England leave it late

England maintained their grip on Group Six with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Ukraine in their World Cup qualifier at Wembley.

Andriy Shevchenko came off the bench to cancel out Peter Crouch’s first-half opener in his first start under Fabio Capello.

But with four minutes remaining England captain John Terry netted from close range following a David Beckham free-kick.

The win maintains England’s five-point lead over Croatia – also victorious tonight – while lengthening the gap between them and the chasing pack.

Croatia ensured they did not lose ground on England with a 2-0 win away to Andorra.

Nantes striker Ivan Klasnic opened the scoring early with a 15th-minute opener at El Comunal before Arsenal’s Eduardo made it 2-0 with 10 minutes to go before the break.

Belarus came from behind to eventually record an emphatic 5-1 win over Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan took a 10th-minute lead and the visitors failed to find a way back until after half-time.

But two minutes into the second half Alexander Hleb provided the equaliser, before Timofei Kalachev scored twice with other goals coming from Ihar Stasevich Vitali Rodionov.