A lacklustre England display resulted in just one shot on goal in the first half, a weak injury time effort by Wayne Rooney that was straight at the keeper Mladen Bozović. “We created four to five chances,” said England Manager Fabio Capello. “Other times keeper was good. The keeper was the best player of Montenegro. This is football. You have to respect little countries sometimes have good players. They are psychologically really atrong after three games.”
Peter Crouch, starting in place of the injured Daren Bent, and club colleague Jermain Defoe had the best chance of the first half, but headed Glen Johnson's cross just over Bozović's crossbar. Capello's Man of the Match was not tested in the first 45 minutes, but earned his plaudits in the second half with at least two fantastic saves.
Kevin Davies was given just ovr twenty minutes to make an impact, replacing Crouch. He almost made an immediate impact, setting up Rooney for a close-range effort that was superbly parried by Bozović with a firm right-hand. “Our goalkeeper Mladen Bozović had very good game,” said Kranjčar. “I don't think England under-estimated us. They controlled tempo. They were very prepared. I think anyone would agree we put on a great performance here at Wembley. We had a plan – how to avoid defeat and we perfectly made the plan work. I don't consider it a miracle. We are close to qualification, but there are still a lot of games to play. [The] result exceeds our expectations.”
