LONDON: England will look to complete its impressive charge to the 2010 World Cup with an eighth qualifying victory in a row on Wednesday and leave Croatia, Ukraine and Belarus to fight over a route to South Africa through the runners-up playoffs.
Revived under Fabio Capello, England holds a four-point lead over second place Croatia at the top of Group 6, has a game in hand over the Croats, and meets them at Wembley.
“We have put ourselves in a great position and it’s up to us to finish the job,” captain John Terry said on Tuesday.
“It’s very important for me personally... the disappointment of not qualifying (for Euro 2008) still hurts.”
Ukraine is third and has seven points to make up on England and hosts fourth place Belarus, which is 12 points back on the leader. The fact that England is well ahead in the race to the World Cup is a testimony as to how Capello, who won club titles with AC Milan, Juventus, AS Roma and Real Madrid, has turned the ailing team around.
With three games to play, England can start preparing for the World Cup by beating Croatia two years after Steve McClaren’s team lost 3-2 at home the Slaven Bilic’s team and missed out on going to last year’s European Championships, won by Spain.
Renewed confidence
Having beaten Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb a year ago, England has renewed confidence, staying ahead of its rivals in World Cup qualifying virtually since the start and showing the winning mentality Capello has instilled into the players.
“The 4-1 is history,” Capello said Tuesday. “It’s a very important game we have tomorrow. We have played a lot of very important games and have won seven games. We have improved with every game.”
Although Rio Ferdinand is missing from the defence through injury, Capello faces Croatia with his team virtually at full strength. Bilic is without attacking midfielder Luka Modric, who was injured playing for Tottenham, and Vedran Corluka, who was sent off in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Belarus and is suspended.
“It’s a horrible handicap,” said Bilic, whose team will have only one game left after Wednesday’s visit to Wembley but can cut England’s lead to one point with a victory.
The Croats will have another London-based star, Arsenal’s Eduardo da Silva, who hit the headlines after he was suspended for two Champions League games by UEFA for diving to get a penalty in a qualifying game against Celtic. Although the referee awarded the penalty, UEFA took disciplinary action against the Brazil-born striker.
Ukraine on course
Ukraine maintained its chances of finishing runner-up with a 5-0 victory over Andorra on Saturday and has a match in hand on Croatia. The only chance Belarus has is winning its last three games and relying on Croatia collecting no more.
Belarus ran Croatia close in a 1-0 defeat on Saturday and coach Bernd Stange was full of confidence that his team can come out on top in Minsk.
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