Soccer Aid raises £5.4 million

Monday, 06 June 2016

It was a match worthy of Soccer Aid’s tenth anniversary with 70,000 watching as England triumphed 3-2 over the Rest of the World. The trophy is now back into the hands of Robbie Williams and Jonathan Wilkes, who came up with the idea for the charity football match in the first place.

Not only was some seriously exciting football played, but thanks to your amazing support, we’ve raised a staggering £5.4 million for children so far. All public donations will go towards supporting the vital work of Unicef and will be matched pound for pound by the UK government. It’s not too late to donate and help us reach more children in danger.

England dominated the first half, with Olly Murs and Mark Wright proving to be an amazing asset. Murs came close to scoring several times – at the 29th minute he picked up the ball from Marvin Humes but Murs couldn’t complete. Despite the goal being open, he hit the ball wide from 12 yards out. Another opportunity five minutes later saw Murs lob the ball over Dida – but no goal!

Moments earlier we saw the first goal of the match as Mark Wright became only the sixth celebrity to score during the game (excluding 2010’s penalty shoot-out). A powerful kick from 35-yards gave us one of Soccer Aid’s most impressive goals ever!

Berbatov equalled things at 54 minutes, with a 12-yard shot picked up from Ronaldinho, following a corner from Davids. Less than three minutes later, he did it again, with a confident and unassuming penalty kick into the bottom-left of the net.

England weren’t beaten though and made it 2-2 within minutes – Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe processing an efficient curled through ball from Jack Whitehall (following two earlier disallowed goals).

After a one-two with Kieron Dyer at 75′, Defoe smashed another at 10 yards making it 3-2. He almost made it a hat-trick at the 81st minute but it was not to be.

There was a moment of joy for One Direction fans before the match was over as Rest of the World Assistant Manager Niall Horan took to the pitch opposite his 1D bandmate Louis Tomlinson.

With the score at 3-2, England took the cup back. What a match to celebrate 10 years of Soccer Aid!