Croatia 1-4 England
2010 Fifa World Cup Qualifier
Group Six
8pm, Wednesday 10 September 2008
Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb
England Manager Fabio Capello revealed the secret to England's magnificent 4-1 victory over Croatia was in their detailed preparation.
The squad have been together for 10 days, a rarity in the international game, and the wily Italian clearly felt that spending so much time in each other's company fostered a spirit which helped reap such spectacular dividends.
"The secret is that we stayed together for 10 days," he revealed.
"I said step-by-step we would get better and move on.
"Today we played with confidence and without feat from the first minute until the end.
"The players played very well, we made only one little mistake for their goal. We played with confidence and without fear. Usually England play away with fear, but tonight we were technically good and played with courage which is very important."
England
1 David James, 2 Wes Brown, 3 Ashley Cole, 4 Gareth Barry, 5 Rio Ferdinand, 6 John Terry (14 Matthew Upson, 89), 7 Theo Walcott (17 David Beckham, 86) 8 Frank Lampard, 9 Emile Heskey, 10 Wayne Rooney, 11 Joe Cole (16 Jermaine Jenas, 51)
Goals
Walcott 26, 59, 82, Rooney 63
Substitutes 12 Paul Robinson, 13 Glen Johnson, 15 Stewart Downing, 18 Jermain Defoe
Manager
Fabio Capello
Croatia
1 Stipe Pletikosa, 3 Josip Simunic, 4 Robert Kovac, 5 Vedran Corluka, 6 Danijel Pranjic, 7 Ivan Rakitic, 9 Mladen Petric, 10 Niko Kovac (c), 11 Darijo Srna, 14 Luka Modric, 18 Ivica Olic (8 Mario Mandzukic, 73)
Goals
Mandzukic 78
Substitutes
12 Vedran Runje, 2 Ivica Krizanac, 13 Nikola Pokrivac, 15 Dario Knezevic, 16 Jerko Leko, 17 Ivan Klasnic
Manager
Slaven Bilic
Match Officials
Referee Lubos Michel (Slovakia)
Assistant Referees Martin Balko and Roman Csabay (Slovakia)
Team colours
Croatia
Blue shirts, blue shorts, blue socks
England
White shirts, white shorts, white socks
GK: Sky blue shirt, navy blue shorts, sky blue socks