ENGLAND made horribly hard work of breaking down their part-time opponents and had to wait until the second half to get their World Cup campaign off to a winning start, courtesy of two goals from Joe Cole, who replaced Stewart Downing at half-time and repeated the rescue he effected at Wembley last month, when he supplied a stoppage-time equaliser against the Czech Republic.

Remarkably, the Chelsea midfielder took a shellacking from Fabio Capello, who accused him and Wayne Rooney of dropping too deep and leaving Emile Heskey, who also got on for the second half, isolated in attack. The coach said: “I had words with Cole and Rooney after we were 2-0 up. They were coming back into midfield and I asked them to go forward because Heskey was being left alone.”

A win is a win, as football folk everywhere habitually tell us, but if a tight group should come to be decided on goal difference, Capello and his players may rue the failure to fill their boots here. Two-nil barely passes muster against these whipping boys of the international game, and there were embarrassing echoes of the corresponding fixture in March 2007, with England again booed off after a grim, goalless first half. It needed Cole’s introduction to raise their level above the scrappily mundane. The Chelsea man scored twice within 10 minutes of getting on, making what had been a tortuous task look easy.

Downing had done just the opposite for the first 45. England head off to Zagreb with the three points they wanted, but Croatia on Wednesday will be infinitely more demanding than little Andorra, who hardly ventured out of their own half. Criticised or not, Cole clearly deserves to start in midweek, when Rio Ferdinand will return after his back trouble. Downing deserves to be omitted and Theo Walcott’s first start at this level gave rise to more questions than answers. He started brightly, but faded after the first substantial challenge.

If a tedious match lingers long in the memory of anybody other than its two-goal star, it will be for David Beckham’s overdue relegation to the bench, from where he was given a late cameo, in place of Frank Lampard, that was almost an afterthought. Interestingly, he operated just in front of the back four, where his lack of mobility was not the problem it is when he plays wide on the right. A rehearsal for Zagreb, perhaps?

Capello made four changes to the starting XI that tested the patience of the Wembley crowd against the Czechs, two - Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard - enforced by injury and two, Beckham and Wes Brown, by choice. Glen Johnson came in at right-back, Joleon Lescott deputised at centre-half, and Walcott and Downing were promoted on either flank, where both failed to take their opportunities. England’s crossing was lamentable.

Andorra boast some top names - Vieira, Ayala, Pujol, Riera and Xavi - but surnames are all they have in common with the real thing. The cliche that there are no easy games in international football should have been exposed for the canard it is by opponents who have won only one competitive match, against Macedonia, in their undistinguished history. Shouldhave been.

Such was Andorra’s dearth of ambition, playing what amounted to a 9-1 formation, that it was a waste to have a back four on their token forward, Fernando Silva. David James was superfluous, come to that. England started well enough and threatened three times in the first six minutes. After only 25 seconds Walcott’s cross found Lampard, who was shut out in the act of shooting. When the ball ran loose, goalkeeper Koldo claimed it a split second before the incoming Jermain Defoe.

Rooney then played in Walcott, who lifted his shot over the bar, and Johnson had a venomous 25-yarder deflected wide. Rooney, supplied by Walcott, ought to have done better with a left-footed shot that was too high and Lampard was close from distance.

The chances were coming, the goals weren’t, and midway through the first half the England fans were so disengaged that they started chanting their dislike for Setanta TV. Bizarre, but a welcome alternative to “No surrender to the IRA”. When it was still 0-0 after half an hour, the atmosphere began to change. The first boos came after 33 minutes, the cries of “Come on England” impatient, rather than encouraging, and when Downing and Lampard passed the ball into touch twice in a matter of seconds, there were groans and abuse. It was, from England’s point of view, a thoroughly unsatisfactory first half. In mitigation, there was only one team trying to play football, Andorra content to defend en masse.

Capello sent his players out five minutes early to warm up for the second half. Naughty-boy jankers? Downing and Defoe were replaced by Joe Cole and Heskey. Eureka. Three minutes had elapsed when Lampard’s long pass was transferred by Lescott, sidefooted, to Cole, who buried the ball in the back of the net from six yards. In the 55th minute it was 2-0 and suddenly England were up and away. Rooney’s short through pass embarrassed Ildefons Lima, whose failure to cut it out enabled Cole to poke in his second, left-footed, under the body of the advancing goalkeeper.

With Andorra dispirited and tiring, Johnson got in on the act, shooting in from 20 yards, only for the goal to be disallowed because Joe Cole was off-side. Beckham’s arrival was greeted warmly by his still numerous fan club, but then anybody getting on for Lampard gets a cheer these days.

Capello professed himself “happy with three points”. He said: “When you play against these sort of teams, with nine men in defence, you have to wait and wait sometimes. We began the game well but then we started to play too slowly.”

- Two goals in the first 36 minutes laid the platform for Croatia’s 3-0 victory over Group 6 rivals Kazakhstan in Zagreb. Croatia captain Niko Kovac opened the scoring with a header from Darijo Srna’s left-sided corner after 13 minutes. The hosts continued to press and the second goal arrived 23 minutes later as Ivica Olic delivered a ball from the right, Ivan Klasnic then passing to Luka Modric for the Tottenham midfielder to rifle a shot home. The victory was confirmed with 10 minutes remaining when Mladen Petric added a third. Croatia now face England in Zagreb on Wednesday.

0
The number of goals Andorra have scored against England in the three matches they have played. It is also the number of goals England have scored in the first half in the two away matches against Andorra in Barcelona

171
The number of places that separate England and Andorra in Fifa’s world rankings. England started last night’s match in 15th place, while Andorra were 186th, below the mighty Djibouti and Brunei Darussalam x

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