adminLONDON. — England survived a night of tension to qualify for the World Cup after Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard secured a 2-0 win over Poland at Wembley Stadium last night. Needing victory to conserve top spot in European qualifying Group H, England met their objective thanks to a 41st-minute header from Rooney and a late strike from the captain, Gerrard.
It was an evening of cloying intensity for Roy Hodgson’s side, however, as Poland, backed by around 18 000 raucous fans, threatened to pull off a repeat of their 1-1 draw in London 40 years ago that had denied England a place at the 1974 World Cup.
Instead, a pair of goals made in Merseyside saw England home, meaning that Hodgson can now look forward to becoming only the sixth Englishman to lead England at a World Cup in Brazil next year.
They finished the campaign unbeaten, a point clear at the top of the group above Ukraine, whose 8-0 win away to San Marino was to prove in vain, with Poland nine points off the pace in fourth place.
England made two changes to the team that had beaten Montenegro 4-1 on Friday, with Chris Smalling replacing the suspended Kyle Walker at right-back and Michael Carrick preferred to Frank Lampard in midfield.
For Poland, meanwhile, Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczesny was the goalkeeper presented with a chance to emulate Jan Tomaszewski, whose acrobatics famously denied England a World Cup place in 1973.
With smoke from Polish fans’ flares drifting across the pitch at kick-off and chants of ‘Polska!’ filling the air, the visitors could have been forgiven for thinking that they were the home side.
Indeed, England initially seemed cowed by the occasion and their failure to manage a succession of Polish counter-attacks saw first Waldemar Sobota and then Robert Lewandowski spurn presentable chances to put the Poles ahead.
The hosts had already threatened through Andros Townsend and Chris Smalling by then, however, and as the first period wore on, Poland struggled to get out of their own half.
After Phil Jagielka headed wide from a Gerrard corner, Townsend bent a 25-yard shot against the crossbar, with Szczesny parrying Daniel Sturridge’s powerful follow-up.
Danny Welbeck scuffed wide from a Leighton Baines corner and was then thwarted by Szczesny, who also saved from Rooney before the breakthrough arrived four minutes prior to the interval.
Baines was given time to shape a cross into the box from the England left and Rooney met the Everton left-back’s inviting centre with an unerring header into the bottom-right corner.
It was the Manchester United striker’s seventh goal in his last six qualifying games, but Sturridge could not follow his lead, the Liverpool man heading over from a good position shortly before half-time.
Results on of final round of 2014 World Cup Euro zone qualifying matches
Group A
At Brussels
Belgium 1 (De Bruyne 64) Wales 1 (Ramsey 88)
At Glasgow
Scotland 2 (Snodgrass 28, Naismith 73) Croatia 0
At Jagodina, Serbia
Serbia 5 (Ristovski 16-og, Basta 19, Kolarov 38-pen, Tadic 54, Scepovic 74) FYR Macedonia 1 (Jahovic 83)
Group B
At Copenhagen
Denmark 6 (Morten Rasmussen 8, 74, Agger 11-pen, 39-pen, Bjelland 28, Nielsen 84) Malta 0
At Sofia
Bulgaria 0 Czech Republic 1 (Dockal 52)
At Naples, Italy
Italy 2 (Florenzi 24, Balotelli 76) Armenia 2 (Movsisyan 4, Mkhitaryan 70)
Group C
At Solna, Sweden
Sweden 3 (Hysen 7, 69, Kacaniclic 42) Germany 5 (Ozil 45, Goetze 53, Schurrle 57, 66, 76)
At Dublin
Republic of Ireland 3 (Keane 17-pen, O’Shea 26, Shomko 77-og) Kazakhstan 1 (Shomko 13)
At Torshavn
Faroe Islands 0 Austria 3 (Ivanschitz 16, Prodl 64, Alaba 67-pen)
Group D
At Istanbul
Turkey 0 Netherlands 2 (Robben 8, Sneijder 47)
At Bucharest
Romania 2 (Marica 31-pen, 81) Estonia
At Budapest
Hungary 2 (Nikolic 52, 77) Andorra 0
Group E
At Nicosia
Cyprus 0 Albania 0
At Berne
Switzerland 1 (Xhaka 74) Slovenia 0
At Oslo
Norway 1 (Braaten 30) Iceland 1 (Sigthorsson 12)
At Riga
Latvia 2 (Sabala 47, Rode 90+2) Slovakia 2 (Jakubko 9, Salata 16)
Group F
At Coimbra, Portugal
Portugal 3 (S. Varela 29, Nani 36, Postiga 78) Luxembourg 0
At Ramat Gan, Israel
Israel 1 (Eden Ben Basat 43) Northern Ireland 1 (Davis 72)
At Baku
Azerbaijan 1 (Dzhavadov 90) Russia 1 (Shirokov 15)
Group G
At Kaunas, Lithuania
Lithuania 0 Bosnia-Herzegovina 1 (Ibisevic 68)
At Athens
Greece 2 (Salpingidis 7, Karagounis 81) Liechtenstein 0
Group H
At London
England 2 (Rooney 41, Gerrard 88) Poland 0
At Podgorica
Montenegro 2 (Jovetic 55-pen, 90+1) Moldova 5 (Antoniuc 28, 89, Armas 62, Sidorenco 64, Ionita 74)
At Serravalle
San Marino 0 Ukraine 8 (Seleznyov 13-pen, 19, Devic 15, 51, 58-pen, Yarmolenko 55, Bezus 66, Mandzyuk 90)
Group I
At Albacete, Spain
Spain 2 (Negredo 26, Mata 61) Georgia 0
At Paris
France 3 (Ribery 8, Toivio 76-og, Benzema 87) Finland 0 — AFP.
Online Reporter