It finished a well deserved 1-1 for England against France in the opening match of their group in Euro 2012.
Manchester-based players were heavily involved in the first half of the England v France match.
James Milner could have opened the scoring after running onto a through ball by Ashley Young. He was forced wide by the French keeper Hugo Lloris but was presented with a viable chance on goal which he couldn’t get on target.
Joleon Lescott eventually opened the scoring when he evaded his marker Alou Diarra and his firm bullet header went past Lloris from Steven Gerrard’s free kick.
France came out fighting, however, and committed more people to attack while England retreated into deeper and deeper defending and Samir Nasri’s accurate shot went through a crowd of players and beat Joe Hart at his near post.
The referee wasn’t keen on dishing out cards, especially where fouls on England players were concerned but England were a well disciplined and compact side in the face of France’s much vaunted attacking threat and there were flashes of attacking flair too as they tried to make the best of their chances.
If they keep going on like this they may well look forward to qualifying for the knockout phase.