Croatia boots England out of Euro 2008

England needed only a tie at Wembley Stadium to make next year's European Championship.

The English couldn't do it, losing to Croatia 3-2 on Wednesday in a defeat that most likely will cost coach Steve McClaren his job and set off scathing criticism.

Steven Gerrard is despondent over England's stunning loss to Croatia.
(Tom Hevezi/Associated Press)

"It's a summer without seeing the flags out in the streets and seeing the atmosphere around England and that's going to be devastating for the country," said David Beckham, who now plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

"We all know there are more important things than football in the world. But for us, not to qualify for a competition it's a huge, huge thing."

Faring far better were Russia, Sweden, Turkey and Portugal.

All advanced to complete the 16-team field for the tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

Sweden and Turkey qualified with victories in their final games, and Portugal made it with a 0-0 tie with Finland.

Russia beat Andorra 1-0 and took advantage of England's loss to Croatia.

Already in the tournament were: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, defending champion Greece, World Cup champion Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Switzerland.

The draw for the four groups is Dec. 2 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

In qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, Brazil rallied to defeat visiting Uruguay 2-1 on a pair of goals by Luis Fabiano, Ecuador routed visiting Peru 5-1 and Paraugay won 3-0 at Chile.

In an exhibition game, Jamaica won 2-0 at home over Guatemala on goals by Ricardo Fuller and Omar Daley.

England held a two-point advantage over the Russians and needed only to avoid defeat to qualify, but Croatia won on a 77th-minute goal by substitute Mladen Petric.

"Explanations are for later," McClaren said. "It's very difficult to reflect after a huge disappointment, losing a game like that in front of our fans and in front of the nation."

He said he was not resigning.

"No, I'm not stepping down," McClaren said. "Ultimately, I take responsibility and I accept that.

"It is my job to get us qualified. I failed to do that."

England injury-riddled

The English played without injured stars John Terry, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen and trailed 2-0 after only 14 minutes.

Goalkeeper Scott Carson failed to get his hands on an eighth-minute shot by Niko Kranjcar, giving Croatia the lead.

Carson started over Paul Robinson while McClaren dropped Beckham to the bench.

Ivica Olic added the second goal and England trailed 2-0 by the time Beckham came on for the second half.

England was awarded a dubious penalty kick and Frank Lampard converted. Beckham's expertly timed cross allowed Peter Crouch to tie it in the 65th minute.

Even though Russia was on the way to a 1-0 victory over Andorra, the scores at that stage gave England the edge.

But Petric scored with a 30-yard shot to silence the England fans.

Marcus Allback scored a first-minute goal to put the Swedes on the way to a 2-1 victory over Latvia in Group F.

Spain finished at the top of the group by beating Northern Ireland 1-0.

Turkey defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 off a 43rd-minute goal by Nihat Kahveci in Istanbul.

The 2002 World Cup semifinalists advance along with Greece, which finished at the top of Group C after winning at Hungary 2-1. Greece goes to Euro 2008 with the best qualifying record of 10 victories, one loss and one tie.

Turkey's narrow victory was enough to edge Norway, which won at Malta 4-1 helped by a first-half hat trick by Steffen Iversen.

Greece finished with 31 points, followed by Turkey with 24 and Norway with 23.

Portugal needed only to avoid defeat at home to Finland and made it along with Group A winner Poland.

Poland tied Serbia 2-2 and finished with 28 points to Portugal's 27. Finland had 24 and Serbia, which has one game to play after Saturday's postponement of its match against Kazakhstan, has 21.

Italy led Group B with a 3-1 victory over Faeroe Islands, and France finished second after a 2-2 tie with Ukraine in Kiev.

The Czech Republic finished ahead of Germany in Group D by winning 2-0 at Cyprus with goals by Daniel Pudil and Jan Koller.

The Germans were held to a 0-0 tie at home by Wales and finished two points behind.

Four days after it was guaranteed a berth with an unimpressive 1-0 victory over Luxembourg, the Netherlands tumbled to a 2-1 upset loss at Belarus.

The Dutch team's poor performances have led to calls for coach Marco van Basten to be fired.

Romania finished first in Group G after beating Albania 6-1.