Croatia
 

great win tonight!!

Brilliant win!

From an Englishman you will be surprised with this reaction, but i'm more than happy England didn't qualify.

The supporters and press might start to realise they are only an average side and nothing better.

They didn't deserve to qualify, they have been dreadful in all of their games.

In the long run, i think failing to qualify will be the best thing for England. Their players are the biggest underachievers in world football and they need to realise that. Hopefully this defeat will help to buck their ideas up.

The manager is bad, but he doesn't deserve to take all of the blame. The players were terrible.

I feel sorry for Scotland, who really did deserve to go through and got the chance taken away from them by an awful decision.

pretty much exactly how i feel.. (and have to include N.Ireland, if only they could have beaten Iceland away, or home!!)

I am an England fan, but i also like to look at the wider picture. We didn't deserve to qualify, so why should we?

It was the right result. The best team won on the night, and the best two teams from the group qualified. It is a fair result.

They have players earning £100,000 per week....... what for? To have no gutts? To have no ambition? To not seem to care? It disgusts me!

I am a Liverpool fan and i thought Gerrard was dreadful this evening. He had nothing and didn't seem to care. Poor show.

I have to say i was hoping Croatia would win today. If England had have won, the players would have been described at heroes and would have been made favs for Euro 2008. It's a joke.

I haven't seen any of Northern Ireland's games, so i cannot comment.

I haven't seen the match yet. They wanted $25 via PPV to see it live. I wasn't ready to cough up the cash and glad I didn't.

Are they underachieving or overrated? I believe they are overrated and the expectations are unrealistic. At least they finally gave up on Paul Robinson.

I'm sure McClaren is gone now, but who will replace him and what will the replacement be able to do with this group? Time to scrap the old guard and look to the youngsters for 2010.

Bigs following the world soccer scene?? Wow...

Multi-faceted.

I think it is a bit of both. We know the 'big' players can play at the highest level, but at an internationl, they just seem completely unconcerned about the whole thing.

Gerrard and Crouch were speaking after the game and it was like they didn't care. I'm sure they do, but the way they spoke, their emotions... it was like they were relieved more than anything.

The passion just isn't there.

As a team, they are massively overrated. No doubt about that. They are no better than average, i have been of that opinion for a few years now. England had the easiest qualification group out of the lot and couldn't even qualify. The situation is laughable.

I agree that Steve McLaren has been very poor, but more blame should have be put on the players. They need players with guts, passion and heart. Who cares if they pick players that don't play form Liverpool, Manchester Utd or Chelsea.

These players are pampered these days, and for no reason.

No qualifiying is the best possible thing for England. It might not seem like that now, but in the long term they will look back on this and it could be the turning point.

I'm happy they were beaten.

I have no idea who will take over as manager. Jose Mouriniho, perhaps??

aka...bored.

"I read in your papers that no Croatian player would start on your team," Croatia coach Slaven Bilic said to the English reporters. "I mean, seriously, wake up."

He apparently votes for overrated....

Same reason I dont like to see the US qualify for the WC.
We usually have to beat bad teams, the only mediocre team being Mexico, who we qualify along side. But they get into international games and look credible. WE just look horrible.
The players on the good teams make us look horrible.
Staying home is the best thing when one is totally outclassed.

Our best athletes do not play soccer. It is terribly apparent.

Slaven Bilic spoke his mind last night, and what he had to say was the 100% truth.

He said, to those who think tactics lost England the game "wake up". "we (croatia) were by far the better team"

Damn, this sounds like Cannon and Kev banging down the Yankees and AROD :D

Billic was right, but Croatia arent a great team either which shows how far down England have come.. no passion, no organisation, nothing. One guy who could turn them around is Jose Mourinho.

Ireland are in a similar position at the moment, but we've been here plenty of times. It's just great when you hear the British media go on and on about their sporting failures..

Everyone is saying Jose Mourinho, but i was thinking.... wouldn't he bring even more arrogance to a team already full of big heads?

I think we need a simple manager that cuts no slack to any player, no matter who they might be. I think Harry Redknapp would be better for the job, or even Stuart Pearce, neither of them take any sh!t and they are both good managers, or at least they are in my opinion. Most of all, they are both English and have all the passion in the world.