England thumped Croatia 5-1 at Wembley and in doing so booked their place in next years World Cup finals in South Africa. Man of the Match Aaron Lennon settled the nerves by winning an early penalty which Frank Lampard converted as England took control against a dispirited Croatian outfit.
It was no surprise when the Three Lions doubled their advantage for a two-nil lead before the twenty minute mark.
Steven Gerrard scored at the far post with the first of his two headers.
The visitors looked livelier at the beginning of the second period but any thoughts of a comeback were extinguished as Lampard nodding in a Glen Johnson cross on 59 minutes.
Gerrard got his brace getting on the end of a looping Wayne Rooney cross.
Arsenal's Eduardo pulled a scrambled consolation goal back for Croatia before Rooney added a fifth following an embarrassing error by keeper Vedran Runje.
For England this was an eighth successive win of a flawless qualifying campaign and there are still two games remaining in the group.
"The performance tonight was very important, we played very well and did everything we had been practising in training," explained a satisfied England coach Fabio Capello to ITV 1.
"We played, quick, fast with movement off the ball. We pressed we won back the ball and for the first twenty minutes we were fantastic."