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     v Portugal v Germany v Romania Qualifying    |
England 0 -v- 0 Sweden
Paul Scholes, the man who had scored a hat-trick in his last game at Wembley became a villain when he got sent-off for two wild tackles. After Scholes' dismissal, England struggled to hang on to the goalless draw. Scholes had becomethe first England player to be sent off at Wembley. In the first minute, Scholes was lucky to escape a yellow card for a bad challenge on Hakan Mild. He didn't learn form this and was booked for a lunge on Schwarz later in the first-half. The red card came early in the second-half when he again, made another late challenge on Schwarz. He will miss the qualifyer against Bulgaria on Wednesday. England were lucky it was still 0 - 0 at half time as Henrik Larsson and Kennet Andersson missed easy chances. Rio Ferdinand had to be brought into the centre of defence as Keown limped off. Shear missed England's only chance of the first half as he blasted the ball over the bar. For the second half, Kevin Keegan swapped Michael Gray for Le Saux but Scholes' dismissal meant England were on the back foot. Tim Sherwood headed over the bar on the hour but that was England's only attack in the second half. If things couldn't get worse, Beckham was carried off in the 75th minute. Just a minute later, Sweden were unlucky to go ahead when Ljungberg nearly slotted in a free-kick. Kevin Keegan said after the game: "We didn't play well in the first half. I was disappointed and the players were frustrated. I can't give you a reason. I said at half-time we had to pass it better and create a few more chances. We never got chance to do that when Paul Scholes got sent off. Then it was 'wow, is a draw the best we can hope for?" England now need to get a result in Sofia on Wednesday. |
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