England 2 Netherlands 3

Ashley Young

Eng­land 2 Neth­er­lands 3, Wemb­ley Sta­dium, In­ter­na­tion­al Friendly Mat­ch, Feb­ruary 29, 2012. On the 9th of Feb­ruary 1977, the Neth­er­lands han­ded Eng­land a les­son in clin­ic­al fin­ish­ing as they ran out 2-0 win­ners in the in­ter­na­tion­al friendly en­counter at Wemb­ley cour­tesy of two fir­st ha­lf goals by NEC Nijme­gen wing­er Jan Peters. Then, on the 29th of Feb­ruary 2012, foot­ball his­tory re­peated it­self wi­th The Fly­ing Dutch­men tri­umphant yet again.

The Three Li­ons star­ted brightly and could have taken an early lead when a dan­ger­ous head­er from Chelsea´s Ga­ry Ca­hill nar­rowly flew over the cross­bar. But as the fir­st ha­lf pro­gressed, the mat­ch slowed down wi­th bo­th sides play­ing the ball in the middle of the park and not many scor­ing chances cre­ated. Then, in the 56th min­ute of the con­test, Bay­ern Mu­nich flanker Ar­jen Rob­ben picked up the ball in­side his own ha­lf be­fore run­ning the length of the pitch to score the open­ing goal. And just one min­ute la­ter, Bert van Marwijk´s Hol­land sco­red ag­ain as Schalke stri­ker Klaas-Jan Hunte­laar head­ed ho­me a mag­ni­fi­cent cross ball from Dirk Kuyt. Eng­land fi­nally ma­naged to find the tar­get in the 85 min­ute when a long thro­ugh ball from Ever­ton left back Leigh­ton Baines fou­nd fel­low Ca­hill who slot­ted in­to the bot­tom cor­ner of the net to give the ho­me play­ers some hope. There was more to come on­ly five min­utes la­ter when Man­chester Uni­ted wing­er Ash­ley Young col­lec­ted a fine pass from Old Traf­ford team­mate Phil Jones and lif­ted the ball over Hol­land net­mind­er Maarten Stekelen­burg to make the score 2-2. But then, in stop­page time, Hol­land ev­entually gave Stu­art Pearce´s men the coup de grace when Rob­ben be­at Man­chester City goal­keeper Joe Hart wi­th a curl­ing shot from in­side the pen­alty box. Eng­land Te­am: Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Chris Small­ing, Ga­ry Ca­hill, Gar­eth Bar­ry, Ash­ley Young, Leigh­ton Baines, Ste­ven Ger­rard, Ad­am John­son, Scott Par­ker, Dan­ny Wel­beck. Sub­stitutes: Scott Car­son, Ro­bert Green, Jo­leon Le­scott, Phil Jones, Ja­mes Mil­ner, Ash­ley Cole, Stew­art Down­ing, Theo Wal­cott, Fra­izer Camp­bell, Dan­iel Stur­ridge. Nethr­lands Te­am: Maarten Stekelen­burg, Khal­id Bou­lahrouz, Johnny Heitinga, Jor­is Math­ijsen, Er­ik Pieters, Nigel de Jong, Ar­jen Rob­ben, Wes­ley Sneijder, Ma­rk van Bom­mel, Dirk Kuyt, Robin van Per­sie. Sub­stitutes: Tim Krul, Jef­frey Bruma, Ron Vlaar, Gili­ano Wijn­al­dum, Urby Emanuel­son, Ola John, Stijn Schaars, Kev­in St­root­man, Lu­ciano Nars­ingh, Luuk de Jong, Klaas Jan Huntelaar.

 

Ashley Young Quickfacts

Ash­ley Young was giv­en his in­ter­na­tion­al de­but for Eng­land when he came on as a ha­lf-time sub­sti­tute in a 1-0 in­ter­na­tion­al friendly win ag­ainst Aus­tria at Ernst Hap­pel Sta­dium in Vi­enna on the 16th of Nov­ember 2007. Young made his fir­st start for his home­land in a 2-2 Euro 2012 Quali­fier draw wi­th Montenegro at Podgor­ica City Sta­dium on the 12th of Oct­ober 2010, and sco­red his fir­st in­ter­na­tion­al goal in a 2-1 friendly vic­tory ag­ainst Den­mark at Parken Sta­dium in Copen­ha­gen on the 9th of Feb­ruary 2011.

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