Bent called up for Croatia clash

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Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent has been called up by England as a replacement for injured Michael Owen for Wednesday's Euro 2008 qualifying decider against Croatia at Wembley.

Tottenham paid a club record fee to sign Bent from Charlton.

Owen suffered a thigh injury in England's 1-0 friendly match victory in Austria on Friday and is once again on the sidelines.

Better news for England coach Steve McClaren was that midfielder Owen Hargreaves has recovered from the tendonitis which kept him out of the game with Austria.

The lack of Owen, on top of the absence of Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, has left England short of top-line strikers and provided an opening for Bent, who joined Tottenham from Charlton for a club record £16.5 million ($33.9 million) in the summer.

England are also without center-backs captain John Terry, who has a knee injury, and Rio Ferdinand, who is suspended.

The coach must also decide how to organize his midfield, with Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry and Hargreaves all in contention.

Barry has been an impressive replacement in Lampard's absence through injury but the Chelsea man was picked for Friday's outing.

With England needing just a point to qualify for next summer's finals, McClaren could put them emphasis on stopping the opposition and plump for Hargreaves but at a press conference the coach said: "It's not in England's nature to go and play for a draw. We are there, we are in the driving seat. It's up to us to make sure we finish the job off.

"Whatever the formation is going to be, we have to be positive and go out to win the game."

"That is what we have been doing in the second half of the campaign. It has got us results and we must continue that.

"That's how we're going to get a result on Wednesday."

McClaren agreed that failure to qualify from this position would be completely unacceptable.

"There is no way we can contemplate that. This is the last game and there are no excuses," he said.

"We have got ourselves in this position and we have to get the job done."

"I have always believed it would come down to the Croatia game,"

"You can't take anything for granted in football but we knew that the game in Israel would be tough for Russia. There was always hope and Israel were playing well on the night. They are a proud nation and any talk of conspiracy theories went right out the window."

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Portsmouth ace Niko Kranjcar has warned England that Croatia are looking to spoil their qualification party on Wednesday.

Despite losing to Macedonia at the weekend, Israel's defeat of Russia meant Croatia qualified for Euro 2008.

England now only need a point against Croatia to beat Russia to the final qualifying spot from Group E, whilst victory will give Steve McClaren's side top-spot.

However, Kranjcar insists that Croatia are looking for nothing less than a victory.

"We are going to Wembley to prove, to prove how good we are. That is what we want to do there," said the Pompey midfielder.

"Wembley will suit us, we are much more comfortable when we have the ball and we will want to have a lot of possession.

"It will suit the way we play and we want to send a message to the rest of Europe."

Israeli inspiration

Kranjcar feels Croatia can take inspiration from Israel's victory at the weekend.

"We can get even more respect going into the finals if we be beat England again, and after the way Israel beat Russia we have to give our maximum too even though we have already qualified," he said.

"They played with their hearts even through it meant nothing to them, we have the same obligation.

"The whole qualifying tournament has proved that we have the quality to go to the finals and do well.

"We expected to go through it all unbeaten. Unfortunately on a very muddy pitch [in Macedonia] we couldn't do that.

"But it's always a great opportunity to play against a great nation like England and it allows us to prove what we can do in these finals; to show the whole world they can count on us there because we really believe we can do something."

Draw unlikely

A draw will suffice for England - but Kranjcar cannot see it ending all-square.

"I can't see this being a draw. English players can't play for a draw," he said.

"They showed that in Russia, they had a 1-0 lead and they were still going for a second goal.

"I have been surprised by their results as they have such a good squad. They prove it week-in week-out in the Premier League and Champions League.

"If we do lose 2-0 we will still qualify, but we will try to play our game - play the way we did when we beat England in Zagreb."

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Steve McClaren enjoyed one of his most successful days as England manager on Saturday despite spending most of it with his feet up watching TV in a hotel.

England began the day as outsiders to reach next year's European championship but ended it needing only a draw in their final game at home to Croatia on Wednesday to go through.

That unlikely scenario was brought about by Israel's late 2-1 home win over Russia, a result that also guaranteed Croatia a place in the finals in Austria and Switzerland.

Elyaniv Barda put Israel ahead in the 10th minute in Tel Aviv but Diniyar Bilyaletdinov levelled on the hour.

As the clock ticked down McClaren and the England players, watching in the team hotel near London as they prepared for Wednesday's game, must have been willing the final whistle to sound. They knew qualification was back in their hands and that they could go through by beating Croatia.

But, after Russia hit the post in the last minute, it got even better for England when Omer Golan broke clear and tucked in a shock winner to leave England needing only a point.

"What a night. Absolutely fantastic news for us all," McClaren told.

"I would like to pay tribute to Israel for the professional way they went about their job. They showed what a proud nation they are and they deserve a lot of praise for their efforts."

Croatia, perhaps diverted by news of their qualification, later lost 2-0 in Macedonia.

That result means that England will top the group if they win 2-0 or by three clear goals if Croatia score.

It is a remarkable turnaround for McClaren and his team, who seemed down and out after losing 2-1 in Russia last month following an earlier defeat by Croatia and draws with Israel and Macedonia.

"I always believed it would come down to the Croatia match, thankfully it has," he said.

"I know we've made things difficult for ourselves by dropping points early on but we have played a lot better during the second half of the campaign and I've got every confidence the players will do the job at Wembley."

If they lose on Wednesday Russia would go through with Croatia assuming they beat Andorra in their final match.

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ENGLAND may now be in the driving seat to qualify for Euro 2008 ahead of Russia, but their federation president Vitaly Mutko has defended his decision to extend coach Guus Hiddink’s contract through to the end of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Steve McClaren’s team need only to draw their final qualifier at home to Croatia on Wednesday night to edge out Russia after Hiddink’s men lost 2-1 in Israel on Saturday night.

However, Mutko is adamant Dutch coach Hiddink (right) – a target of the English FA to succeed Sven-Goran Eriksson earlier this year – remains the best man to take Russia forward.

“Hiddink will be in charge until 2010 and then we’ll appoint a new coach,” Mutko said.

“This team needs to learn to cope with the weight of responsibility.

“Hiddink is the one who can do this and make our team strong.”

Mutko admits qualification is now out of Russia’s hands. They need Croatia to win at Wembley at Wednesday, allied to an expected victory over group whipping boys Andorra.

“We’ll work and prepare for the next match. Of course we will still be hoping and counting on Croatia,” he said.

“But the chances are slim. The draw for the World Cup takes place soon and we’ll be looking to qualify for that.”

Mutko’s words of resignation were mirrored by Andrei Arshavin, but the striker nevertheless feels Russia have developed into a strong side.

“I think we’ve lost our chance of going to the finals,” said Arshavin.

“We wanted to win. We attacked a lot and didn’t deserve to lose.

“A draw or a defeat was no good to us, so when we equalised we had to put all our strength into attacking and playing open football. We are very disappointed, but we are a strong side.”

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The celebrations among Alpine brewers will be loud and sustained. In the Zurich and Vienna offices of newspapers and picture agencies, the gossip columnists and paparazzi will be cracking open the Champagne. In the headquarters of the local police, the riot squad lads will be mentally clocking up the overtime. And the sigh of relief emanating from the headquarters of Uefa, European football's governing body, will have echoed round Lake Geneva. Now, thank heavens, everyone's revenue targets have a chance of being met.

At the start of the weekend, it had seemed that the England football team was as good as eliminated from next summer's European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. For those with a financial investment in it, the absence of the team that attracts the biggest television audience and brings the largest, thirstiest contingent of supporters, not to mention the most bloated retinue of comedy camp followers, would have spelt disaster. But, thanks to the intervention of the most outrageous slice of providence, the English have every chance of being there next June after all.

Saturday represented a rare example of a Middle East summit from which we emerged with something to our advantage. In Tel Aviv, all the Russian team had to do to qualify for the beanfeast, and thus eliminate England, was to beat an Israeli side hamstrung with injury to its better players. Roared on by a huge contingent of ex-pats, the Russians could hardly fail. That they did so completely, the Israeli striker Omer Golan scaling the heights to score the winner in the last couple of minutes of play, demonstrated that in sport there is no such thing as a formality.

At the same time, in Skopje, Macedonia astonished everyone by beating Croatia. The two results mean that England do not even have to win their final game at Wembley to qualify. They could even top their group and arrive at the tournament as one of the seeded favourites. Though, of course, such observations have to be tempered with caution: England still require a draw with Croatia on Wednesday night. As one headline yesterday read: "It's in our hands now." Which, given the condition of our national team, is hardly the safest place for things to reside.

For Scots fans, the weekend will have demonstrated that justice plays little part in sport. In the words of Rod Stewart, Scotland's most famous adopted son, here was proof that "some guys have all the luck". There was a young, eager, hugely committed Scots side giving their all against the world champions, Italy, only to see their hopes cruelly smashed in the very last seconds. Pitched into a qualification campaign with the Italians, France and the Ukraine, they were obliged to work for every opening that came their way. Yet there were the English living up to their supporters' favourite terrace tune by somehow concocting the great escape. Fortune, it seemed, had entirely leached southward.

There are plenty of people in England, though, who will have viewed the weekend's events with foreboding. If there is one thing that would benefit our national game, it is the sort of enforced dose of humility that comes from elimination. The Scots experienced it a couple of years ago, when a sudden diminution in television revenues required the game there to jettison the expensive foreign players furring up its ranks and rely on the development of its own youngsters, a policy now bearing fruit in a revived national team.

In England, with qualification now likely, the conviction that we are in charge of the finest football system in the world will continue unchecked by reality. The FA will continue to employ a coach whose inadequacies were sufficiently obvious to indicate they should never have employed him in the first place. Despite growing evidence to the contrary, the players, with their Hollywood salaries and colour-supplement lifestyles, will continue to believe that they are as equally blessed in talent as they are in reward. And the owners of our leading clubs will continue to favour foreigners, confident that they are doing no harm to the national side.

What happened in Tel Aviv has meant that the Tate Modern-scale cracks rippling through the game's structure can be papered over. With the upshot that the locals will have even more to celebrate, safe in the knowledge that, though the free-spending English will be there for a while next summer, they won't be hanging around long enough to spoil the party.