England 1-0 Spain

A different topic here for Terrier Blog, but we're all England fans as well, and I felt that this result required special attention. On Saturday at Wembley, one of the worst England teams in recent memory recorded a 1-0 victory against the best team in the world. Before the game the talk from so-called pundits was of how England were going to keep the score down. However 90 plus minutes passed by, and Joe Harts net was not breached once by the Spanish masters. Up the other end however, Englands much maligned captain Frank Lampard headed the winner into an empty net.

Now it would be easy to over-react to this result, as I'm sure many in the media have already done in the past few days, but it is important to remember that we have just beaten the world champions and the hot favourites for the upcoming Euros. The style employed by England during the match was not easy on the eye, it was not satisfying or mind-blowing, but it was damned effective. Over recent years we have seen Barcelona, the only team in the world better than Spain, beaten very rarely. However whenever they have been beaten, the style of play pioneered by Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan has always been used, and so Capello opted for this style himself on Saturday.

A committed, well drilled, and technically solid display by the Three Lions, and perhaps most pleasing was a clean sheet. Fabregas can have his opinions about who deserved to win, and which side played the football. But lest we forget this has often been the view of Fabregas at Arsenal whenever a team didn't roll over and let them play. If this is the way we have to play to be successful against better teams, then I for one am fine with it. If we can play expansive football against lesser ranked teams and come away with a victory then fantastic, but against better and more technically gifted teams we will have to play like this, and it was very encouraging to see that we could play this way successfully.

This is by no means a marker for the England team, or a hint at their future fortunes at the European Championships, but it is a confidence booster, and gives us hope that if we play to our strengths against better teams, then we can get a result. South Africa 2010 we played the same players, in a rigid 4-4-2 formation and were humiliated in front of the world. Since this Capello has experimented, brought in new players and tried new tactics. If this continues in the European championships, then I am confident that we can progress to the latter stages of the tournament. I don't believe for one second that we will return from Poland and Ukraine with the trophy, but I think if Capello keeps it together we can progress to the latter stages.