Croatian team returns to celebrations after knocking out England

The Croatia soccer team enjoyed an early morning welcome celebration and pushed upcoming elections off the front pages after eliminating England from the European Championship.

Croatia beat England 3-2 at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday, and the squad was welcomed back by around 2,000 people at the Zagreb airport at 3 a.m. local time on Thursday.

"Our victory was not accidental — we were better all the time," Croatia coach Slaven Bilic said. "We can now play any team in the world."

Croatia Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said the team "made us proud and once again celebrated Croatia in the world."

The speaker of parliament, Vladimir Seks, also sent congratulations.

The victory dominated evening TV news and Thursday's newspapers, otherwise filled with political themes ahead of Sunday's elections.

Daily newspaper Jutarnji list wrote on its front page that the "temple of soccer got to know new Gods." Robert Matteoni, a sports commentator, wrote in the Sportske Novosti daily that "it looked surreal at times how our guys dominated the game ... showing to the team that invented modern soccer how soccer is actually played."

A welcome party wasn't planned though, as the main Zagreb's square — usually the venue for such celebrations — is booked for pre-election rallies.

Croatia had already qualified for Euro 2008 before Wednesday's match and England only needed a draw to join it in the final tournament in Austria and Switzerland next year.

Croatia took a 2-0 lead by the 14th minute with goals from Niko Kranjcar and Ivica Olic. England evened the score with a penalty from Frank Lampard and a goal from Peter Crouch. But Mladen Petric scored Croatia's winner in the 77th.

Russia advanced to Euro 2008 instead and England will miss its first major tournament England since the 1994 World Cup.