Wizards of Oz cast spell over England

England 1 Australia 3

Australia, inspired by Harry Kewell, “beat” England’s first XI in the first half with the Leeds player putting the Socceroos 2-0 up after Tony Popovic’s early header. Sven-Goran Eriksson then made 11 changes at the break with Rooney, aged 17 years and 11 days, becoming England’s youngest-ever international. Rooney was one of six England debutants on the night and virtually to a man they looked more composed than the first-choice side. Arsenal’s Francis Jeffers headed England back into contention and a equaliser looked possible until Brett Emerton ended the contest. As expected, Eriksson had fielded an experienced starting line-up with the only debutant being James Beattie while Australia began with six Premiership players including the Leeds strikeforce of Kewell and Mark Viduka. England began promisingly and David Beckham tried to test Mark Schwarzer with a 35-yard free-kick but the distance was too great, even for him, and his effort was blocked.

With 10 minutes gone Sol Campbell’s header was cleared off the line by Lucas Neill before Kewell hit a swerving shot from 25 yards which David James tipped around the post at full stretch. That was a warning and in the 16th minute Popovic stunned England by grabbing the lead for the visitors. Stan Lazaridis whipped over a free-kick and the Crystal Palace defender rose above Gary Neville at the far-post to head down past James Three minutes before the break, Kewell put some daylight between the sides when he nudged Rio Ferdinand off the ball, ran at goal, side-stepped James before rolling the ball home.