1 month ago 13th Oct 10:33
England made it three wins out of three with a great second half, beating Kazakhstan 5-1 in their World Cup qualifying match. After a poor first half captain Rio Ferdinand nodded in a corner on 52 minutes and Alexandr Kuchma headed into his own net to give England a 2-0 lead 65 minutes in.
A mistake by Ashley Cole just three minutes later gifted Zhambyl Kukeyev a goal for Kazakhstan making things a bit too close.
However Wayne Rooney settled England's nerves on 77 minutes, heading in a cross from Wes Brown and then got his brace, tapping in after a David Beckham free-kick four minutes from the end.
Jermaine Defoe made it 5-1 with a low finish in injury time.
England are now in a strong position ahead of a potentially tricky visit to Belarus on Wednesday as the only team with a perfect record in Group Six, after rivals Ukraine and Croatia drew 0-0 in Kharkov.
England started the match well, with Theo Walcott, tormenting his opponents.
The 19-year-old raced past his marker with his first touch, three minutes in, and sent over a cross that Emile Heskey narrowly failed to bundle in at the far post.
Walcott terrorised the Kazakhstan defence with his direct approach, even cutting in on his weaker left foot and shooting marginally over the crossbar.
Capello reverted from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 after the break, replacing Gareth Barry with Shaun Wright-Phillips an the goals.
David Beckham came on with 11 minutes remaining, gaining his 106th cap - level with Sir Bobby Charlton - the former captain received the loudest ovation of the night when he replaced Walcott.
The rest of the World Cup Qualifying results are as follows:
Belgium 2-0 Armenia
Bulgaria 0-0 Italy
Denmark 3-0 Malta
Estonia 0-3 Spain
Faroe Islands 1-1 Austria
Finland 1-0 Azerbaijan
Georgia 1-1 Cyprus
Germany 2-1 Russia
Greece 3-0 Moldova
Netherlands 2-0 Iceland
Hungary 2-0 Albania
Luxembourg 1-3 Israel
Poland 2-1 Czech Republic
Romania 2-2 France
San Marino 1-3 Slovakia
Scotland 0-0 Norway
Serbia 3-0 Lithuania
Slovenia 2-0 Northern Ireland
Sweden 0-0 Portugal
Switzerland 2-1 Latvia
Turkey 2-1 Bosnia-Hercegovina
Ukraine 0-0 Croatia
Wales 2-0 Liechtenstein
South Korea 3-0 Uzbekistan
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