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England wins 2-0 to gain second round
PARIS (CP-AP) -- The round of sixteen has been set at the World Cup and England has an invitation.On the last day of group play, England advanced to the second round with a 2-0 win over Colombia, in a game where the final spot in Group G would go to the winner.
Also on stake Friday, was first place in Groups G and H, not to mention pride matches for teams already eliminated.
At Bordeaux, Argentina clinched first place in Group H with a 1-0 over Croatia, at Paris, Romania got a scare from Tunisia before earning a 1-1 draw and top spot in Group G, and at Lyon, the Reggae Boyz got Jamaica's first ever win at the World Cup with a 2-1 victory.
At Lens, Darren Anderton powered an angled shot that almost took the roof off the net. And David Beckham bent a 30-metre free kick round the Colombian wall and inside the left hand post.
Anderton and Beckham were members of a team once ridiculed for its lack of flair and finesse. Now they're in second round of the World Cup and in the mood to stop Argentina making it to the last eight.
Although England needed only a tie to guarantee a place in the final 16, watched from the stands by royal fans Prince Charles and Prince Harry, Anderton and Beckham delighted a huge following of English fans at the Felix Bollaert stadium with first half spectaculars for a one-sided 2-0 victory.
England will now meet old foe Argentina in Saint-Etienne for a place in the quarter-finals.
The Colombians go home early for the second time in a row. Their disastrous 1994 performance led to the shooting to death of Andres Escobar, who scored an own goal in a loss to the United States, and was gunned down in his home town of Medellin.
If it hadn't been for acrobatic goalkeeper Farid Mondragon, the Colombians would have lost by an embarrassing scoreline.
After making at least seven second-half saves, Mondragon left the field in tears, consoled by his colleagues and England goalkeeper David Seaman.
"If we had taken our chances we would have won by four or five," coach Glenn Hoddle said.
"It was a great performance from them. There were positive in the (locker) room so I did not really expect any other result. All our players got eight-plus out of 10 tonight. We passed the ball extremely well and we defended the game well."
Anderton, out of action for much of the last two seasons through injury, was happy to have made up for lost time.
"It may not have been one of my best goals but it was the sweetest," the Tottenham player said. "It was a great result for all of us tonight but I always thought we would do well. This was a massive game."
Beckham, in his 15th appearance, was happy to hit the target for the first time.
"It was a great feeling, just nice to score my first goal for England," the Manchester United player said. "I knew it was my distance. As soon I got it just stepped up. I knew it was on target, I knew it was in.
"I just needed the chance to show what I could do," said Beckham who was surprisingly left out against Tunisia.
"England were the better team tonight, especially in terms of their attack," said Colombian coach Hernan Gomez. "Colombia didn't have much firepower tonight, even when we changed the tactics. We were't able to open up spaces and England were also very effective in shutting down our play."
In the 19th minute, the Colombian defence struggled to clear a right wing cross and the ball dropped to the unmarked Anderton, just inside the right side of the penalty box.
The Tottenham winger hammered the ball into the roof of the net from an acute angle with Mondragon powerless.
The second goal came in the 29th minute in equally spectacular style.
Paul Ince was brought down 30 metres from goal and Beckham produced one of his speciality free kicks, curling the ball round the wall past the despairing dive of Mondragon and inside the left hand post.
The 'keeper made four good saves in the first eight minutes of the second half.
He arched his back to palm over a shot from Scholes, keep out a header and shot from Alan Shearer and then block another close-range effort from Michael Owen after defender Sol Campbell had run through the defence on a 30-metre run.
Romania 1, Tunisia 1
At Paris, Tunisia scored its first goal in 20 years at the World Cup finals but had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Romania on Friday after a blunder by its wandering goalkeeper. The single point was all the Romanians (2-0-1) needed to finish atop Group G. They will meet Croatia in the second round.
The Romanians, who had dyed their hair yellow for the occasion, gave up a penalty kick in the 10th minute and watched Skander Souayah convert.
But Romania equalized in the 72nd minute. With Tunisian goalkeeper Chokri El Ouaer out of position, Adrian Ilie fired the ball at the net where Ferid Chouchane headed the ball off the line, only to have it hammered into the net by substitute Viorel Moldovan.
Argentina 1, Croatia 0
At Bordeaux, two-time champion Argentina, behind its tight defence, advanced to the second round with a perfect record after winning 1-0.
After Ariel Ortega split Croatia's defence with a deep pass deflected off libero Zvonimir Soldo, defender Hector Pineda connected in the 36th minute with a left-footed drive from inside the penalty area.
Both teams were already sure of second-round berths, but the game decided the winner of their qualifying group.
Jamaica 2, Japan 1
At Lyon, the Reggea Boyz earned their first victory ever at the World Cup, led by Theodore Whitmore, who scored in the 40th and 54th minutes. Jamaica's win was first World Cup win by a Caribbean country since Cuba beat Romania 2-1 in 1938.
The loss ended a hard-luck tournament for Japan, which lost all three of its games by one goal. They left France with only Masashi Nakayama's goal in the 74th minute. Leaving the field, goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi tried his best to smile through his tears as he accepted the cheers of thousands of Japanese fans.
NEXT ROUNDS:
Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A:
Brazil, Morocco, Norway,
Scotland
GROUP B:
Austria, Cameroon, Chile,
Italy
GROUP C:
Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia,
South
Africa
GROUP D:
Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay,
Spain
GROUP E:
Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South
Korea
GROUP F:
Germany, Iran, United States,
Yugoslavia
GROUP G:
Colombia, England, Romania,
Tunisia
GROUP H:
Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica,
Japan