LONDON: England’s football team found a way to quickly dissipate the nation’s summer of success and bring back the gloom.
After the feel-good atmosphere of the Olympics and Paralympics, the national team returned to Wembley on Tuesday night to play Ukraine and narrowly avoided what would have been its first competitive home loss in five years.
Frank Lampard converted a penalty kick in the 87th minute, giving England a 1-1 tie in Roy Hodgson’s first competitive home match as coach.
”We rely on him and he’s done the job again for us tonight,” captain Steven Gerrard said.
Lampard scored his 26th international goal after Yevhen Khacheridi was called for a hand ball. One minute later, Gerrard was ejected after received his second yellow card, for fouling Denys Garmash from behind. Gerrard became the first England captain to be sent off since David Beckham in 2005.
”These games are not easy and in the end getting a point is a good result considering we were 1-0 down with 10 minutes to go,” Lampard said.
England is second in Group H on goal difference behind Montenegro, who won 6-0 at San Marino.
The group winner qualifies for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and eight of the nine European second-place teams advance to playoffs.
England were missing key players in Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Ashley Cole because of injuries. (AP)