Darren Bent recently took part in a Q&A on Twitter whilst on England duty, here’s a glimpse behind the scenes. Perhaps a little on the whimsical side, I was still surprised by his answer when asked who is the fastest player he’s seen on the football pitch. (It’s not Gabby)
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Gabby
In related news, I’m sure you’re already aware, but Gabby was forced to withdraw from the England squad once again with a
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You may well have already seen this, but on the off chance you’ve been off the grid, as I have, in the last 24 hours or so, here’s the extended highlights of England’s 5-0 win over Iceland in the 2013 European U21 Championships qualifier in Colchester.
Nathan Delfouneso was in the starting eleven, but left the pitch with the game barely 10 minutes old after pulling up chasing a ball into the box. It didn’t look like anything major so hopefully
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Gary Gardner stepped onto the Colchester pitch in place of Blackburn’s Jason Lowe in the 62nd minute with England leading 2-0 against Iceland in their Euro 2013 qualifier tonight. Barely more than half an hour later, the referee blew the final whistle and scoreboard read 5-0; Gardner adding two sublime late goals and a lot more to his growing reputation.
His first was an inch perfect free kick from 25 yards out: top corner, keeper stranded. His second, deep into injury
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Gary Gardner, Nathan Delfouneso and Nathan Baker were called up for England ahead of two Under-21 European Champions qualifiers; Iceland in Colchester on Thursday and away to Belgium next Monday.
Here’s a two minute interview on the training ground with Gardner, pausing just briefly to allow Delfouneso to take a penalty in the background. Eventually.
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The qualification for Euro 2012 is almost done. England will be in Poland and/or Ukraine next summer after comfortably finishing top of Group G, albeit by handing Motenegro an unlikely point and a place in the play-offs in the final game. Ireland also made it to the play-offs, and could be drawn against Montenegro, but Wales and Scotland miss out once again.
England: Ashley Young provided a rare headed finish to an even rarer superb delivery from Theo Walcott. Young then
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Another international break has come and gone, time to focus on the bread and butter stuff. If you watched England labour to three points against Wales at Wembley this week, as a Villa fan, the line-up may have looked a lot like the image below. It probably stung quite a bit for most of us.
This is a relatively rare experience for us, but it’s been coming and it’s easy to lose sight of an important fact amongst the bitterness. In
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I’ll be honest, I didn’t actually spot Nathan Baker dancing, but he was certainly there as member of the England squad landing in Medellin, Colombia ahead of the U-20 World Cup. So what? Well, just watch the video… let’s just say that airport security in Colombia is a little different.
¡Arriba!
England play their first group game against North Korea on Friday and will want make sure of a strong three points before facing Argentina and Mexico.
(email subscribers can click here to
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There were four, possibly five, Villans involved as England drew 2-2 with Switzerland and the United States were comprehensively beaten 4-0 by Spain yesterday. Darren Bent and Eric Lichaj started for their sides, Ashley Young and Michael Bradley entered their games at half time and Stewart Downing made a late appearance for England and almost won it with the final kick of the game.
England 2 Switzerland 2
England gifted Switzerland a two goal head start with some comedic set piece defending
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Darren Bent completed the trio of Villans on England duty taking their turns in front of the media ahead of the Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland. He talks about his ability and willingness to play in either a one or two striker system and how moving to Villa was the right move for him. I agree.
And if you’re after a little reading material, I’d recommend this Guardian interview with Bent where he reveals how out of place he felt during
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