The boos rang out around the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town as England produced a hapless performance in the scoreless draw with Algeria. England: 0 Algeria: 0
Venue: Green Point Stadium, Cape Town Crowd: 64,100 Officials Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan) Assistants: Rafael Ilyasov (Uzbekistan) & Bakhadyr Kochkarov (Kyrgyzstan) Fourth official: Michael Hester (NZL) Yellow cards:ENG Carragher - ALG - Lacen
Red cards: None MATCH REPORT Fabio Capello was 64 today but this England performance gave him no cause for celebration. A 0-0 draw against Algeria, who had lost 5 of their last 6 games gives some indication of the inept showing of players who can excel for their club's but not when wearing an international shirt.
Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard could barely string a pass together whilst Wayne Rooney looked completely out of sorts and has now gone seven games without an England goal.
The body language of the players as the game wore did not augur well for the remainder of the competition.
Defensively, the Three Lions were adequate with David James preferred in goal to Robert Green.
Algeria looked sharp going forward, particularly in the first half, but lacked that quality final ball although England did look shaky on occasions when their opponents broke quickly.
England were tentative and ponderous in attack and what few chances they created were easily dealt with by keeper Rais M'Bohli.
In fact John Terry almost gifted Algeria a goal with a sloppy back pass in the second half which had James racing off his line to clear.
On the touchline Capello cut an animated figure as his team struggled with the basics of the game.
Passes were either over or under hit, both Gerrard and Lampard betrayed a lack of confidence by trying to pass when in good shooting positions and Emile Heskey failed to link with Rooney.
In the final minute substitute Jermaine Defoe blasted over but in truth three points would have flattered England and been a harsh call against a battling Algeria.
For Capello the honeymoon period with the fans is clearly over as the boos ringing out at the final whistle testified. Starting Line-Ups
ENG
1. David James 2. Glen Johnson 18. Jamie Carragher 6. John Terry 3. Ashley Cole 7. Aaron Lennon (Wright-Phillips, 63) 14. Gareth Barry (Crouch, 84) 8. Frank Lampard 4. Steven Gerrard 10. Wayne Rooney 21. Emile Heskey (Defoe, 74) SUBS
12. Robert Green (GK) 5. Michael Dawson 9. Peter Crouch 11. Joe Cole 13. Stephen Warnock 15. Matthew Upson 16. James Milner 17. Shaun Wright-Phillips 19. Jermain Defoe 20. Ledley King 22. Michael Carrick 23. Joe Hart (GK) ALG
23. Rais M'Bohli 2. Madjid Bougherra 3. Nadir Belhadj 4. Anthar Yahia 21. Foued Kadir 19. Hassan Yebda (Mesbah, 88) 8. Mehdi Lacen 5. Rafik Halliche 7. Ryad Boudebouz (Abdoun, 73) 15. Karim Ziani (Guedioura, 80) 13. Karim Matmour
SUBS
1. Lounes Gaouaoui (GK) 6. Yazid Mansouri 9. Abdelkader Ghezzal 10. Rafik Saifi 11. Rafik Djebbour 12. Habib Bellaid 14. Abdelkader Laifaoui 17. Adlene Guedioura 18. Carl Medjani 20. Djamel Mesbah 22. Djamel Abdoun 16. Faouzi Chaouchi (GK)