كتب : Amro Hassan
Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard scored twice within six minutes in the dying minutes of the match to finally break Trinidad’s powerful defense and qualify to the second round.
The result leaves England on top of the Group B table with a perfect six points from two games.
England started the game in an excelled form and came close to breaking the deadlock in the sixth minute when Frank Lampard’s straight shot was parried by Shaka Hislop into Michael Owen’s path but the latter failed to react quickly with the ball that hit him and went for a goal kick.
In the 11th minute Joe Cole found Crouch on the back post and the Liverpool striker stretched to volley from a tight angle but Hislop converted it to corner.
Crouch missed England’s best chance of the first-half when he volleyed wide after receiving a pin-point Beckham cross.
T&T almost scored by the end of the first-half when Stern John headed towards the England goal before John Terry acrobatically volleyed the ball off the line.
England kicked-off the second-half playing an all-attacking game and Owen missed their first chance when he headed wide from another inch-perfect Beckham free-kick.
Eriksson threw in all his attacking cards and fielded Wayne Rooney who made a much awaited return when he came on for the out-of-form Owen, as England pressured for a goal but the Trinidad and Tobago resilient defense seemed unbeatable.
It wasn’t until the 85th minute that England finally scored their first goal when Crouch connected with a Beckham cross and headed the ball into the Three Lions’ net.
England celebrated their second goal only six minutes after the first after Steven Gerrard fired a throbbing shot from the edge of the T&T area straight into top corner.
T&T saw an injury-time consolation goal from John disallowed for an offside offense.
England are expected to be relaxed during their game against Sweden on June 20th, while T&T will have to wait for the other teams’ results to determine their fate before facing Paraguay in the last round of group B matches.