England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, losing 3-2 to Croatia after a shambolic performance at Wembley.

With England needing only a point to qualify for next summer's tournament in Austria and Switzerland, hearts were broken as substitute Mladen Petric smashed in a stunning winner 13 minutes from time after the home team had come back from two goals down.

Goalkeeper Scott Carson made a terrible blunder to hand Croatia the lead on eight minutes from a long-range Niko Kranjcar effort.

Ivica Olic capitalised on defensive chaos to make it two before the quarter-hour.

A Frank Lampard penalty restored hope early in the second half before Peter Crouch volleyed the equaliser.

But the celebrations were cut short by Petric's thunderbolt as Steve McClaren's side floundered on a wet evening.

Russia finished second in Group E, qualifying at England's expense after securing a narrow 1-0 win in Andorra.

After resisting so many calls to drop Paul Robinson, McClaren finally relented and picked Carson in goal, but the Aston Villa man's gaffe was worse than anything Robinson has produced.

A speculative Kranjcar shot from 30 yards bounced just in front of him, and somehow the keeper succeeded only in deflecting the ball into the roof of the net.

Instead of reacting positively, England were shell-shocked. Just six minutes later the visitors came away on a counter-attack but were heavily outnumbered.

Eduardo da Silva played a neat reverse ball for Olic, who rounded Carson and tapped into the empty net.

England wanted an offside, but Olic was several metres behind the ballwatching Wayne Bridge. Shaun Wright-Phillips was also guilty of not tracking his man.

Wright-Phillips was otherwise England's best player, giving makeshift left-back Josip Simunic constant problems with his pace down the right.

He saw a low shot saved by Stipe Pletikosa and created the vast majority of the first-half openings, yet was inexplicably taken off at the break.

Other than the diminutive Chelsea man, England ranged from anonymous to awful, with Steven Gerrard and Bridge particularly culpable.

After being booed off at the break, the hosts re-emerged with David Beckham and Jermain Defoe in place of Wright-Phillips and Gareth Barry.

Although their performance was scarcely improved, England were handed a lifeline when Josip Simunic tugged needlessly at Defoe in the Croatia box.

Peter Frojdfeldt pointed to the spot, and Lampard drilled the penalty into the bottom left corner. Game on.

Roared on by an 88,000-strong crowd, England enjoyed their best spell of the match.

Beckham tried to recreate his famous performance against Greece at Old Trafford six years earlier but his legs have since deserted him.

Nevertheless, the former captain's energy galvanised the side and it was his cross that led to the equaliser.

He weighted a perfect cross from the right to Crouch, who controlled with his chest and planted his volley low into the left corner.

Wembley exploded but England, for the second time, were overcome by anxiety. Just as they looked to have dug their way out of trouble they sat back, invited pressure, and Petric made them pay in spectacular fashion.

Eight minutes after coming off the bench, he picked the ball up off fellow substitute Danijel Pranjic and slammed a low left-foot shot into the far corner from the edge of the box.

Darren Bent came off the bench and went close with a late effort, but otherwise England's attempt to come back was as poor as the rest of their performance.

Long balls were aimed at the tiny Defoe as Croatia coped easily, looking more dangerous on the break than the hosts had at any point.

The final whistle was euthanasia, as the Three Lions' qualifying campaign ended in merciful failure and, to resounding boos, McClaren left the England dugout hastily.

Whether it was for the last time or not will be decided by an emergency meeting of the FA early on Thursday morning.

Over in the Pyrenees, Guus Hiddink's men made the most of their remarkable reprieve, holding off Andorra thanks to a Dmitri Sychev goal, while Andrei Arshavin was sent off late on.

For up-to-the-minute news on McClaren's futue, stay logged on to www.eurosport.yahoo.com all morning.

Alex Chick / Eurosport