But after
conceding inside the first four minutes, we found
ourselves always chasing the game.
We started
with skipper Gary Speed playing as sweeper, but
that plan was abandoned after Chapuisat scored
his opening goal.
We
reverted back to 4-4-2 with Speed returning to
midfield.
It meant
that Mark Pembridge and John Robinson found
themselves forced into a more orthodox full back
roles.
It wasn't
a poor performance but we couldn't make the
breakthrough after that early goal. We could not
find that extra piece skill or invention to turn
the game back in our favour.
Key
moments |
|
First
Half |
Sebastian
Fournier's free kick from the right was
headed down by Stefan Wolf. A poor
defensive clearance and Chapuisat fired
home from close range. |
Andy
Johnson's header hit the foot of a post
from a John Robinson cross. |
Paul
Jones was helped from the field. Mark
Crossley came on. |
Blake
headed the ball back across the goal for
Chris Coleman to stab home only for Blake
to be penalised for pushing down on a
swiss defender. |
Second
Half |
Chapuisat
created chances with fine play on the
right wing for Wicky and Fournier. |
Mark
Hughes had a overhead kick blocked by the
Swiss keeper on the line. |
Patrick
Muller got away from Pembridge on the
right and crossed, Chapuisat shot past
Mark Crossley. |
|
|