England will head to Brazil with their optimism intact after crushing Peru 3-0 on Friday in their final friendly on home soil before the FIFA World Cup kicks off this month.
In the first of his side’s three warm-up matches, England manager Roy Hodgson saw man-of-the-match Daniel Sturridge put England ahead with a sweet long-range strike midway through the first half at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Centerbacks Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka got on the scoresheet in the second half to complete a straightforward evening for England, who are to travel to Miami for a pre-tournament training camp today.
Photo: Reuters
They are to face Ecuador and Honduras there next week before opening their World Cup campaign against Group D rivals Italy in the Brazilian city of Manaus on June 14.
“It was a wonderful sendoff to the World Cup by a quite incredible crowd,” Hodgson told ITV. “We had to be patient, but we were dominant throughout. It is the perfect end to a perfect two weeks. I am delighted that 85,000 fans came here to wish us well on our way.”
Hodgson was also able to hand a debut to young Everton defender John Stones, while he will have drawn encouragement from the performance of Adam Lallana and a late cameo from the fit-again Jack Wilshere.
Defeat took Peru’s winless run to seven, but new coach Pablo Bengoechea fielded an experimental squad shorn of big-name players such as Claudio Pizarro and Jefferson Farfan.
“We were playing against a top side, who were saying goodbye to their fans before the World Cup,” Bengoechea said. “They had more possession than us and we struggled to get it off them, but in the first half they didn’t hurt us.”
Hodgson opted for Danny Welbeck instead of in-form Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling, with the Manchester United man lining up on the left flank in a conventional 4-2-3-1 formation.
It was the teams’ first meeting since 1962 and Peru threatened first, with Joe Hart leaping to field a deflected shot from Montpellier Herault youngster Jean Reza, but England cranked into gear in the last 20 minutes of the first half.
Having wastefully lashed wide with his weaker right foot following a buccaneering run from Lallana, Sturridge made amends in the 32nd minute with an excellent strike that took his international goal tally to four.
After collecting a throw-in from Glen Johnson wide on the England right, he worked his way inside two defenders to the edge of the box before whipping a glorious left-foot shot into the top-left corner.
Wayne Rooney then headed over from a corner, but it took a smart block from Hart to keep the scores level after the ponderous Johnson played Luis Ramirez onside moments before halftime.
For all Lallana’s darting enterprise, England continued to toil somewhat early in the second half and Deza almost embarrassed Hart with an ambitious long-range shot that landed on the roof of the net.
Jagielka was obliged to slide in to thwart livewire Deza after Johnson gave the ball away, but Cahill headed in from a Leighton Baines corner in the 65th minute to give England breathing space.
Five minutes later, Jagielka stabbed home the third goal after visiting goalkeeper Raul Fernandez allowed another Baines corner to squirm from his grasp.
Sterling, Wilshere, Chris Smalling, James Milner, Ross Barkley and Stones all entered the fray in the latter stages, while the avoidance of injuries completed a satisfactory evening for Hodgson.
In other World Cup warm-up matches on Friday, Iran drew 1-1 with Angola, with Austria and Iceland producing the same scoreline in their tie, while Qatar and Macedonia played out a scoreless draw, as did New Zealand and South Africa.
In Lucerne, Switzerland, the hosts blanked visitors Jamaica to win 1-0 courtesy of an 84th-minute goal from Josip Drmic.
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