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Judge us after Croatia game: Cole

06/09/2008

England match-winner Joe Cole pleaded with fans to judge them after the game against Croatia after the 2-0 win over Andorra this evening.

The England fans booed their own players off at half-time after they failed to find the net against minnows Andorra. And the night would have been a lot worse for England if Cole hadn't come on in the second-half and scored both goals for his country.

Fabio Capello will now take his beleaguered players to Zagreb on Wednesday night for a daunting clash against Croatia – who beat England twice in the qualifying round for Euro 2008. But Cole was confident his team-mates would perform better against tougher opponents.

"I think you have got to judge us after the Wednesday game when we play a team ranked fifth in the world or whatever they are," Cole told Setanta Sports.

"We have got a lot to prove and we got the job done tonight and we have got to move on now and just try and win the next game.

"Tonight's game and Wednesday night's game will be two completely different animals. You can't compare them, this was a tough game but Croatia is what it is all about on Wednesday night and we want to put a good performance in and get a result."

With only the top team automatically qualifying from each group, England know they must get a positive result against Croatia to put themselves in a good position to qualify. But the Euro 2008 quarter-finalists are tough opponents in their own backyard and comfortably beat Kazakhstan 3-0 this evening.