Walcott Stands Up as Capello's England Smash Croatia

Theo Walcott admitted in an interview earlier this week that his inclusion in the 2006 World Cup squad may have been premature and "startled" him.

Pundits and fans alike have been saying that his time will come, both for Arsenal and England.

Walcott has turned in some good performances this season for the Gunners, both in the Premiership and CL qualifying matches.

He has definitely taken the next step this evening, with a blindingly fantastic performance in Zagreb against Croatia.

Walcott was given the nod ahead of David Beckham, and so had something to prove to his doubters amongst the football public.

England started brightly, enjoying plenty of possession, some nice passing and interplay, and forced Croatia to chase them down.

Croatia were just starting to work their way back into the game, when Walcott scored his first in the 26th minute.  Pranjic blasted his clearance against Simunic, and the ball rebounded to Walcott whose low angled drive beat Pletikosa in goal.

Theo also had a number of brilliant runs forward and, along with the rest of the England side, looked a lot better than a couple of days ago against Andorra.

Kovac, the Croatian skipper, took out Joe Cole in the 52nd minute and was sent off.

Joe Cole also had to leave the field with a nasty cut on his forehead. He could not return to the field and was replaced by Jermaine Jenas.

Walcott bagged his second goal with another fantastic shot in the 59th minute. Wayne Rooney was the creator, taking a return pass from Emile Heskey before finding Walcott, who drilled the ball home again.

Jenas was instrumental in Englands third goal in the 63rd minute, crossing the ball in from the left with the outside of his right foot, and Rooney calmly slotted the ball home which was no more than Wayne deserved.

A rare case of sloppy play by England in the 78th minute allowed Croatia to pull a goal back. Srna's foot was high on John Terry, but play went on and he drove forward to cross for Knezevic, who put the ball in the back of the net.

Then Theo Walcott scored his hat-trick. It was great to watch. Rooney was at the heart of the move again, after controlling a pass he slipped it through to the Arsenal youngster, who kept his head and rolled the ball past the goalkeeper in the 82nd minute.

David Beckham replaced Walcott in the 84th minute, and Theo left the pitch to a standing ovation.

Pundits were drawing similarities between Theos' performance tonight and Michael Owens performance in the 5-1 defeat of Germany and who am I to argue.

A 4-1 defeat of Croatia tonight will be a huge confidence booster for Fabio Capello's men.

The entire team played well, something which was maybe not expected to happen against Croatia.

Even more will be the confidence boost for Theo Walcott, a lot of people have said that this is his year to shine including myself. A brilliant performance tonight could be the kicker that we have all been waiting for both at club and international level.

I know this is only one game, but his performance tonight was nothing short of brilliant.  Add it to the undeniable progress he has made this season and last, and we could be looking at the fulfillment of a destiny...

Hopefully we see a lot more of this sort of brilliance for England and the Gunners from this young superstar...