England Beat Battling Belarus Thanks to Beckham

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England look in good shape for World Cup title tilt!

As they headed into the final game of the World Cup 2010 Group Six qualifying campaign, England’s match against Belarus could have been judged a meaningless game. After all, England had qualification in first place in the bag with two games to spare.

Once again though, Fabio Capello’s England impressed and it seems that the longer this crop of players have been playing together throughout the campaign the stronger unit they have become.

There have been a number of memorable games and wins for Capello to reflect upon in the build up to South Africa next June. There was the 4-1 away win at Croatia or the 5-1 home thrashing of Croatia again, with England exacting revenge for Croatia’s knockout blow in the last game of Euro 2008 qualification.

There were six changes from the defeat to Ukraine last Saturday, with Peter Crouch a noticeable inclusion. Against Belarus at a packed Wembley crowd of 76,897 people, England got off to a flying start after just four minutes. Crouch got on the end of a Agbonlahor pass cut back into the six-yard box.

Belarus then stifled England’s midfield for a while and it wasn’t until David Beckham’s entrance, 10 minutes into the second half, that they sparked into life. Beckham claimed an assist when setting up Wright-Phillips from a short corner and the speedy Manchester City man shifted into space before firing a low strike into the left corner of the net to make it 2-0.

Carlton Cole came on for Agbonlahor and duly tested Belarus keeper Yury Zhevnov with a powerful shot which could only be palmed into the path of Crouch, who followed up with a cool finish to make it 3-0. Crouch’s goalscoring record for England is becoming extremely prolific. That is 18 goals in just 17 starts and 35 caps for the Spurs striker in an England shirt.

James Milner came on and hit the post, as did Beckham, and came the closest he has ever come to scoring his first goal at the new Wembley. Fabio Capello will just be happy his fringe players made the most of their chances.