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Austria, England draw in qualifier
Austria came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with England in their opening Group 6 World Cup qualifying match in Vienna on Saturday.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:08 AM IST
Read Time: 2 min
Vienna:
England travelled to Vienna on Saturday in their opening Group 6 World Cup qualifying match.
The visitors went ahead in the 24th minute with a cleverly worked goal by Frank Lampard after Alex Manninger had literally handed them the opportunity on a plate.
The former Arsenal goalkeeper parried away a low cross from Gary Neville and then conceded a free-kick after picking the ball up, played back to him by Martin Stranzl, when he had time to kick it clear despite being put under pressure by Michael Owen.
The entire Austrian team lined up to try to block the expected piledriver from 12 metres out by David Beckham. But, instead, the England skipper clipped the ball to his left with his right foot - where Lampard got in front of Owen to net from close range.
Steven Gerrard doubled England's lead in the 64th minute.
Owen laid the ball into the path of his one-time Liverpool team-mate and Gerrard curled the ball over Manninger from the edge of the penalty area.
Just when it seemed England were coasting to victory, a free-kick from substitute Rob Kollmann brought Austria back into the game after 71 minutes. Lampard brought down Gernot Sick on the edge of the area and Kollmann curled the free-kick over the defensive wall and past the dive of David James into the left hand corner.
Then, two minutes later, a mistake by James brought Austria back on level terms. Andreas Ivanschitz saw his shot take a slight deflection off John Terry - but James should still have dealt with an effort, which wormed its way under his body at the foot of the post.
So 2-2 it ended and, while Austria will see it as a point gained, England will very much consider it as two points dropped. (AP)
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