England's experiment ends in foggy farce

It was hard to tell if this was the beginning of a new era or a drawing down of the old. The fog which settled over the Stadio Brianteo here last night forced the abandonment of England's Under-21 international against Italy after just 11 largely farcical minutes. In the midst of the pea soup, there was just time for Darius Vassell to blast a left-foot shot wide and for Alberto Gilardino to drag his shot across the goal from a similar distance soon afterwards. When a goal-kick by Generoso Rossi disappeared into the night, leaving all the players searching for the ball, and the referee, Atanas Ouzounov of Bulgaria, could no longer see his linesmen, he had no alternative but to lead the players off the field. The surprise was that he decided to abandon the game barely 10 minutes later. The 3,000 or so spectators were quite prepared to wait longer and, sure enough, half an hour later, the fog cleared as quickly as it had fallen.

It was hard to tell if this was the beginning of a new era or a drawing down of the old. The fog which settled over the Stadio Brianteo here last night forced the abandonment of England's Under-21 international against Italy after just 11 largely farcical minutes. In the midst of the pea soup, there was just time for Darius Vassell to blast a left-foot shot wide and for Alberto Gilardino to drag his shot across the goal from a similar distance soon afterwards. When a goal-kick by Generoso Rossi disappeared into the night, leaving all the players searching for the ball, and the referee, Atanas Ouzounov of Bulgaria, could no longer see his linesmen, he had no alternative but to lead the players off the field. The surprise was that he decided to abandon the game barely 10 minutes later. The 3,000 or so spectators were quite prepared to wait longer and, sure enough, half an hour later, the fog cleared as quickly as it had fallen.

Howard Wilkinson, in possibly his last match in charge of the Under-21s, picked an experimental side, with Owen Hargreaves, the Canadian with British nationality who plies his trade with Bayern Munich, anchoring the midfield and Vassell, of Aston Villa, playing as the lone striker.

Italy, unbeaten in 17 Under-21 internationals and recently crowned European champions, were starting a new era under Claudio Gentile with a squad founded on the two young Atalanta players, Gianpaolo Bellini and Massimo Donati, and the trio from Salernitana, Nicola Corrent, Samuele Olivi and Nicola Campedelli. By happy chance, Peter Taylor's England Under-21s were the last team to beat Italy at this level. He will try his luck again tonight in Turin, weather permitting.

ITALY (3-4-1-2): Rossi (Bari); Ferrari (Internazionale), Olivi (Salernitana), Troise (Napoli); Campedelli (Salernitana), Corrent (Salernitana), Donati (Atalanta), Bellini (Atalanta); Pirlo (Internazionale); Gilardino (Verona), Bonazzoli (Verona).

ENGLAND (4-3-2-1): Weaver (Manchester City); Griffin (Newcastle United), King (Tottenham), Upson (Arsenal), A Cole (Arsenal); Carrick (West Ham), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Dunn (Blackburn Rovers); Chadwick (Manchester United), Greening (Manchester United); Vassell (Aston Villa).

Referee: A Ouzounov (Bulgaria).