First for England as Rooney mania takes over

But England dominated the game and in the last five minutes of the first half it was all turned on its head as England came from behind to go into half time with a 2-1 lead and both goals came via Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes.

Owen was in on goal but the keeper did well to get down at his feet only for the ball to loop into the air where Rooney headed it across goal for Scholes to head in his first international goal for over three years.

Five minutes later and Owen and Scholes combined well to set up Rooney who hammered in from just outside the penalty box.

England fans both in Portugal and at home were already celebrating and that included former Claret Ian Wright who was dancing around in the BBC box with Peter Reid whilst Scot Alan Hansen could only watch and dream.

Everyone was talking about Wayne Rooney but we hadn’t seen anything yet and with just over twenty minutes to go he and Owen linked up superbly just inside the Croatian half that put the Everton striker clear.

He never looked as though he wouldn’t score as he went one-on-one with the keeper and he put the game out of Croatia’s reach with a classy finish.

They did pull one back, again we struggled to defend a free kick, but Frank Lampard added a fourth for England and took us to a 4-2 win.

With Switzerland holding France at 1-1 for some time it looked as if it might be Greece and a meeting with Dimitri Papadopoulos in the quarter-finals but Thierry Henry changed all that and we now remain in Lisbon at the Stadium of Light where we take on the hosts Portugal on Thursday.

It was a good night for English football and surely after that performance the watching group of Roman Abramovich, Peter Kenyon and Jose Mourhino might well have to find even more than £30 million to get Rooney away from Merseyside.

Now we wait for Thursday.