England 1-0 Denmark: Daniel Sturridge Secures Late Victory For Three Lions

Daniel Sturridge continued his red-hot form and scored in the final 10 minutes as England left it late to defeat a stubborn Denmark side. For most of the encounter it seemed as though Denmark's goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was going to deny Roy Hodgson's side a deserved victory, however Sturridge's later header finally broke the deadlock. The match began in a cagey fashion, with neither side able to dominate possession during the opening 10 minutes. As the game settled down England started to dominate proceedings, but with little end product. The Three Lions were struggling to carve out any clear cut chances, typified by several speculative efforts from Wayne Rooney. It was not until the final five minutes of the half that Hodgson's side finally managed to create some genuine goal-scoring opportunities. First, Ashely Cole overlapped down the left side before crossing for Raheem Sterling, however a brilliant last ditch tackle from Peter Ankerssen denied the Liverpool winger a first international goal. Moments later another Liverpool player nearly broke the deadlock, this time Sturridge thwarted by a smart save from Kasper Schmeichel inside the six-yard box. The start of the second half saw the introduction of 18-year-old Luke Shaw for his international debut, replacing fellow left back Ashley Cole. With no other substitutions it was hoped that England could build on the momentum they had gained at the end of the first 45 minutes, however the match once again slipped into a lacklustre pace. Denmark were content to sit and hit England on the counter attack and they almost took the lead on hour mark, the ball fortuitously breaking to substitute Morten Rasmussen, who drew a good save from Joe Hart. With 20 minutes left, the Three Lions began to raise their intensity and Danny Welbeck went close to scoring his ninth England goal. The striker played a neat one-two with Jordan Henderson on the edge of the box, but once again Schmeichel came to his defence's recuse, this time smothering the Manchester United's player's shot in a manner his father would have been proud of. However Sturridge finally got the breakthrough with just nine minutes remaining, substitute Adam Lallana beating his man with a Cryuff turn before planting the ball straight onto the Liverpool striker's head. The win was England's 14th under Hodgson and the next time they play he will have named his 23-man squad for this summer's World Cup in Brazil. England: Hart; Johnson, Cahill, Smalling, Cole (Shaw 45'); Gerrard, Henderson (Oxlade-Chamberlain 77'), Wilshere (Lallana 59'); Rooney (Welbeck 60'), Sterling (Townsend 86') & Sturridge (Milner 88'). Denmark: Schmeichel; Jacobsen (Juelsgard Kristensen 45'), Agger, Kjaer (Bjelland 62'), Ankerssen; Kvist, Poulsen (Olsen 81'), Sloth (Zimling 62'); Krohn-Dehli, Bendtner (Rasmussen 63') & Larsen (Kusk 45')
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Simon is an NCTJ qualified sports journalist. He has conducted interviews with Tony Adams and Peter Shilton, while also having work published in The Daily Telegraph and The Sun. Follow him on Twitter via @sr_collings.