England Advances With 2-0 Victory

Peter Crouch and his England teammates spent most of the game missing chances in front of the net. With the time ticking away and England only minutes from a shocking draw against Trinidad and Tobago, Crouch made the best of his last opportunity.

He headed in a cross by David Beckham in the 83rd minute to help England reach the second round of the World Cup with a 2-0 victory Thursday at Nuremberg, Germany.

Steven Gerrard scored a goal in injury time and England got its second straight win in Group B to clinch a spot in the next round.

England controlled play for most of the game, but Crouch and others missed countless good chances, raising Trinidad’s hopes of holding its second straight favored opponent to a 0-0 draw. It tied Sweden in its opening match.

“People expected us to walk through this game,” Beckham said. “We knew they were going to play 11 men behind the ball. They made it hard for us all game. We knew if we kept to our game plan that we’d break them down.”

Aaron Lennon, a 19-year-old winger who came on in the second half, got the ball to Beckham in open space on the right side.

Beckham took his time and found the 6-foot-7 Crouch in front of the Trinidad net. Crouch jumped over Brett Sancho and headed the ball past Shaka Hislop for England’s first second-half goal in a World Cup since 1998 -- eight games since Michael Owen scored against Romania.

Sweden 1, Paraguay 0 -- Fredrik Ljungberg’s 89th-minute header at Berlin put the Swedes in position to move into the second round.

Marcus Allback headed a pass from the top-left corner of the six-yard box to a charging Ljungberg on the opposite side of the goalmouth.