England

3-1

Croatia

Beckham 10 (p)
Owen 51
Lampard 80

 

Mornar 77

 

 

 

International Friendly
20 August 2003
Portman Road, Ipswich

England's last meeting with Croatia came at the end of 2003, when England completed their sixth successive victory ain all competitions courtesy of Beckham, Owen and a screamer from Lampard.

On his first England appearance as a Real Madrid player it was captain David Beckham who gave England the lead. His own drifted centre to Michael Owen caused panic in the visitors' defence, forcing Josip Simunic into a blatant handball.

Becks converted the spot-kick with a powerful low strike, almost identical to his effort against Turkey.

Croatia, dangerous opponents on the break, were in no mood to allow England to build on the early goal though, and carved out clear opportunities for Rapaic, Niko Kovac, Maric and Olic - all of which were spurned.  

The deftly skilled Olic, Croatia's main inspiration, fired another cracking effort at David James just before half-time to give Sven something to talk about during the break.

Whatever he said certainly did the trick as England had a second goal within six minutes of the re-start. David Beckham produced a trademark cross to locate Michael Owen who rose to power the ball home.

As the game wore on, Croatia tired and England grew stronger. Sven freshened things up and his team responded with increased levels of energy, skill and ambition.

Ironically, it was during England's best phase of the game that the visitors got their goal when Ivica Mornar bundled a loose ball home past Paul Robinson.

England replied in the best way possible - with a wonderful goal. Wayne Bridge galloped down the left and pulled the ball back for Dyer who, in turn, rolled the ball into Beattie's feet. The Southampton man laid the ball off for Frank Lampard who fairly rifled his strike into to the top left-hand corner of the net from 25 yards out.

Teams

England: David James (Paul Robinson, 45); Phil Neville (Danny Mills, 81), Ashley Cole (Wayne Bridge, 60), Steven Gerrard (Danny Murphy, 81), Rio Ferdinand (Matthew Upson, 60), John Terry, David Beckham (c) (Trevor Sinclair 60), Paul Scholes (Joe Cole, 60), Emile Heskey (James Beattie, 76), Michael Owen (Kieron Dyer, 60), Nicky Butt (Frank Lampard, 27)

Croatia: Stipe Pletikosa (Tomislav Butina, 70), Dario Simic (Marko Babic, 45), Josip Simunic (Anthony Seric, 72), Stjepan Tomas, Robert Kovac, Boris Zivkovic (c) (Jasmin Agic, 72), Milan Rapaic (Ivica Mornar, 45), Jerko Leko (Dovani Rosso, 60), Marijo Maric (Darijo Srna, 45), Niko Kovac, Ivica Olic

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)
Assistant Referees: Finn Erik Rasmussen & Ole Hansen (Denmark)
Fourth Official: Barry Knight (England)
Attendance: 28,700