International Stories...and Premier League stars!

England avoided an embarrassing prospect for their football team when they thrashed Croatia 5-1 in their football World Cup qualifying match at Wembley stadium. Needing just a draw to make the trip to South Africa, England came out all guns blazing and left no doubt as to which was the better team on the pitch.

England were enormously helped by their Premier League superstars, Chelsea midfielder Lampard and Liverpool striker Steven Gerrard, who scored two goals each. The two goal scorer’s were two of the only three survivors from the football side that was beaten in Euro 2008 by Croatia.

The fifth goal was added by Manchester United's Wayne Rooney after Arsenal striker Eduardo pulled one back for the Croatians.

This meant that all the goals in the match were scored by players belonging to one of the ‘mighty four’ in the English Premier League!

Russia beat a spirited Wales side 3-1 and are now targeting the top spot in group four. This was another game where some Premier League players were seen in action. James Colley of West Ham United scored the one goal for Wales. Tottenham hotspur's Roman Pavlyuchenko and Arsenal's Andrey Arshavin were instrumental in giving Russia a well earned win.

In other World Cup qualifiers around the world, Chelsea's Michael Ballack scored for Germany in their 4-0 win over Azerbaijan, Nenad Milijas of Wolverhampton scored in Serbia's draw against France and Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner put one in for Denmark in their 1-1 draw against Albania.

All in all, these results show why Premier League players are so hot around the world and it also tells us why English Premier League is considered as the best in the world!