Chelsea pair John Terry and Frank Lampard were delighted to be part of England's 5-1 thumping of Croatia last night.

The Three Lions are into the World Cup and Terry said: "Let's not forget it has taken us a year or so to get to this level.

"We still want to progress and have a lot of improvements to make in this squad.

"This is where we want to be, competing at this level and at this standard."

The result wiped away the painful memories of Croatia's last visit to Wembley, when their win ended England's hopes of reaching Euro 2008 and signalled the end of Steve McClaren's reign.

Lampard, who played in that match, declared: "We put the record straight.

"This performance showed everything we are about.

"This is the first step, we have qualified now and there is still a long way to go.

"If we can keep improving when we get to the World Cup, then that will be fantastic."