World Soccer News for week of November 22th Tradition smashed as England exit Euro England's elimination from the European championship was the top story around the world: foreign fans and the media respect English soccer far more than those at home and the failure of the Three Lions has been greeted with as sense of shock and awe. In Croatia, the fans celebrated the triumph with crackers and fireworks, seeing the 3-2 win at Wembley as one of the three greatest ever in the 16-year history of the national team. The other two are the 3-0 thumping of Germany in the 1998 World Cup quarter finals and the 2-0 defeat of England last year in Zagreb. Although England is not at their finest hour, beating them away from home will guarantee a place in the national soccer history for the Croatian team that achieved that.

European qualifiers Greatest day for English soccer. And England did not even play. Ozren Podnar reports... What a wonderful Saturday for English soccer! England did not play, though, but Israel did, and Macedonia too. Not only one result went England's way on that glorious day, but two! Israel achieved the unimaginable feat of beating Russia by 2-1, when even a draw seemed unassailable; an hour later, an unbeaten Croatia finally succumbed to lowly Macedonia, who so rarely win a game at home (four in the last seven years, to be precise). Any of these unlikely scores would have saved the Three Lions from the instant ignominy of elimination from the forthcoming Euros. In the end, both results came out just as if Steve McClaren himself had designed them.