Euro 2008 Qualifying Group E/Israel - 3 Croatia - 4: Croatia's Brazilian-born striker Eduardo Da Silva hit a hat-trick and Darjo Srna added a penalty as the visitors scored a dramatic 4-3 win over Israel to go two points clear of Russia and three points ahead of England at the top ofGroup E yesterday.
The Croats dominated for most of the match and ended Israel's seven-year unbeaten run in Tel Aviv after surviving an early scare. The visitors' victory also ended Israel's 13-match unbeaten run in Euro and World Cup qualifiers.
Israel took the lead after seven minutes when Roberto Colautti pounced on a soft backpass to goalkeeper Vedran Runje to give the Israeli striker the easiest of tap-ins. But Croatia grew in strength and equalised from the penalty spot in the 35th minute when Israel goalkeeper Dudu Aouate fouled Da Silva.
Da Silva wasted little time in getting his own back and countered with a quick strike four minutes later for the visitors to take the lead as Israel's players sat back and were forced to soak up the Croatian attacks.
De Silva added his second and Croatia's third in the 54th. Yossi Benayoun reduced the arrears with a goal in the 68th minute but again Da Silva would not be denied and made it 4-2 four minutes later.
Colautti rekindled Israeli hopes towards the end when he scored in the 88th minute, but it was too little too late.
Croatia coach Slaven Bilic was full of praise for his Brazilian-born striker. "He's a top-class player and his biggest quality is that he doesn't have to score a goal to play well, he's a team player," Bilic said.
The Croatian coach said his team was well placed to continue to dominate the group. "We are in a good position . . . we are not thinking about winning the group, but we want to qualify and we want to be in the top two."
Meanwhile, two first-half goals powered Russia to a 2-0 win over Macedonia to revived their hopes of reaching the finals.
Vladimir Bystrov opened the scoring in the 18th minute, driving the ball into the roof of the net after a Diniyar Bilyaletdinov cross from the left. Andrei Arshavin made it 2-0 with a great solo effort 15 minutes later.
The game was briefly interrupted when Macedonian riot police clashed with Russian fans in the stands following Arshavin's goal. Some 300 Russians travelled to Skopje for the match.
ISRAEL: Aouate; Afek, Tal Ben-Haim, Ben Yossef, Keise; Alberman, Badier (Tamuz, 46), Tal, Zandberg (Ben Shushan, 59), Benayoun; Colautti. Goals: Colautti 8, 89, Benayoun 68.
CROATIA: Runje; Corluka, Simic, Kovac, Simunic; Srna (Olic, 88), Kovac, Modric, Kranjcar (Marko Babic, 70); Da Silva (Leko, 82), Petric. Goals: Srna 35 pen, da Silva 39, 54, 72.
Referee: Iturralde Gonzalez (Spain).
