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England have moved on from the so-often sublime to the footballing ridiculous. Brazil are no longer the best team in the world, but to play Luiz Felipe Scolari's side one month and then San Marino, joint worst in FIFA rankings, the next is to take a precipitous plunge.
Inevitably, the focus is slipping to Tuesday's trip to Podgorica, home of the group leaders, with the suggestion that Ashley Cole will be rested tonight to ensure he is not suspended against Montenegro. The assumption tonight has to be an England victory, the question is by how many, as it was at Wembley in October.
The scoreline then was 5-0, emphatic enough on paper but lacking more than a certain something in the flesh. It took 35 minutes and a penalty to give England a belated lead and in the final 13 minutes, when dogged but now well-beaten opponents were flagging, no more goals came.
On the other hand, landslides are not what they used to be, with teams more organised and making no pretence of an attack presence. While the English disappointed in possession at times in October, the Sammarinesi looked completely lost on the rare occasions when they had the ball in space near halfway. It was a match played under the laws of football but was not a match in the sense of being a contest between two teams.
The Brazil match was a mere friendly and the weather hardly suited the visitors, but that was a more meaningful fixture. The trip to San Marino may offer a few tips to how to play in September's home game against Moldova but otherwise offers little tactical guidance. It is far from an irrelevance, however.
Unlike the World Cup, the first method of breaking ties on points is not the head-to-heads, but goal difference. England and Montenegro have identical scoring records at present, their success in winning 1-0 in Ukraine against opponents who drew at Wembley providing the two-point difference. A lot can happen between now and then - either side could be eliminated - but should the leading pair be level on points after Montenegro's visit to Wembley on October 11th, we will all be looking to the scoring columns. In the final games, on the following Tuesday, Moldova go to Podgorica while Poland will provide much stiffer opposition at Wembley, so England would want to establish some advantage in advance.
Roy Hodgson will be looking for three things from his team in Serravalle: no injuries, especially for anyone who does or can play in central defence; no bookings that could cause trouble on Tuesday or at a later date; and victory by enough goals to provide some measure of insurance.
Philip Cornwall
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