England Book Play Off Spot

On the night of her 100th cap, Rachel Yankey helped fire England into the World Cup play-offs as her well-taken first-half finish set Hope Powell’s side up for a convincing 3-0 victory over Turkey.

The Three Lions are now level on points with Spain at the top of Group 5 but a better head-to-head record means that England will top the group regardless of their result in their final qualifier in Austria next month. They can now look forward to a two-legged play-off, both of which will take place in September.

Early on, the game looked set to follow the pattern from when these two sides last met – last November – with England dominating possession but finding a wall of ten Turkish players standing in their way.

On 22 minutes, after consistently threatening to break the deadlock, centurion Yankey then fired the hosts into a wholly deserved lead.

The second half began in much the same vein as the first with England on top. On 62 minutes, White, who has impressed since breaking into the senior team, was found by Jill Scott’s through ball and she prodded beyond Yilmaz , to make it 2-0

It might have got even better for England less than a minute later when Williams curled a delicious free-kick to the far post but, from point-blank range, Yilmaz somehow kept out Chapman’s header. Yilmaz continued to excel herself when she clawed away Jill Scott’s close range shot after Turkey failed to clear their lines, but there was nothing she could do about England’s third.

England’s 76th-minute corner was flicked on by Faye White and there was Clarke, unmarked at the back post, on-hand to head home and guarantee a play-off berth.

Source – TheFA.com