Two goals from Ivica Olic helped Croatia strengthen their World Cup qualifying claims with a 3-1 win over Belarus on Wednesday.

Olic nodded in from a Niko Kranjcar corner to give Croatia

the lead midway through the first half of a key Group Six

contest.

Croatia continued to dominate and doubled their lead when

Eduardo da Silva took a pass from Darijo Srna and fired the ball

in.

Belarus gave themselves hope with a goal by Dimitry

Verkhotsov in the 81st minute, but Olic scored again from a

counter attack two minutes later.

Croatia are second in Group Six with 14 points from seven

games, seven behind England, who are firmly on course to win the

group and take the direct qualification place for South Africa

next year. Belarus are fourth with nine points from six matches.

The eight best group runners-up go through to a play-off and

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic was overjoyed with the result and

particularly the second-half performance.

"The players were elated, which shows how much pressure they

were under to win this game," Bilic said.

"I'd say that the second half was perhaps one of the best 45

minutes these players have ever played."