'poorest teams in Europe'? At the moment England are ranked 7th by FIFA and Croatia 9th. I think that when the qualifying groups were set up Croatia ranked above England. Ukraine are currently 25th, having recently dropped 6 places. I think that England's improving form has made a difference especially when other teams in the Group seem to be going the other way.

On the subject of goalies, it seems strange that years ago England seemed to have plenty of good goalies. Now the best goalies in the Premiership are from other countries. But at least we've got some skillful outfield players for a change.