Darius Vassell
Encyclopedia
Darius Vassell is an English
footballer who plays for Championship
side Leicester City
, having previously played for Aston Villa
, Manchester City
and Ankaragücü, as well as the England national team
.
A striker, Vassell began his career at his home town club Aston Villa in the Premier League, being developed by their academy and making his first team debut in 1998. He was sold for £2m in 2005 to another Premier League club, Manchester City, staying for four seasons before being released in 2009, moving abroad to Turkey for a season to play for the Süper Lig team Ankaragücü. In October 2010 he was brought back to England by his former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
to play for the Football League Championship
side Leicester City.
Under Eriksson with England, Vassell scored six goals from 22 international caps awarded between 2002 and 2004, including appearances at the 2002 World Cup
in Korea/Japan, and the 2004 European Championship in Portugal.
area of Birmingham
and went to the Yenton Primary School in Erdington
and John Willmott School
, in Falcon Lodge
, Sutton Coldfield
. He first played football with local junior team Romulus
in the Birmingham Boys League scoring a record of 46 in a season and 6 in 1 match. Following this he signed for the youth team.
fan, Vassell was taken on by the club's School of Excellence. While playing for the club's youth team Vassell set a club record by scoring 39 goals in a single season. He made his first team debut as a substitute in a 3–1 win against in August 1998.
Vassell's best qualities were his speed and agility. Aston Villa fans lamented the fact that his best performances seem to come with England, where he has proved particularly useful as a "super sub", coming on for the last 15 to 20 minutes of a game to trouble a tired defence with his exceptional pace. One oddity of his career was that he had never finished on the losing side in a league game in which he had scored. This run ended on 22 April 2011 when he scored for Leicester City during the 3-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Vassell was transferred to Manchester City
in July 2005 for £2m. During his first season for Manchester City, Vassell scored eight league goals in 35 appearances, forming an effective partnership with Andrew Cole. Additionally, he helped the Blues to an FA Cup
Quarter Final, scoring two goals in his five cup games. He played part of the season with a hernia
problem, which required surgery in the close season.
In the 2007–08
season, he was assigned the number 12, as team-mate Elano took the number 11 shirt. He generally struggled to find his best form. In the latter half of the season, many of his appearances were as a wide midfielder, as manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
adopted a defensive 4–5–1 formation. Vassell was linked with a move away from Eastlands, with Turkish runners-up Besiktas
having a £1m bid rejected and linked to other clubs, including Premier League rivals Bolton Wanderers
and newly-promoted Derby County
. Vassell scored his 50th Premier League goal on 10 February 2008, in the victory against local rivals Manchester United
. On 20 April, Vassell scored the opening goal in City's 3–1 win over Portsmouth
. Vassell only played 15 games in 2008–09 and was released at the end of the season as his contract expired.
side Ankaragücü
.
Around 3,000 fans turned out and celebrated his arrival. He scored his first goal in the Turkish Süper Lig against Manisaspor in the second week of the season. He parted company with the club at the end of the 2009–10 season.
side Leicester City
on a two-year deal until the end of 2011–12 season, reuniting him with former Manchester City
and England
manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
. He scored his first goal for Leicester in a 5-1 win over Doncaster Rovers on 11 December 2010. He scored his second goal against Hull City
in a 1-0 away victory. His first goals in the 2011-12 season were against Southampton and Derby, winning both times. On 29 October he suffered a serious knee injury in a game against West Ham United which ruled him out for the rest of the season. The injury was a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
in a 1–1 draw. Fellow debutants in this game were Michael Ricketts
and Wayne Bridge
. He scored in the game with a 60th minute bicycle kick
to equalise. He was subsequently included in England's 2002 World Cup
campaign. He played in three games, starting just one: against Sweden
in England's opening group game.
The positive contribution of Vassell's England career has been somewhat overshadowed by his penalty shoot-out miss in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 against hosts Portugal
. Coming on for the injured Wayne Rooney
early on in the game, Vassell missed England's last spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out, allowing Portugal goalkeeper Ricardo
to knock England out of the tournament by scoring the final penalty. He has not appeared for England since.
, and credits his faith for his survival of a serious car accident.
|1997–98||rowspan="8"|Aston Villa
||rowspan="8"|Premier League||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0
|-
|1998–99||6||0||1||0||1||0||3||2||11||2
|-
|1999-00||2||0||1||0||5||0||0||0||8||0
|-
|2000–01||21||4||3||1||1||0||3||0||28||5
|-
|2001–02||36||12||1||0||1||0||6||2||44||14
|-
|2002–03||33||8||1||0||3||3||1||0||38||11
|-
|2003–04||32||9||1||0||6||1||0||0||39||10
|-
|2004–05||21||2||0||0||1||1||0||0||22||3
|-
|2005–06||rowspan="4"|Manchester City
||rowspan="4"|Premier League||36||8||4||1||1||1||0||0||41||10
|-
|2006–07||32||3||4||2||0||0||0||0||37||5
|-
|2007–08||27||6||3||0||2||0||0||0||32||6
|-
|2008–09||2||0||0||0||0||0||2||1||4||1
|-
|2009–10||rowspan="1"|Ankaragücü||rowspan="1"|Süper Lig||22||4||3||0||0||0||0||0||25||4
|-
|2010–11||rowspan="2"|Leicester City
||rowspan="2"|Championship
||31||4||1||0||0||0||0||0||32||4
|-
|2011–12||12||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||12||2
|-
291||58||20||4||21||6||15||5||347||73
313||62||24||4||21||6||15||5||373||77
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
footballer who plays for Championship
Championship
Championship is a term used in sport to refer to various forms of competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.- Title match system :...
side Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
, having previously played for Aston Villa
Aston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...
, Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
and Ankaragücü, as well as the England national team
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
.
A striker, Vassell began his career at his home town club Aston Villa in the Premier League, being developed by their academy and making his first team debut in 1998. He was sold for £2m in 2005 to another Premier League club, Manchester City, staying for four seasons before being released in 2009, moving abroad to Turkey for a season to play for the Süper Lig team Ankaragücü. In October 2010 he was brought back to England by his former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson , in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname Svennis, is a Swedish ex-football manager. From October 2010 to October 2011 he managed Football League Championship side Leicester City....
to play for the Football League Championship
Football League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...
side Leicester City.
Under Eriksson with England, Vassell scored six goals from 22 international caps awarded between 2002 and 2004, including appearances at the 2002 World Cup
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...
in Korea/Japan, and the 2004 European Championship in Portugal.
Early career
Vassell was raised in the Gravelly HillGravelly Hill
Gravelly Hill is an area of Birmingham, England.- Notability :It is best known for its motorway junction, the Gravelly Hill Interchange, popularly known as Spaghetti Junction, which provides the intersection between the A38 Aston Expressway from the centre of Birmingham to the M6 motorway. The...
area of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and went to the Yenton Primary School in Erdington
Erdington
Erdington is a suburb northeast of Birmingham city centre, England and bordering Sutton Coldfield. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee...
and John Willmott School
John Willmott School
John Willmott School is an 11–18 community comprehensive school located in Sutton Coldfield, England and is part of the Birmingham Local Education Authority. and has been a specialist technology college since September 2001. There are 1,186 students on roll, of whom 230 are in the sixth form....
, in Falcon Lodge
Falcon Lodge
Falcon Lodge is the area of Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, West Midlands covered in predominantly council houses forming the Falcon Lodge Estate. It is located between Whitehouse Common and Reddicap Heath. To the west of the estate lies Rectory Park...
, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
. He first played football with local junior team Romulus
Romulus F.C.
Romulus Football Club is a football club based in Sutton Coldfield, England. They currently play in the Northern Premier League First Division South .-History:...
in the Birmingham Boys League scoring a record of 46 in a season and 6 in 1 match. Following this he signed for the youth team.
Aston Villa
An Aston VillaAston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...
fan, Vassell was taken on by the club's School of Excellence. While playing for the club's youth team Vassell set a club record by scoring 39 goals in a single season. He made his first team debut as a substitute in a 3–1 win against in August 1998.
Vassell's best qualities were his speed and agility. Aston Villa fans lamented the fact that his best performances seem to come with England, where he has proved particularly useful as a "super sub", coming on for the last 15 to 20 minutes of a game to trouble a tired defence with his exceptional pace. One oddity of his career was that he had never finished on the losing side in a league game in which he had scored. This run ended on 22 April 2011 when he scored for Leicester City during the 3-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
in July 2005 for £2m. During his first season for Manchester City, Vassell scored eight league goals in 35 appearances, forming an effective partnership with Andrew Cole. Additionally, he helped the Blues to an FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
Quarter Final, scoring two goals in his five cup games. He played part of the season with a hernia
Hernia
A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or the fascia of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it. A hiatal hernia occurs when the stomach protrudes into the mediastinum through the esophageal opening in the diaphragm....
problem, which required surgery in the close season.
In the 2007–08
2007-08 in English football
The 2007–08 season was the 128th season of competitive football in England.-European competitions:In October 2007 Arsenal equalled the UEFA Champions League record victory with a 7–0 win over Slavia Prague at the Emirates Stadium. The record was broken the following month when Liverpool...
season, he was assigned the number 12, as team-mate Elano took the number 11 shirt. He generally struggled to find his best form. In the latter half of the season, many of his appearances were as a wide midfielder, as manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson , in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname Svennis, is a Swedish ex-football manager. From October 2010 to October 2011 he managed Football League Championship side Leicester City....
adopted a defensive 4–5–1 formation. Vassell was linked with a move away from Eastlands, with Turkish runners-up Besiktas
Besiktas J.K.
Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü , or simply Beşiktaş , is a Turkish sports club. The club's football team is one of the major teams in Turkey. The professional sports club, founded in 1903, is based in the Beşiktaş district in Istanbul, Turkey...
having a £1m bid rejected and linked to other clubs, including Premier League rivals Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
and newly-promoted Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
. Vassell scored his 50th Premier League goal on 10 February 2008, in the victory against local rivals Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
. On 20 April, Vassell scored the opening goal in City's 3–1 win over Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
. Vassell only played 15 games in 2008–09 and was released at the end of the season as his contract expired.
Ankaragücü
In July 2009 Vassell signed for the TurkishTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
side Ankaragücü
Ankaragücü
MKE Ankaragücü is a professional Turkish football club located in the city of Ankara. The club wears a yellow and navy kit and play their home matches at Ankara 19 Mayis....
.
Around 3,000 fans turned out and celebrated his arrival. He scored his first goal in the Turkish Süper Lig against Manisaspor in the second week of the season. He parted company with the club at the end of the 2009–10 season.
Leicester City
On 20 October 2010, Vassell signed for EnglishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
side Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
on a two-year deal until the end of 2011–12 season, reuniting him with former Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
and England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson , in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname Svennis, is a Swedish ex-football manager. From October 2010 to October 2011 he managed Football League Championship side Leicester City....
. He scored his first goal for Leicester in a 5-1 win over Doncaster Rovers on 11 December 2010. He scored his second goal against Hull City
Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...
in a 1-0 away victory. His first goals in the 2011-12 season were against Southampton and Derby, winning both times. On 29 October he suffered a serious knee injury in a game against West Ham United which ruled him out for the rest of the season. The injury was a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
International career
Vassell made his England debut on 13 February 2002, in a man of the match performance against NetherlandsNetherlands national football team
The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands...
in a 1–1 draw. Fellow debutants in this game were Michael Ricketts
Michael Ricketts
Michael Barrington Ricketts is an English football player who was released by Tranmere Rovers in February 2010. He played as a striker and he has been capped once by England in a friendly against the Netherlands in 2002.-Early career:...
and Wayne Bridge
Wayne Bridge
Wayne Michael Bridge is an English footballer who plays as a left back for Manchester City.A graduate of the Southampton Academy where he made his debut in 1998, he has also played for Chelsea and Fulham during his Premiership career....
. He scored in the game with a 60th minute bicycle kick
Bicycle kick
A Bicycle kick or Scissor kick is a physical move made by throwing the body up into the air, making a shearing movement with the legs to get one leg in front of the other without holding on to the ground. The move can either be done backwards or sideways...
to equalise. He was subsequently included in England's 2002 World Cup
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...
campaign. He played in three games, starting just one: against Sweden
Sweden national football team
The Swedish national football team represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for Football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Råsunda Stadium in Stockholms län and their head coach is Erik Hamrén. Sweden made their first...
in England's opening group game.
The positive contribution of Vassell's England career has been somewhat overshadowed by his penalty shoot-out miss in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 against hosts Portugal
Portugal national football team
The Portugal national football team represents Portugal in association football and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation, the governing body for football in Portugal. Portugal's home ground is Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, and their head coach is Paulo Bento...
. Coming on for the injured Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney
Wayne Mark Rooney is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team...
early on in the game, Vassell missed England's last spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out, allowing Portugal goalkeeper Ricardo
Ricardo Pereira
Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira, OIH , simply Ricardo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays for Vitória de Setúbal as a goalkeeper....
to knock England out of the tournament by scoring the final penalty. He has not appeared for England since.
Personal life
Vassell is a practising ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, and credits his faith for his survival of a serious car accident.
Career statistics
|-|1997–98||rowspan="8"|Aston Villa
Aston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...
||rowspan="8"|Premier League||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0
|-
|1998–99||6||0||1||0||1||0||3||2||11||2
|-
|1999-00||2||0||1||0||5||0||0||0||8||0
|-
|2000–01||21||4||3||1||1||0||3||0||28||5
|-
|2001–02||36||12||1||0||1||0||6||2||44||14
|-
|2002–03||33||8||1||0||3||3||1||0||38||11
|-
|2003–04||32||9||1||0||6||1||0||0||39||10
|-
|2004–05||21||2||0||0||1||1||0||0||22||3
|-
|2005–06||rowspan="4"|Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
||rowspan="4"|Premier League||36||8||4||1||1||1||0||0||41||10
|-
|2006–07||32||3||4||2||0||0||0||0||37||5
|-
|2007–08||27||6||3||0||2||0||0||0||32||6
|-
|2008–09||2||0||0||0||0||0||2||1||4||1
|-
|2009–10||rowspan="1"|Ankaragücü||rowspan="1"|Süper Lig||22||4||3||0||0||0||0||0||25||4
|-
|2010–11||rowspan="2"|Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
||rowspan="2"|Championship
Championship
Championship is a term used in sport to refer to various forms of competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.- Title match system :...
||31||4||1||0||0||0||0||0||32||4
|-
|2011–12||12||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||12||2
|-
291||58||20||4||21||6||15||5||347||73
313||62||24||4||21||6||15||5||373||77
International goals
- Scores and results list England's goal tally first.
| Goal | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13 February 2002 | Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... , Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
1–1 | 1–1 | Friendly match | |
| 2 | 17 April 2002 | Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880... , England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
3–0 | 4–0 | Friendly match | |
| 3 | 26 May 2002 | Kobe Kobe , pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka... , Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
1–1 | 2–2 | Friendly match | |
| 4 | 2 April 2003 | Sunderland, England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
1–0 | 2–0 | Euro 2004 Qualifier 2004 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying Qualification for the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship took place between September 2002 and November 2003.Fifty teams were divided into ten groups, with each team playing the others in their group twice, once at home and once away... |
|
| 5 | 5 June 2004 | Manchester Manchester Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater... , England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
4–1 | 6–1 | Friendly match | |
| 6 | 5 June 2004 | Manchester Manchester Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater... , England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
6–1 | 6–1 | Friendly match |