Heskey beats red-hot Defoe to England place

Emile Heskey has held off the challenge of Jermain Defoe to maintain his England spot for the crucial World Cup qualifier against Croatia at Wembley tonight.

Defoe has been on a hot streak of goalscoring form with his country and has netted five times in the last three internationals – all as a second-half substitute.

But Fabio Capello has opted for the physical presence of Heskey, who played a major role in the 4-1 win over Croatia in Zagreb 12 months ago.

Capello makes one change from the side which started Saturday’s 2-1 home success over Slovenia in a friendly international.

Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon comes back into the first XI after a four-game absence in place of Shaun Wright-Phillips, who was not even named amongst the seven substitutes.

England: Green, Johnson, Terry, Upson, Ashley Cole, Lennon, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Heskey.

Subs: Foster, Brown, Bridge, Milner, Defoe, Beckham, Crouch.

Croatia: Runje, Srna, Krizanac, Simunic, Pranjic, Mandzukic, Vukojevic, Pokrivac, Kranjcar, Eduardo, Olic.

Subs: Subasic, Drpic, Cale, Rakitic, Petric, Leko, Klasnic.

Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain).