After the 0-0 draw with Serbia in the opening match, the game against hosts Sweden was very important, as a loss or a draw would've put Italy's chances of getting out of the group in lots of trouble. Fortunately, the Azzurrini stood up to the task, winning 2-1 and putting them in a strong position to advance to the semi-final.

Why oh why do they bother! Alexander Hleb warned Arsenal last night that they will continue to lose many of their best players every year because of financial reasons. The Belarus midfield player left the Emirates Stadium to join Barcelona last summer because he was dissatisfied with the club's contract offer, .

The Belarus international Alexander Hleb may be able to end his Catalan nightmare. Barcelona midfielder Alexander Hleb is a transfer target for Aston Villa, according to Daily Star Sunday. The Belarus international has been enduring a tough time at Camp Nou, as first team opportunities are proving to be very elusive.

Croatia boss Slaven Bilić announced his squad lineup ahead of their next World Cup qualifier versus Belarus on the 5th of September. It is a very strong lineup, as always, more than capable of bagging another 3 points. Ivan Klasnić returns to the squad and Sharbini features on the list. ...

.World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 1) Denmark 1 1 Portugal Hungary 1 2 Sweden World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 2) Moldova 0 0 Luxembourg Israel 0 1 Latvia Switzerland 2 0 Greece World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 3) Poland 1 1 Northern Ireland Slovakia 2 2 Czech Republic World Cup qualifiers [.

Last night Man United striker Wayne Rooney pulled out of the England squad to play Belarus after picking up a calf strain. Rooney played the whole 90 minutes for England in their 1-0 defeat to Ukraine and there were no signs of an injury then.
It was announced that Rooney picked up the injury during the loss and he will now return to Man United having been assessed by the medical staff.

1. Peter Crouch's gangly legs are not supposed to be involved in six-yard tap-ins. They were made for bicycle kicks. 2. David Beckham has brown hair, a ginger moustache and a black beard. What is that all about? 3. Twin, dwarf, right-footed wingers is probably not a viable tactical option against decent opposition.

This just in, Alexander Hleb is not happy at Barcelona. The Belarus international left for the Camp Nou last summer but failed to make much of an impact at the Champions League winning club. All signs point to Hleb heading...

Watch the U21 Euro 2009 live here.

The 2009 European Under-21 Championship will take place in Sweden from 15 June to 29 June. While it's expected to be overshadowed in press coverage by the dress rehearsal for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the U21 Euro 2009 still promises to be a showcase of quality football and a chance for European football fans to evaluate the young stars of tomorrow (be it for their clubs or national teams).

Gothenburg: Finland v Spain
Halmstad: England v Germany
The second semi-finalist will be decided today, with England already through to the knock-out stages. After a two-day hiatus to coincide with Sweden's national midsummer holiday, the football begins again in earnest.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o has been officially presented as an Inter Milan player at the team's training centre in Appiano Gentile. Eto was part of a trade and cash deal that saw Sweden forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic move to FC Barcelona for Eto, 46 million euros and Belarus winger Alexander Hleb on a one year loan.

Setanta US has announced their schedule for the next few months of World Cup qualifying games it'll be showing on its networks for both Setanta US, Setanta Premium (the pub channel) and pay-per-view.

No major surprises. As usual, the England away match (this time, against Ukraine on October 10th) will only be available on Setanta Premium.

Former Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb, now with Stuttgart, again declared he made the wrong decision in leaving the North London club for Barcelona.

In an interview published by ESPN Soccernet, the Belarus International said:

Of course I regret leaving Arsenal. I was playing every week for one of the most exciting sides in Europe, a team which was always in the top-four in the Premier League and were Champions League contenders.

Woe is me!

Alex Hleb claims that his move to Stuttgart from Barcelona is a backward step in his career.

The Belarus international has joined the Bundesliga side on a season-long loan after struggling to break into the first team at the Spanish club during his debut season in La Liga.

They Think It's All Over... is hoping to see a full strength England side take to the field against Ukraine and Belarus.

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying: Costa Rica - USA is on ESPN2 with the pre-game starting at 7:30pm and Mexico - Trinidad & Tobago is on Telemundo at 8pm. Salt Lake - New York is on ESPN2 at 10pm. WCQ on GolTV: Germany - Finland at noon and Italy - Cyprus at 2pm. On Setanta: Portugal - Malta at 2:40pm and Greece - Luxembourg at 5pm.

.Saw this and couldnt resist posting! England played their final 2010 World Cup qualifying match last night, beating Belarus 3 – 0. England finished top of Group 6, scoring an impressive 34 goals over the 10 games, which was the most goals scored by any team in European qualifying. We're celebrating at Kitbag.

World Cup qual. - Africa (Group 1) June 6 FT Gabon 3 - 0 Togo World Cup qual. - Africa (Group 2) June 6 FT Tunisia 2 - 0 Mozambique World Cup qual. - Africa (Group 3) June 6 FT Zambia 1 - 0 Rwanda World Cup qual. - Africa (Group 5) June 6 FT Malawi 0 - 1 Burkina Faso World Cup qual.

Watch the U21 Euro 2009 live here.

The 2009 U-21 Euros will take place across 4 venues in Sweden from 15 June to 29 June, with the best and brightest young footballers from Europe hoping to stake a place in the senior national team on the basis of their performances this summer.

Groningen's prolific striker Marcus Berg, who had become a regular in the senior national team, joined the U21 side in order to help them at the tournament they hosted and he immediately showed why he was tracked by the number of European clubs. Berg scored a hat-trick in the opening game against Belarus and thus helped his side record a very important win, while at the same time he impressed the visiting scouts and he therefore made a big step towards making a move to much bigger club then Groningen.

The Italy U-21 side went into their last group game with 4 points and only needed a draw to advance to the semi-final, but a win would assure first place in the group. Italy were without Mario Balotelli, who was serving his one-match ban and there was watching from the stands. Casiraghi "officially" put out a 4-3-3 with Ignazio Abate in Balotelli's place, but it was in fact a 4-4-2 with De Ceglie and Abate on the flanks and Sebastian Giovinco supporting Robert Acquafresca.

Just as a refresher, let's go over recent results by our beloved Azzurri: vs. USA: 3-1 vs. Egypt: 0-1 vs. Brazil: 0-3 3 group stage games, 3 goals scored, 5 conceded, we crash out there. Now, the U-21 team: vs Serbia: 0-0 vs Sweden: 2-1 vs Belarus: 2-1 They made it out of the group stage top of the

2-1 this time, goals from Lampard (pen) and Defoe, the Slovenes got one back late in the game. Croatia are drawing 0-0 with Belarus, but there's only about 20 minutes gone.

Or W for Vendetta. As in Wednesday's the time for revenge. In between these two highly unoriginal titles, I decided to go for the former. But anyway, before I start of rambling about the upcoming encounter, I'll write a few lines about the match we literally had to survive on Saturday evening, the Belarus one.

Ironically, though it's labeled as a decider, the outcome of tonight's match might end up not carrying much weight when things come to a close. Because even with a win tonight, we'd have to count on Ukraine dropping points to either Belarus tonight or England in one month's time. And if on par with points before the very last fixture, goal difference would kick in, meaning basically we'd go head to head as to who can batter their opponents more on the night (those unlucky sides being Kazahstan and Andorra respectively).

Some links to get you through the day:

1. Ferguson is in a row with Foster, apparently. No quotes to back it up, but it's quite possible Ferguson might have been annoyed with the way Kenwyne Jones' goal was conceded. He was angry at many things following the Sunderland game, he would have picked a fight with a priest.

Gerrard, however, is ok.via Yahoo!UK/Eurosport:Wayne Rooney has pulled out of England's World Cup qualifier with Belarus on Wednesday. The Manchester United forward picked up a calf strain during Saturday's 1-0 defeat away to Ukraine. After having the injury assessed at England's training base in Hertfordshire, he has been released back to the Old Trafford club.

International breaks are the bane of a manager's life and never more was that evident in the weekend just gone – if anything, Rafa Benitez could not have scripted it to go any worse.
Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Dirk Kuyt all picked up injuries to some degree and with a crucial run of fixtures set to begin this Saturday, it goes without saying that all three men will be needed to play a part.

Fabio will be looking for a good performance to end a great World Cup qualifying campaign.

Watch England vs Belarus Live Online!

England manager Fabio Capello will start with Gabriel Agbonlahor and Peter Crouch for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Belarus at Wembley.

According to English national team coach Fabio Capello, they are both undeserving.
In his eyes, David Beckham didn't deserve to be player of the game as the second-half substitute of a 3-0 win against Belarus.
And Barack Obama didn't deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize after being in office less than a year.

Having put Arsenal well and truly behind him, Alex Hleb - Belarus' footballer of the year - spoke about his move to Barcelona and the 2009 ahead of him: I feel wanted by the coach, and I want to repay him for the confidence he has given me since the first day. I know what he [...]

Sweden U21 v Belarus U21 (Group A)
Date: Tuesday 16th June
Venue: Malmo
Kickoff: 17:15 GMT

Hosts Sweden open their campaign against Belarus in Group A of the UEFA Under-21 European Championships at the New Stadium in Malmo on Tuesday. You can watch Sweden U21 v Belarus U21 live here.

The 23-player squads for all 8 U-21 Euro 2009 teams are listed below. Only players born on or after 1 January 1986 are eligible to play in the 2009 U-21 European Championships.

Group A
Belarus Euro 2009 Squad

Head coach: Yuri Kurnenin

No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Club 1 GK Pavel Chesnovskiy 4 March 1986 (aged 23) FC Vitebsk 2 DF Nikolai Osipovich 29 May 1986 (aged 23) MTZ-RIPO 3 DF Aleksandr Martynovich 26 August 1987 (aged 21) Dinamo Minsk 4 DF Igor Shitov 24 October 1986 (aged 22) BATE 5 DF Maksim Bordachyov 18 June 1986 (aged 22) BATE 6 MF Sergei Balanovich 29 August 1987 (aged 21) Shakhtyor Soligorsk 7 MF Sergey Krivets 8 June 1986 (aged 23) BATE 8 MF Aleksandr Volodko 18 June 1986 (aged 22) BATE 9 FW Leonid Kovel 29 July 1986 (aged 22) Saturn Moscow Oblast 10 FW Dmitri Komarovskiy 10 October 1986 (aged 22) Naftan Novopolotsk 11 MF Mikhail Afanasyev 4 November 1986 (aged 22) Amkar Perm 12 GK Artem Gomelko 8 December 1989 (aged 19) Lokomotiv Moscow 13 MF Aleksandr Sachivko 5 January 1986 (aged 23) FC Minsk 14 MF Anton Putilo 10 June 1987 (aged 22) Dinamo Minsk 15 MF Sergei Kislyak 6 August 1987 (aged 21) Dinamo Minsk 16 DF Oleg Veretilo 10 July 1988 (aged 20) Dinamo Minsk 17 MF Sergei Gigevich 26 January 1987 (aged 22) Dinamo Minsk 18 DF Dmitry Verkhovtsov 10 October 1986 (aged 22) Naftan Novopolotsk 19 DF Aleksei Yanushkevich 15 January 1986 (aged 23) Shakhtyor Soligorsk 20 FW Vladimir Yurchenko 26 January 1989 (aged 20) Saturn Moscow Oblast 21 MF Mikhail Sivakov 16 January 1988 (aged 21) Cagliari 22 GK Anton Kovalevskiy 2 February 1986 (aged 23) Naftan Novopolotsk 23 DF Andrei Chukhley 2 October 1987 (aged 21) Dinamo Minsk
Italy Euro 2009 Squad

Head coach: Pierluigi Casiraghi

No.

After suffering an injury that kept him out for over a year, Eduardo Da Silva is now ready to make his return to the Croatia squad ahead of their World Cup Qualifier against Belarus in Minsk on the 12th of August. Eduardo played his first match of pre-season with the Arsenal ...

By AriesEduardo is getting closer and closer back to his thrilling best. This time he scored Croatia's second against Belarus in a World Cup qualification game on 72 minutes. Like a true fox in the box he scored from close range from a pinpoint cross by skipper Darijo Srna. You can see the goal on the video above.

Once again the England manager, Fabio Capello, was watching Bolton Wanderers and boosted hopes of Cahill's involvement in two upcoming international fixtures when England take on Belarus and Ukraine. Alas it wasn't to be and Cahill will not be taking part in England's next stages of World Cup qualification.

Frank Lampard admits England's stars have failed to live up to their ‘golden generation' tag as Fabio Capello's side conclude their World Cup qualifying campaign against Belarus on Wednesday. When Lampard, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham broke into the England team within a year or .

No major firm of bookmakers anywhere in the Far East is willing to price up the Asian Handicap on tomorrow's England versus Belarus FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Qualifier.
Now, why would that be the case now?
Our primary Hong Kong broker will enlighten you.
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England ran out winners thanks to a brace from Pater Crouch and a Shaun Wright-Phillips goal.

1-0 Crouch

2-0 Wright-Phillips

3-0 Crouch

. Video Highlights England V Belarus 2 for Crouch , 1 for Phillips originally appeared on ø Soccer & Football Blog - Premiership News ø on October 14, 2009.