| After last Wednesday home defeat against | | | | team after the publication of confidential |
| Croatia; it is now a fact the European | | | | utterances. |
| Championship 2008 in Switzerland and Austria | | | | |
| will be carried out without the English | | | | For only a short period of 15 months there |
| football motherland. Croatia won by 2:3; | | | | hasn't been anyone else coaching the national |
| goals by Niko Krancjar (9th minute) as well | | | | team for such a short time. Throughout the |
| as by the national league professionals Ivica | | | | qualification rounds and by making big |
| Olic (14th) and Mladen Petric (77th). The | | | | mistakes such missing penalties England |
| fans who shared the thrill with England in | | | | achieved the image of the EURO-2008-Loser. |
| the Wembley Stadium were visibly disappointed | | | | With this image the players Beckham, Gerrard |
| about the lousy performance of the English | | | | and Co. will probably have to deal with for a |
| national team and Coach Steve McClaren. | | | | long time. "This was the worst evening for |
| Superstar David Beckham as well could barely | | | | the national team. It will keep hurting for |
| believe the practically unimaginable | | | | quite a while", complained Steven Gerrard. |
| happening. "This was disastrous for the whole | | | | |
| country", was his comment in regards to the | | | | The last games of the qualification round |
| loss. | | | | have already taken place so all 16 |
| | | | participants for the 13th European |
| The team won a total of twelve games, lost | | | | Championship 2008 already stand firm. Already |
| three and tied two games. The team | | | | qualified are: Germany, France, Greece, |
| accumulated 23 points, just one point less | | | | Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland, |
| than the surprising second place Russia. | | | | Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sweden, the Czech |
| Since only the first two in each group can | | | | Republic, Spain and Turkey. Since Austria and |
| qualify for the European Championship; | | | | Switzerland are the event hosts these two |
| England will have to stay home next year. Due | | | | teams are automatically qualified. |
| to Croatia's victory it was possible for | | | | |
| Russia, that also achieved a victory against | | | | In group D the Czech Republic could achieve |
| Andorra to reach the second place. If England | | | | the first place. The German team which |
| would have won they would be in advantage by | | | | finished their last group match against Wales |
| the points. | | | | with an unsatisfied 0:0 kept the second |
| | | | place. Thereby; they also have an advantage, |
| After the unexpected disappointing; England's | | | | they will not end up in the feared lottery |
| Coach McClaren will be dismissed immediately. | | | | pot of the raffle for the preliminaries. |
| He took the place of the national coach after | | | | There are always the hosts, the title holder, |
| the World Cup 2006 when the former coach | | | | "Greece", and the team with the year's best |
| Sven-Göran Eriksson from Sweden left the | | | | coefficient, the Netherlands. |