Capello pleased despite losing perfect record

DNEPROPETROVSK - Fabio Capello claimed not to be too diappointed after losing his first competitive match as England manager in Saturday’s World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine in Dnepropetrovsk Saturday.

Having already booked their place at next year’s World Cup in South Africa, Capello’s men failed to record a ninth straight win in the qualifying campaign as they were defeated 1-0 after being reduced to 10 men with the early sending off of goalkeeper Robert Green and a deflected Sergiy Nazarenko goal.

England remain on 24 points at the top of Group 6, while Ukraine moved into second place on 18 points, one clear of Croatia in third. Belarus remain moved onto 13 points in fourth place after a 4-0 win at home over Kazakhstan.

Capello praised his team’s efforts after going down to 10 men, but criticised the decision by the referee to send off his goalkeeper.

“I’m pleased. We played the second half very well. It’s never easy against 11 men but we drew the second half with only ten men.”

“We made one silly mistake, but the Green red card was also a mistake from the referee. He was too far away from the play to give a red card,” the England manager said.

Knowing they had to win to maintain their qualification hopes, the home side put the England defence under immediate pressure and were rewarded within 15 minutes as a terrible mistake by Rio Ferdinand allowed Artem Milevskiy free on goal who was then brought down for a penalty by Green.

The referee had no choice but to show Green a red card, but Andriy Shevchenko failed to take advantage as his penalty struck the outside of the post despite beating substitute goalkeeper David James.

England, however, failed to heed the early warning as more poor defending, this time from Ashley Cole, allowed the home side to take the lead on the half hour.

The Chelsea left-back failed to control a simple pass in the build-up to the goal but was unfortunate that Sergiy Nazarenko’s shot deflected off him past James in the England goal.

Fabio Capello will be pleased that his team performed more strongly in the second half, even though they created few chances and always remained vulnerable due to Ukraine’s numerical advantage.

Wayne Rooney, who worked tirelessly throughout the match, came closest to salvaging a point for England in the dying minutes but his shot was fired just wide after good work from substitute Carlton Cole.

England end their qualifying campaign against Belarus at Wembley Wednesday. The win now makes Ukraine hot favourites to hold onto second place - and claim a probable play-off spot - as their last match is against Andorra, while Croatia play away in Kazakhstan.