Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Croatia 1
England 4

Did I really just watch that?
Was the result real?
Did 19 year old Theo Walcott really score a hat trick?

Yes I did
Yes it is
Yes he did

So why, after a night like that am I still not happy and still pretty worried about the England football team?

For very good reasons. Until the well deserved red card for Croatia's Robert Kovac England were 1-0 up but if anyone that tells you that they were entirely comfortable is either completely deluded or telling out right lies. The passing and technical ability of Croatia was far superior to England who kept seeming to forget how to pass and instead lumped it forward to Heskey for him to give it away. Yes when they got it on the floor they looked far more threatening than when they didn't but there was always the feeling that Croatia would hurt England with superior passing and indeed they did pull one goal back with a slick move that left England chasing shadows.

Croatia's heads went down after the red card and that is what resulted in the stunning score line. England still relied too much on pace to exploit the spaces that a demoralised Croatia team left them and most worryingly of all the mid field paring of Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard were totally anonymous.

Tonight England got lucky exploiting the poor moral of an otherwise technically superior Croatia side. I for one will not be running down to William Hill to put money on them qualifying

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