Croatia vs England LiveBlog

Croatia 1-4 England
Walcott (ENG) 26′ 59′ 82′
Rooney (ENG) 62′
Mandzukic (CRO) 78′

Zagreb, Croatia
Kickoff: 9pm local, 8pm GMT, 3pm US Eastern
neutral preview – biased preview – betting lines

So Fabio Capello confirms what we all hoped. He is not Steve McClaren. Brilliant brilliant win for England, and we can all start wearing our England shirts in foreign countries now without people laughing at us. Only worry is Joe Cole. Still waiting for news on his head injury and hope he’s OK.

Big thanks to everyone who read and commented.

FULL-TIME England win in Zagreb 4-1 with a Theo hat trick and (finally) an international goal from Roonaldo.

Three minutes of added time before we can officially say we’ve beaten Croatia in Zagreb and exorcised the ghost of Steve McClaren.

88′ Upson on for Terry. Not sure why, but that’s what’s happening. Nice for Upson to be a part of this game.

85′ England sub – Walcott off, Beckham on. Becks has five minutes to match Theo’s hat trick or he’s definitely choice #2 on the right wing from here on out.

84′ James just had his traditional moment of madness, coming out too far and getting hurt. Ball fell to Srna who’s chip went over.

82′ Walcott hat trick !!! Roony finds him again and Walcott draws the keep before rolling it in with his left foot TH14 style. Four one people. Four one.

- Looks like Srna had a high foot to beat John Terry to the initial ball. But isn’t Terry’s whole captaincy based on his willingness to take a boot to the face for England? He held back this time. Just kidding Chelsea fans, probably should have been a free kick.

78′ Uh-oh. 3-0 just became 3-1. Mandzukic recieved a square ball from Srna with no one goal side of him and slid it past James.

- Just realized that I should probably care more about that goal being disallowed. But here’s the thing: we’re already 3-0 up away to Croatia so it doesn’t matter. Still getting used to it.

76′ Lampard has it in the net, but disallowed for (I believe) a foul in the build up. Good skills from Frank though, nice dribble and one two with Cashley.

72′ Ashley Cole goes down the left and hits a shot on the bounce. Not too realistic but Pletikosa still had to touch it away.

68′ Strange call from the ref. Coruka was shielding the ball at right back while Jenas got close but made sure his arms were away from the player. Ref still blew. Best indication this was a bad call: Corluka was laughing.

- It’s been so long since I felt proud of this team that this actually feels a bit odd. But I think England are back in business.

62′ 3-0 Incredible. Walcott gets down the right and crosses low to find Rooney who sidefoots home. Double Fabio Capello’s salary, right now.

59′ 2-0 Great move. Walcott again I think!!!

- Heskey held it up and laid it back to Rooney, Rooney played Walcott in and the youngster hit the same shot from the same angle as in the 1st half. Unbelievable. 2-0.

58′ Looks like Jenas will play left mid. Not sure how I feel about that.

56′ Back just in time to see Cole leaving on a stretcher with a blood-stained bandage on his head and Jermaine Jenas on to replace him.

Feed went again. Back with Chinese feed via this site.

53′ Looks like Kovac has been sent off for it. Ref flashed the card fast but replayed confirmed it. Robert Kovac is gone.

52′ Joe Cole gets and arm in the face from Kovac. Cole staggered around afterwards and then collapsed. I get the feeling thta’s not playacting but actually some sort of serious head trauma. Fingers crossed he’s OK.

51′ Lampard strikes it hard and Pletikosa has to save low.

50′ No idea what’s happened in the first five minutes there. But seems Rooney’s been fouled and Lampard is lining up a free kick.

Lost my feed there folks, back up now though…

Random halftime thought: All the talk about “more confidence” is usually total bollocks. But today it looks like Capello was serious. Watching Rio Ferdinand dribble through midfield in the build up to the goal is a pretty good illustration.

HALFTIME: 1-0 to England after the first 45. Thumbs up so far.

46′ Rakitic hits a free kick… three points. Way way over the bar.

44′ John Terry with a slightly unnecessary diving header back to David James. Nice to see even JT showing off his skills though, such as they are. This is a confident England.

42′ Srna hits the wall. Phew.

41′ Srna lining up a free kick on edge of box. Holding my breath…

- That was a horrible, cynical challenge. Walcott back on now though.

38′ Walcott burst down the right on the break. He looks like the fastest footballer in the world. But as he played the ball (successfully) to Rooney, a Croatian defender (Simunic) absolutely flattened him. Theo on a stretcher right now.

34′ England playing some possession football. I didn’t know we knew how to do that,.

30′ Walcott just turned a full back on the byline and cut it back for Lampard to shoot (blocked). Going to be great to see young Theo play with confidence in an England shirt. Maybe this is what Sven thought the 2006 World Cup would be like?

29′ With James out of position, Petric’s shot blocked by Brown. Four or five England defender on the line.

26′ 1-0 Walcott!

- Rooney through ball was “cleared” by Croatian defender straight into the back of his own player. Rebound fell to Walcott and he struck it hard and low into the far corner.

24′ Replays pretty much confirm that that was a pen I reckon.

22′ PENALTY?!? No. But maybe should have been. Deep Rooney cross found Walcott who sidefooted it back across goal towards Heskey. Heskey went down with a Croatian arm wrapped around him.

20′ Rooney just diligently tackled Srna in the left back position. Maybe he’s the answer?

19′ Cole give sit away again, this time with a pass that was far too short. Result is Srna getting free down the right but hos cross is blocked. Wish there was some genuine competition for Cole at left back.

15′ Yet more trouble. Terry just had to block Corluka in the box. This isn’t good.

14′ More trouble. Cashley lost the ball and Olic rampaged towards goal. Shot blocked though. Careless Cashley, careless.

12′ Argh! James can’t catch a Croatian corner and Corluka gets a chance at the far post. Side netting, but damn that was close.

9′ A Walcott dribble down the right comes to nothing. But to be honest I’m just relieved to see an England wide player running at someone. It’s been so long.

7′ And the TV footage of Beckham sitting on the bench has begun. He’s not playing, just ignore him.

6′ Great chipped through ball from Lampard and Theo gets to it, brings it down and then absolutely fluffs a square ball to Heskey.

5′ Lampard free kick takes a deflection and DOESN’T go in? Isn’t that how he scores most of his goals?

- in other news: Germany losing 3-2 to Finland

4′ England started OK and had most of the ball, but Croatia have looked far more dangerous. We gave the ball away and Croatia countered, with Pranjic eventually getting a shot straight at James.

Liking the all white kit though.

0′ And we’re off. Croatia with a crazy long ball from kick off. Are we so bad with the ball hat they want us to have it?

Here we go then, kick off any second.

Let’s hop Modric keeps his Spurs form going.

“God Save the Queen” player performance – 6/10. David James man of the match so far for singing lound and proud.

No Kranjčar and obviously no Edurado, but still plenty to worry about.

Croatia’s starting XI:
Pletikosa, Simunic, Robert Kovac, Corluka, Pranjic, Rakitic, Petric, Nico Kovac, Srna, Modric, Olic.

Subs: Runje, Krizanac, Mandzukic, Pokrivac, Knezevic, Leko, Klasnic.

Subs: Robinson, Johnson, Beckham, Downing, Defoe, Upson, Jenas.
Not all that inspiring, but maybe that’s because all the exciting players are in the starting XI.

C (for Croatia) minus 10 minutes and counting. Feeling a bit nervous now. Please don’t lose.

Unofficial team news via Stan Collymore on Talksport. He won’t reveal his sources but he named the team to play Andorra early on Saturday and was spot on. So apparently this is how we’re starting:

– — – — – James — – — – –
Brown – Terry – Ferdinand – A Cole
Walcott – Lampard – Barry – J Cole
– — – — Rooney– — – — – —
– — – — – –Heskey– — – –

Whatever happens next, I can’t argue with team selection. I’m pretty happy with this lineup. It’s got width, pace, a bit of flair, a target man and Rooney in his proper position.

Interesting news: Setanta (boo!) have realized their massive faux pas in not selling the highlights of tonight’s game to either BBC or ITV (apparently Setanta wanted over a million pounds). The PR-oriented (but still smart) solution is to show unencrypted highlights (ie, you don’t need a subscription) on Setanta in the UK via Freeview, Virgin and Sky.