Record of England v Croatia Matches

England’s match against Croatia in Zagreb in the World Cup qualifying game will be their sixth meeting and their fourth competitive game. Having failed to qualify for the Euro2008 finals after losing to Croatia in both games in the qualifying stages, England will be looking to get their World Cup campaign off to a positive start. Croatia who have a very impressive home record will be looking to create a new record by becoming the first side to defeat England in three consecutive internationals.

First Meeting

The first meeting between the two sides was a friendly match at Wembley in April, 1996 which ended in a scoreless draw. The England team included Teddy Sheringham, Paul Gascoigne, Steve McManaman, David Platt and Paul Ince while the Croatia team included their present manager, Slaven Bilic.

England's First Success

In August, 2003 the two countries faced each other at Portman Road, Ipswich in another friendly match which England won 3-1. England took an early lead from a David Beckham penalty and went further ahead early in the second half through Michael Owen. Croatia’s second half substitute Ivica Mornar who was to play for Portsmouth scored after seventy seven minutes but England secured victory when Frank Lampard restored their two goal advantage three minutes later. The England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson used ten substitutes during the match.

Euro2004

The first competitive match was in the 2004 European Championships Group stage in Lisbon, Portugal when England won 4-2 to progress to the next stage of the tournament. Croatia had taken an early lead through Nico Kovak but England equalised five minutes before half time through Paul Scholes. This was to be Scholes last international goal but it was his first for England in three years. Wayne Rooney then scored twice, first on the stroke of half-time and then after sixty eight minutes. Five minutes later Croatia pulled a goal back through Igor Tudor but Lampard scored England’s fourth with twelve minutes remaining.

Victory for Croatia

In October, 2006 Croatia gained their first victory over England in the Euro2008 qualifying game. The two goal defeat was a personal nightmare for England’s goalkeeper, Paul Robinson. Looking to equal the record for consecutive clean sheets held by Peter Shilton, Robinson was at fault for the first goal scored after an hour by Eduardo Da Silva but he compounded this error with a major blunder, eight minutes later. Gary Neville played the ball back to Robinson but as the goalkeeper went to kick it clear, the ball bobbled and went over his foot and into the goal, much to his embarrassment.

Euro2008 - Croatia Qualify, England Miss Out

The return match at Wembley in November, 2007 was a make or break game for England as they needed a result to ensure qualification for Euro2008. Croatia had the best possible start, scoring twice in the first fourteen minutes. The first goal was down to a mistake from Scott Carson who had been called in to replace Robinson. In his first competitive match for England, on a wet surface, he misjudged a long range shot from Nico Kranjcar, the Portsmouth player. Ivica Olic added a second six minutes later. In the second half England rallied and pulled level with a penalty from Lampard and a goal from Peter Crouch. At this point England would have qualified for the finals but a goal from substitute, Mladen Petric brought victory for Croatia and ensured that England missed out on Euro2008.

Both countries won in the first round of qualifying games last weekend. England had second half substitute, Joe Cole to thank for the two goal away success over Andorra, while Luka Modric of Tottenham Hotspur, Kovac and Petric scored as Croatia defeated Kazakhstan by three goals.

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