England's last outing, the 2-2 friendly draw against the Netherlands in Amsterdam, left Fabio Capello's Whites in their stride, having lost only twice in 18 matches under the guidance of the Italian coach.
When it appeared that their losses will increase to three after England trailed to 2-0 at half-time , Capello's masterstroke did it again by bringing on substitutes to lift England.
Tottenham's Jermaine Defoe came into the game and for the second consecutive international he responded by scoring twice. This is Defoe's third time he scored a brace in an international for England.
England made a mess in the first half with blunders from Rio Ferdinand and Gareth Barry but the Whites kept pressing their opponents and could have won the game at the death.
England, who have won all their World Cup qualifying matches to establish a record for these outcomes, have three other games to conclude their programme:
September 9, 2009: Home vs Croatia.
October 10, 2009: Away vs Ukraine
October 14, 2009: Home vs Belarus.
Capello's diary
August 19, 2009: Netherlands (friendly, Amsterdam) 2-2 (Defoe 2) − debut for James Milner.
June 10, 2009: Andorra (World Cup qualifier, Wembley) 6-0 (Rooney 2, Lampard, Defoe 2, Crouch) − biggest win in a competitive match since 1999, defeating Luxembourg at Wembley, under Kevin Keegan 6-0 (Shearer 3, McManaman 2, Owen). Seventh successive World Cup qualifier win, a record for England. Rooney hits his 10th goal in seven appearances to equal Geoff Hurst's previous mark.
June 6, 2009: Kazakhstan (World Cup qualifier, Almaty) 4-0 (Barry, Heskey, Rooney, Lampard pen) − record of consecutive World Cup victories stretches on.
April 1, 2009: Ukraine (World Cup qualifer, Wembley) 2-1 (Crouch, Terry.
March 28, 2009: Slovakia (friendly, Wembley) 4-0 (Heskey, Rooney 2, Lampard − Beckham leads all-time outfield players list with 109 appearances. In the 82nd minute Lampard scores England's 500th goal at Wembley.
February 11, 2009: Spain (friendly, Sevilla) 0-2 − second defeat for Capello. Debut for Carlton Cole.
November 19, 2008: Germany (friendly, Berlin) 2-1 (Upson, Terry) − first goal for Upson in an England shirt. Debut for Gabriel Agbonlahor.
England become the first team to beat Germany in Berlin since Brazil's victory in 1973.
October 15, 2008: Belarus (World Cup qualifier, Minsk) 3-1 (Gerrard, Rooney 2) − England score their 12th goal in three matches, and Rooney nets a brace in the same number of outings. Record of World Cup qualifying wins persists.
October 11, 2008: Kazakhstan (World Cup qualifer, Wembley) 5-1 (Ferdinand, Kuchma og, Rooney 2, Defoe).
September 10, 2008: Croatia (World Cup qualifier, Zagreb) 4-1 (Walcott 3, Rooney) − after a run of 35 international competitive matches without defeat Croatia are beaten in Zagreb. Hat-trick hero Theo Walcott, of Arsenal, becomes the youngest ever England international player to score a hat-trick at the age of 19, in his second international start.
September 6, 2008: Andorra (World Cup qualifer, Barcelona) 2-0 (J. Cole 2) − Capello's first competitive match for England.
June 20, 2008: Czech Republic (friendly, Wembley) 2-2 (Brown, J. Cole) − Brown's first goal for England.
June 1, 2008: Trinidad & Tobago (friendly, Port of Spain) 3-0 (Defoe 2, Barry) - In the second half, Barry becomes Capello's fifth captain. Debuts for Dean Ashton, Joe Hart, Phil Jagielka and Stephen Warnock.
May 28, 2008: United States (friendly, Wembley) 2-0 (Terry, Gerrard) − this is the ninth time England played the US, winning seven and losing twice, including that famous World Cup win by the Americans in Belo Horizonte 1-0 in 1950.
March 26, 2008: France (friendly, Paris) 0-1 - Beckham attains his 100th appearance.
February 6, 2008: Switzerland (friendly, Wembley) 2-1 (Jenas, Wright-Phillips) − Capello's debut.
29-man team
Capello has now used 40 players - five goalkeepers, 11 defenders, 14 midfielders and ten strikers.
Player call-ups (respective clubs as they stand now) can be classified thus:
Goalkeepers: David James (Portsmouth), Joe Hart (Man City, on loan at Birmingham), Scott Carson (West Brom), Robert Green (West Ham), Ben Foster (Man. United).
Defenders: Wes Brown (Man. United), Rio Ferdinand (Man. United), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Wayne Bridge (Man. City), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), John Terry (Chelsea), Joleon Lescott (Man. City), Steven Warnock (Blackburn), Jonathan Woodgate (Tottenham), Phil Jagielka (Everton).
Midfielders: David Bentley (Tottenham), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man. City), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Gareth Barry (Man. City), Owen Hargreaves (Man. United), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Ashley Young (Aston Villa), Stewart Downing (Aston Villa), David Beckham (LA Galaxy), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Michael Carrick (Man. United), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), James Milner (Aston Villa).
Forwards: Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Wayne Rooney (Man. United), Michael Owen (Man. United), Dean Ashton (West Ham), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Jermaine Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Darren Bent (Sunderland), Carlton Cole (West Ham).
Scorers
England's scorers under Capello read:
10 − Rooney
07 − Defoe
03 − Lampard, Terry, Walcott, J. Cole.
02 − Crouch, Barry, Heskey, Gerrard.
01 − Jenas, Wright-Phillips, Upson, Ferdinand, Brown, own goal.