AP
London, Nov 22: England's failed to make the Euro 2008 finals at Wembley on Wednesday when they lost 3-2 to Croatia after fighting back from conceding two early goals to pull level at 2-2.
Instead of hanging on to the point that would have secured their place in Austria and Switzerland, they conceded a third goal 13 minutes from time, allowing Russia to steal into second place in Group E and qualify with Croatia.
It will be the first time since 1984 that England miss out on the European Championship finals and the first time since the 1994 World Cup that they have failed to qualify for a major tournament - putting the future of coach Steve McClaren in doubt.
The Russians beat Andorra 1-0 to seal their place in Euro 2008. Sweden and Turkey also joined them with victories in the final round of qualifying, and Portugal advanced with a 0-0 draw against Finland.
Holding a two-point advantage over the Russians, England needed only to avoid defeat at Wembley but trailed 2-0 after only 14 minutes.
A blunder by goalkeeper Scott Carson, who failed to get his hands behind an eighth-minute shot by Niko Kranjcar, handed the lead to Croatia, who were already assured of a place among the 16 teams in the finals.
Carson was preferred to regular starter Paul Robinson, while England coach Steve McClaren dropped David Beckham to the bench.
Ivica Olic added the second goal to put Croatia ahead 2-0, and Beckham then came on for the second half.
In the 56th, England was awarded a dubious penalty that Frank Lampard put in. Beckham's expertly timed cross gave Peter Crouch a 65th-minute equalizer.
Even though Russia was on the way to victory over Andorra, the scores at that stage gave England the edge. But Mladen Petric scored Croatia's winning goal with a 30-metre (yard) shot in the 77th to silence the England fans.
Marcus Allback scored a first-minute goal to put the Swedes on the way to a 2-1 victory over Latvia in Group F. Spain, which had already qualified from the group, finished at the top by beating Northern Ireland 1-0.
Turkey defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 off a 43rd-minute goal by Nihat Kahveci in Istanbul. The 2002 World Cup semifinalists advance along with defending European champion Greece, which had already guaranteed a place and finished at the top of Group C after winning at Hungary 2-1. Greece goes to Euro 2008 with the best qualifying record of 10 victories, one loss and one draw.
Turkey's narrow victory was enough to edge out Norway, which won at Malta 4-1 helped by a first-half hat trick by Steffen Iversen.
Greece finished with 31 points, followed by Turkey with 24 and Norway with 23.
Portugal needed only to avoid defeat against visiting Finland to make it along with Group A winner Poland. Poland topped the standings with a 2-2 draw against Serbia and finished with 28 points to Portugal's 27. Finland had 24 points and Serbia, which has one game still to play after Saturday's postponement of its match against Kazakhstan, has 21.
Before Wednesday's games, 10 teams had already qualified to join co-hosts Austria and Switzerland in next year's championship - three-time winner Germany, World Cup champion Italy, Greece, France, Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Romania, Poland and Croatia.
The draw for the four group stages will take place in Lucerne, Switzerland, on December 2.
Italy finished at the top of Group B with a 3-1 victory over the Faeroe Islands, and France finished second after a 2-2 draw with Ukraine in Kiev.
The Czech Republic finished ahead of Germany in Group D by winning 2-0 at Cyprus with goals by Daniel Pudil and Jan Koller. The Germans were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Wales and finished two points behind.
Four days after guaranteeing a place in the final tournament with an unimpressive 1-0 victory over Luxembourg, the Netherlands tumbled to a 2-1 loss at Belarus. Vitaliy Bulyga and Vladimir Korytko put the home side ahead and Rafael van der Vaart's reply for the Dutch came with only a minute to go.
The Dutch team's poor performances have led to calls for coach Marco van Basten to be fired.
Romania finished at the top of Group G after a 6-1 win over Albania.