England 1-1 Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland travelled to Wembley with huge numbers of supporters, and Long and Lampard scored first half goals, as the 7^th and 39^th best teams drew at Wembley.

On the day that Ashley Cole captained England in memory of his 100^th cap, his side went behind to a thumping header from Shane Long after just 12 minutes, and Frank Lampard equalized with a clever close range finish to stop Ireland beating Albion. Ben Foster played the second half in goal for England and was impressive in keeping a clean sheet. England overall had more chances than Ireland, but didn’t test David Forde in the Irish net enough. England’s best performers in the match were Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Jermain Defoe. The game ended 1-1.

The sight of managers Giovanni Trapattoni and Roy Hodgson having a nice warm conversation was probably the most exciting view of all of the game for England fans, and that is saying something.