Croatia 1-0 Belarus: Rakitic secures narrow win
Ivan Ratikic was Croatia's hero as Slaven Bilic's team secured the win they
required to set themselves up for Wednesday's clash with England at Wembley. Ratikic scored midway through the first half as Croatia moved to four points
adrift of leaders England in Group Six, having played one more match than Fabio
Capello's team.
If England beat Croatia next week then they cannot be caught and will qualify
automatically for next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa, but Bilic's
team, for now, still have distant hopes of claiming top spot. Perhaps more importantly in the long run, today's victory for Croatia reopens
the three-point gap between themselves and Ukraine, which for a few hours had
been wiped out by Ukraine's 5-0 win against Andorra.
Croatia have also played one more match than Ukraine.