'We can bounce back'

England goalscorer Peter Crouch believes the team can bounce back from tonight's failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

The Liverpool striker scored England's second goal of the game that looked to have pushed them towards qualification, only for Mladen Petric to fire Croatia back into the lead minutes late.

Crouch told Sky Sports News: "We had the worst possible start, going 2-0 down but credit to the boys. It was a good second-half performance, to get back to 2-2 against a team like Croatia was fantastic but it wasn't enough in the end."

On his goal, Crouch said: "I was very pleased with it. David (Beckham) found me with a pinpoint ball. I was pleased with the goal and at that point it looked great for us. I was pleased to get it but it fell apart."

Crouch also had words of support for goalkeeper Scott Carson.

He said of his Liverpool team-mate, who is currently on loan at Aston Villa: "I have trained with Scott and played with him for England. He is a fantastic goalkeeper. I think he will be disappointed tonight but he is still a fantastic goalkeeper and a fantastic prospect."

Teams:

England: 1 Scott Carson, 2 Micah Richards, 3 Wayne Bridge, 4 Steven Gerrard (c), 5 Joleon Lescott, 6 Sol Campbell, 7 Gareth Barry (17 David Beckham 46), 8 Frank Lampard, 9 Peter Crouch, 10 Shaun Wright-Phillips (16 Jermain Defoe 46), 11 Joe Cole (18 Darren Bent 80)

Substitutes: 12 Ashley Cole, 13 David James, 14 Wes Brown, 15 Owen Hargreaves

Croatia: 1 Stipe Pletikosa, 5 Vedran Corluka, 4 Robert Kovac, 2 Dario Simic, 3 Josip Simunic, 10 Niko Kovac (c), 19 Niko Kranjcar (24 Danijel Pranjic 75), 14 Luka Modric, 11 Darijo Srna, 18 Ivica Olic (7 Ivan Rakitic 84), 22 Eduardo Da Silva (21 Mladen Petric 69)

Substitutes: 23 Vedran Runje, 13 Dario Kenezevic, 8 Marko Babic, 16 Jerko Leko

Kit colours:

England: White shirts, white shorts, white socks
Goalkeeper: Aubergine shirt, aubergine shorts, aubergine socks

Croatia: Blue shirts, blue shorts, blue socks
Goalkeeper: Yellow or green tbc

Match officials:

Referee: Peter Frojdfeldt (Sweden)

Referee's assistants: Stefan Wittberg (Sweden) & Kenneth Petersson (Sweden).

Fourth Official: Martin Ingvarsson (Sweden)