Beckham puts England on road to victory

England 3 Croatia 1

Beckham’s penalty, Owen’s header and Lampard’s thunderbolt earned the victory, with Ivica Mornar replying for the visitors. But England, who face vital Euro 2004 qualifiers against Macedonia and Liechtenstein next month, were exposed by counter-attacks time and time again in the first half.

Beckham fired England ahead from the penalty spot with just nine minutes gone.

Croatian defender Josep Simunic clearly handled the England captain’s cross - and Real Madrid’s £25million superstar coolly struck the spot-kick into the bottom left corner.

But it was far from one-way traffic for the remainder of the first half, with Otto Baric’s Balkan visitors counter-attacking with verve and purpose.

Beckham almost went from hero to zero when his underhit backpass was seized on by Ivica Olic but David James saved well.

The West Ham goalkeeper also pushed away an Olic drive and parried Marijo Maric’s header as the visitors enjoyed the upper hand.

But England defied their threat and doubled their score five minutes after the break.

Owen took full advantage of non-existent marking by substitute Darijo Srna and latched onto Beckham’s cross to plant his header into the back of the net.

Mornar hit back in the 77th minute but Lampard made it 3-1 with a 20-yard screamer two minutes later.

Nicky Butt had limped off after just 26 minutes, to be replaced by Frank Lampard. The injury will, of course, also cause concern for Sir Alex Ferguson.

Earlier, Eriksson’s principal piece of team news was the decision to hand Chelsea’s John Terry his first international start, pairing him with Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand at centre-back. Terry was given his chance because of injuries to Sol Campbell and Jonathan Woodgate.

ENGLAND: James, Phil Neville, Ashley Cole, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry, Beckham, Butt, Scholes, Heskey, Owen.

CROATIA: Pletikosa, Simunic, Robert Kovac, Tomas, Zivkovic, Simic, Marijo Maric, Rapaic, Leko, Olic, Niko Kovac.

Referee: Claus Bo-Larsen (Denmark).