England undo all the hard work to miss Euro 2008
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A 77th minute goal to Mladen Petric has broken the heart’s of England, but the home side only has itself to blame for losing 3-2 to Croatia at Wembley, handing the final qualifying Group E Euro 2008 spot to Russia.
Russia defeated Andorra 1-nil to secure their spot. Manager Guus Hiddink will lead another nation into a major championship.
Hiddink won’t believe his luck.
England recovered from a disastrous first half to turn a 0-2 deficit into 2-2 on 65 minutes. With a draw good enough, England did not slow the game down once the equaliser had been found, rather they seemed intent on finding an unnecessary winner.
That attacking enthusiasm left the shady defence exposed again, with an almost lonely Petric unleashing a cracking left foot shot from well outside the box. Keeper Scott Carson dived desperately to his left, getting fingers on the ball, however the power was too much.
England were camped near goal in the last moments, but a second leveller couldn’t be found.
The match will almost certainly be the last for manager Steve McClaren at England manager. Not only is the mere failure to qualify a virtual pre-requisite for the axing, but McClaren’s changes to the team before the match had dire consequences.
In a stunning opening, Carson and Shaun Wright-Phillips, key selections made by McClaren, were both involved in horrendous blunders which led to Croatia’s first two goals.
In the 8th minute, a seemingly harmless long-distance shot from Niko Kranjcar was given life when Carson stood almost motionless in the penalty box, allowing the ball to reach him on the half-volley. The Villa keeper suffered an awkward bounce and the ball deflected off his left shoulder into the net.
The incident brought back memories of Zelko Kalac’s horror show for the Socceroos at the 2006 World Cup, ironically against Croatia.
A stunned England went two down six minutes later, when Eduardo sliced through the England defence, before sliding a pass to Ivia Olic. Olic couldn’t believe his good fortune and ran around Carson to calmly slot home his first international goal.
England’s defence had miscommunicated badly as they limply attempted an offside trap. One of the main offenders was Wright-Phillips, who replaced David Beckham in the starting line up.
Beckham was summonsed into action immediately after half time, at the expense of Wright-Phillips.
The results were obvious.
A dubious penalty to Frank Lampard in the 56th minute breathed life back into England.
Josip Simunic was judged to have pulled the shirt of Jermain Defoe in the 55th minute. The contact seemed incidental at best, with Defoe no chance of latching onto the centreing ball.
Lampard’s cool strike into the left corner of the net instantly changed the momentum.
Pushing forward in the 65th minute, Beckham found Peter Crouch with pinpoint accuracy. Crouch chested to ball with deft touch, slamming the goal home.
For twelve glorious minutes, England were in Euro 2008. Even the fulltime whistle wasn’t the complete ending. For a few minutes after fulltime, fans desperately reached for their TV remotes, sweating on Andorra of all nations to save them.
England has been handed so many lifelines in this campaign, but this time there would be no miracle.
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