England: Out
22nd November, 2007
On home soil, against a team who are already qualified, England failed to produce at least a draw against a side who most believe should be comprehensively beaten every time.
England only needed a point against Croatia at Wembley to see them through to the Euro 2008 finals ahead of Russia. England boss Steve McLaren made two bold changes in bringing goalkeeper Scott Carson in for his competitive international debut for Paul Robinson, and playing a five-man midfield without David Beckham.
On just eight minutes played, an ambitious shot from Niko Kranjcar should have been easily collected by Carson, who instead failed to get his body behind the ball and guided the ball into the net. 1-0 down and England were woken up. Despite England dominating play and making some decent chances, Croatia’s second chance of the game was converted when Ivica Olic rounded Carson easily, after England’s back line was left flat-footed by Eduardo da Silva’s through ball.
Despite more pressure from a desperate England, no inroads were made before half-time, when McLaren decided to take action. The relatively poor Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips were taken off in favour of Jermain Defoe and David Beckham, to make it a more traditional 4-4-2 formation. The impact was felt when Defoe won a controversial penalty in the 56th minute which was converted coolly by Frank Lampard. Nine minutes later an excellent cross was excellently finished by Peter Crouch to make it 2-2 and suddenly England were going to the finals.
England then went into their shells and sat back as Croatia were allowed to pile on the pressure. In the 77th minute the unthinkable happened as a decent long range strike from Mladen Petric found its way past Carson to make in 3-2. England never recovered and their fate was sealed by Russia’s 1-0 win over Andorra.
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