So I suppose I was wrong. Despite the encouragement of an unlikely Israeli victory on Saturday, the England side, depleted by injuries to key players but still crammed with Premiership superstars, conceded 2 excruciatingly embarrassing goals within a few minutes of the kick-off (Scott Carson no doubt wishes that the first ten minutes of this match had never happened), then (probably shell-shocked) they spent the entire first half failing to make any impact on a Croatia side that, contrary to England's pre-match hopes, had clearly come to Wembley to prove to the world that Croatia were world-beaters and England, as became perfectly obvious, were nothing of the kind. The introduction of Beckham and Defoe at last introduced a sense of threat to an England attack in which Peter Crouch had made sterling efforts to gain possession but had almost no support. The first England goal was nonetheless due to a complete fluke of a penalty. Surely, after all these quirks of fortune, England stood a chance? England fans' prayers seemed to be answered when on 65 minutes Crouch superbly converted a pin-point cross from Beckham. England were going to scrape through by the narrowest of margins! It was not to be. Croatia's winner came from a combination of lax England defending, possibly poor positioning from Scott Carson (that may be a bit harsh) and excellent finishing from Croatian substitute Petric.
Croatia played very well. England performed far too poorly, and their second-half rally proved too little too late. The damage had in any case already been done in Russia, against Croatia at Wembley, in Tel Aviv and (most damningly) in the home draw against Macedonia. Steve McClaren had to go, not because he lost this game, but because his England side had dropped points far more cheaply against much weaker opponents. England had failed to display both the ability to beat strong opponents and either the know-how or the desire to see off weak ones. A change of manager is only a start.
