Aston Villa star shines for England

Nov 19 2008

England Under-21 2 Czech Republic Under-21 0

Wolves winger Kightly was also lively in the first half and whipped in a dangerous ball which Divis just collected ahead of the incoming Vaughan moments before half time.

England doubled their lead 10 minutes after the break when they were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area which was taken by Gardner.

The Villa midfielder drilled a low effort which went under the last man in the Czech wall and past the dive of Divis before it nestled into the bottom-left corner of the net.

Moments later England were given the chance to increase their advantage when referee Cuneyt Cakir awarded the home side a penalty after Campbell was fouled by Ondrej Kudela as he attempted to win a header.

Spurs midfielder O'Hara took the resulting spot-kick and struck his shot low into the bottom-right corner, but Czech goalkeeper Divis dived the correct way and parried the ball with England unable to capitalise on the rebound.

Campbell, who has now scored in his past three games, was withdrawn in the 67th minute for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake with the weekend's Barclays Premier League fixtures in mind.

Stearman went close in the 75th minute when he was presented with a shooting opportunity in the box from a England free-kick but scuffed his shot wide.

The Czechs came close to scoring on the counter attack in the 82nd minute, but substitute Marcel Gecov could not control his shot.

Both sides made several changes in the final few minutes and debutant Adam Lallana screwed a good chance wide after clever build-up play late in the game.