Estonia

0-3

England

 

Cole 37, Crouch 54, Owen 62


Euro 2008 Qualifying Match, Group E
7.30pm, Wednesday 6 June 2007
A. Le Coq Arena,
Tallinn, Estonia
Live on Sky Sports



England Head Coach Steve McClaren was pleased with the professional nature of his side's performance in the win over Estonia on Wednesday night.

A three-nil victory ensures the Three Lions go into their summer break with Qualification for Euro 2008 in their own hands. 

It took McClaren's side until eight minutes before half-time to take the lead, but when Joe Cole swivelled and drove home past Mart Poom there was only going to be one winner.

McClaren said: "We warned our players before the game, but you saw in the first 20 minutes that we kept going and we kept going until the very end – we showed great spirit. But in the first 20 minutes we set about our task, put the tackles in, and eventually we knew they’d tire and gaps would start to open.

"We scored that first goal and the rewards came in the second half when we got two more. We’ve gained a lot in the get-togethers and the three games we’ve had over the last three weeks. We’ve built on every performance and Friday gave us the confidence and belief we showed tonight."

David Beckham set up two of the three goals, even though he struggled with an ankle injury throughout and McClaren praised the Real Madrid man's performance.

"David knows how to play his position – he’ll teach everybody else. He knows when to come inside or go out wide. The players were fantastic tonight because they found him well, and his delivery is second to none from wide positions.

"He wants to stay and finish games. We told him that if he got the second and third, we’d think about bringing him off. As he’s the only one who’s got games coming up, it’s important that he came off, but he’d done the job, as had the team before that."

Michael Owen scored his first goal in a year a plagued by injury, tucking home Beckham's 62nd minute cross. McClaren was delighted to see him put his problems behind him after a hard-working display: "I was so pleased for him when he got that goal because it’s so important for a goalscorer coming back from injury.

"But his work-rate was phenomenal, dropping back into midfield and helping out when we needed. He’s come back, he’s looked sharp but he needed the goal.

"We said it was important to win and it’s all about what we do. We’ve got five games left, four at home, and we’ve already shown that Wembley can be a fortress for us.

"Any team going there has got to fear us because of the way we’re playing at the moment. We need to keep that going because qualification is in our hands."

Teams

Estonia: 1 Mart Poom, 3 Andrei Stepanov,5 Dmitri Kruglov, 2 Enar Jaager, 6 Aleksandr Dmitrijev, 4 Ragnar Klavan, 10 Konstantin Vassiljev, 11 Sergei Terehhov (17 Tarmo Kink 64), 8 Joel Lindpere, 7 Oliver Konsa (18 Tarmo Neemelo 46), 9 Vladimir Voskoboinkov

Subs: 12 Artur Kotenko, 13 Alo Barengrub, 14 Urmas Rooba, 15 Liivo Leetma, 16 Gert Kams,

England: 1 Paul Robinson, 5 Ledley King, 6 John Terry (c), 2 Wes Brown, 3 Wayne Bridge, 4 Steven Gerrard, 7 David Beckham (15 Kieron Dyer 68), 8 Frank Lampard ,11 Joe Cole (16 Stewart Downing 76), 9 Peter Crouch,10 Michael Owen (14 Jermaine Jenas 88)

Subs Not Used: 13 Scott Carson,12 Jamie Carragher, 18 Jermain Defoe, 17 Alan Smith