For March 3rd I'm going back 11 years to 2010 and England's international friendly against Egypt.
This game formed part of England's build up to that summer's World Cup in South Africa. Egypt were the reigning African Cup of Nations holders and surely represented the best that Africa had to offer. In terms of FIFA rankings, England were the 8th best team in the world and Egypt the 17th. This was by no means an easy game and by half time England were a goal down to a goal by Zidan (Mohamed not ZiZou). Fabio Capello's England brought on Peter Crouch and Michael Carrick at half-time and Crouch proceeded to book his place on the plane to South Africa with 2 goals. Another substitute, Shaun Wright-Phillips got England's second and he also made the cut to get into Capello's final 23. England ran out 3-1 winners in front of 80,602 at Wembley.
For the stats fans out there, you may like to know that this game was England's 500th ever victory (in Match no. 882) and Peter Crouch's first goal was England's 800th in Friendlies! Everton's Leighton Baines made his debut in this game (the first of 30 appearances) but he didn't make the final squad for South Africa. For Wes Brown (23 appearances) and Carlton Cole (7), this was to be the last occasion on which they would play for the Three Lions. Egypt's Ahmed Hassan was making his 174th appearance for Egypt (at least I Sphinx so!) and at 184 appearances in total he is the most capped (male) international footballer ever. Former Tottenham player Hossam Ghaly also played that night.
CRB Match No. 1734
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