MSN

Wednesday night will be the seventh time that England have played Croatia, and the previous six meetings have been...rather mixed. We take a look back at how the encounters have panned out...

England 0 Croatia 0 - Friendly at Wembley, April 24, 1996
The first time these two met was a reasonably unremarkable affair as England killed time in the lead-up to 1996 and all that. In fact, the game was only really notable for the new formation tried out by Terry Venables that would serve him rather well that summer. A back three featured Mark Wright, flanked by Stuart Pearce and Gary Neville (Tony Adams would do that job in the imminent Euros), while Steve McManaman and Steve Stone played as some bloody attacking 'wing-backs'. One can only presume this was a friendly organised so drinking plans for that pre-tournament tour/p**s-up in the Far East could be finalised.

England team: Seaman, Gary Neville, Pearce, Mark Wright, Stone, Ince, Platt, Gascoigne, McManaman, Sheringham, Fowler.

England 3 Croatia 1 - Friendly at Portman Road, August 20, 2003
One of those d*ckish early-season friendlies that wasted their time and ours, David Beckham returned to Blighty for the first time to play after joining Real Madrid from Manchester United earlier that summer. And Florentino Perez's walking sandwich board celebrated by banging in a penalty after ten minutes, followed by Mickey Owen bagging just after half-time before Frank Lampard - at that stage not an automatic choice - sealed things after Ivica Mornar pulled one back. Trying to make any sense of this one is something of a futile gesture, given that Sven ah-welled his way to 11 substitutions, including replacing Emile Heskey with James Beattie.

England team: James (Robinson 46 mins), Phil Neville (Mills 81 mins), A Cole (Upson 60 mins), Gerrard (Murphy 82 mins), R Ferdinand (Bridge 61 mins), Terry, Beckham (J Cole 61 mins), Butt (Lampard 27 mins), Scholes (Dyer 64 mins), Heskey (Beattie 76 mins), Owen (Sinclair 61 mins).

Croatia 2 England 4 - Euro 2004 Group B, June 21, 2004
A nations' press corps jazzed their pants at the international arrival of Master Wayne Mark Rooney. After his two goals against Switzerland in the previous game, Rooney showed that England's Plan A worked beautifully by whacking in another pair to prompt those Pele comparisons by Durex's favourite Swede.

Unfortunately for Sven and the nation, Plan B involved humping the ball in the general direction of Darius Vassell, a plan that - amazingly - failed to break down the Portuguese in the quarters, and you all know what happened there. Casual memory recalls this one never being in doubt, but Niko Kovac actually gave Croatia the lead thanks to some clownish defending early doors, only for Paul Scholes then Rooney and Frank Lampard to wrap things up for England.

England team: James, Gary Neville, Cole, Terry, Campbell, Gerrard, Beckham, Scholes (King 70 mins), Rooney (Vassell 72 mins), Lampard (Phil Neville 84 mins).

Croatia 2 England 0 - Euro 2008 Qualification Group E, October 11, 2006
This is where it gets a little uglier for England in this brief history of encounters. Picture the scene; The England Brain Trust (McLaren, Venables...) are planning how to combat the Croats, by some distance the most dangerous team in the group. A point would be a half-decent result, so one would assume a no-risk approach would be the way to go. Not so, it seems.

England experimented with a 3-5-2 formation with Gary Neville as a 'wing-back' and a debuting Scott Parker sitting deep. Needless to say, it did not go well, with the Neviller's bobbler evading Paul Robinson's flailing leg, and us getting our first proper look at Eduardo. The Borat film received some handy promotion, as the advert for Sacha Baron Cohen's opus happened to be showing on the rolling ad boards behind Robinson's goal at that moment, prompting 'Borat' to announce, "I do not wish to be associated with this retard." Ouch.

England team: Robinson, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Carragher (Wright-Phillips 72 mins), Terry, Ferdinand, Carrick, Parker (Richardson 72 mins), Lampard, Rooney, Crouch (Defoe 72 mins).

England 2 Croatia 3 - Euro 2008 Qualification Group E, November 21, 2007
It's the hope that kills you. A point - a bloody, sodding, measly, lonely little single bastard point - would have been enough for England to qualify for Euro 2008. But that was before McLaren got involved again. Picking the rabbit/headlights Scott Carson in goal didn't exactly turn out well, obligingly scooping Niko Kranjcar's punt into the goal after eight minutes and allowing Mladin Petric's skimmer to squirm in to seal the misery.

If you're looking for excuses, McLaren had his entire first-choice back four unavailable (although a half-fit Ashley Cole was on the bench), and you can't legislate for the sort of stinkers that Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge had. However, it was his choice to play 4-5-1, his choice to leave David Beckham out and his choice to pick a patently unready keeper. At least he was nice and dry under that brolly.

England team: Carson, Richards, Bridge, Gerrard, Lescott, Campbell, Barry (Beckham HT), Lampard, Crouch, Wright-Phillips (Defoe HT), J Cole (Bent 80).

Croatia 1 England 4 - World Cup Qualification Group 6, September 10, 2008
Well this was better, no? One could quite convincingly argue that Theo Walcott has been living off this performance ever since, but since a hat-trick in a vital qualifier is quite a solid effort, we'll let him off for now. Picked on something of a training-ground whim for the Andorra game a few days before, Walcott latched onto a Croatian game of penalty box pinball to score the first, dug a Rooney pass from under his feet for the second and rounded things off nicely by whizzing after another Rooney ball to complete the treble.

This was the result that surely convinced the last Capello doubter that England had a proper manager. McLaren has since proved that he is perhaps not the clueless chump we all thought, but Capello is in a different league. Everything he does has a carefully thought reason behind it - every substitution, tactical decision, selectorial call is thought through. One suspects that if England can't win with The Don, they can't win with anyone.

England team: James, Brown, Ashley Cole, Ferdinand, Terry (Upson 89), Barry, Lampard, Walcott (Beckham 85), Joe Cole (Jenas 56), Rooney, Heskey.

Nick Miller