On this week's Gadsby's England roundup, the utter absurdity of transfer deadline day, Wenger
says stop worrying about Wilshere for the Euros, Nathan Dyer tells Capello to make his England
dreams come true, and could Oxlade-Chamberlain do a Rooney Euro 2004, or are we overdoing it
again?
Ireland are in the fourth group of seeds for the Euro 2012 finals draw, UEFA confirmed today.
Giovanni Trapattoni's 'Boys In Green', who completed a 5-1 aggregate play-off win against Estonia
last night, have been drawn alongside Denmark, France and Czech Republic in Pot 4.
Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland and Ukraine, who have already been allocated to groups A and D
respectively, are in the top group of seeds alongside reigning world and European champions Spain
and 2010 World Cup finalists the Netherlands.
Since I maintain the Russia and Greece pages here at World Cup Blog, this is a unique post
because it allows for a two sided preview. Check out the Greece Blog for the other side. Russia are
traveling to Piraeus this week to face their Euro 2004 and Euro 2008 [read more]
Rooney Not Helping England - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Last night Wayne Rooney's astonishing moment of stupidity ensures that Manchester United star is
set to miss the start of Euro 2012 next year. It remains to be seen whether he is handed more than
a single match ban by UEFA for his act of madness.
Aron Gunnarson grabs his second of the game with a wonderful aerial back-heeled
flick, similar to that of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's for Sweden against Italy in Euro 2004,
however Portugal won the game 5-3.
The boy's time has come, let's give him a little help
If you listen to any football pundits or experts out there (ones in the British game anyway),
they will tell you that the catalyst to a championship (Premier League, if you like) winning side
is one with the meanest of defence as the backbone.
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
Why fans should get off Frank's back and enjoy watching one of England's finest
midfielders for as long as they can
What has Frank Lampard ever done for English football? I mean apart from being the
highest-scoring midfielder in Chelsea's history? And apart from appearing in a Premier League
record 164 consecutive games for his club?
The team is in Portugal tonight to play our last pre-season warm-up against Benfica. Kick-off is
7:45 UK time, 2:45pm Eastern, 11:45am Pacific. The liveblog will start an hour before the game.
Come on by and give us your thoughts. Liveblog is at the bottom.
Benfica had a strong, strong team two seasons ago, winning the Portuguese league, but that squad
has since been partially dismantled, some in high-profile moves to big European teams:
Fábio Coentrão and Ángel Di María went to Real Madrid, Ramires and David Luiz joined
Chelsea, and Nuno Gomes (Euro 2004, anyone?
Finally. After pursuing Jurgen Klinsmann for 5 years, the USSF has hired Jurgen Klinsmann to
be the next National Team coach, replacing Bob Bradley. Most fans wanted Klinsmann to lead the
National Team back in 2006, but US Soccer would not pay him the money or give him the control he
wanted to implement his agenda.
Spain's era of dominance may have only just begun - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Always the perennial underachievers, the last few years have seen that theory put to bed.
Though the senior team went out in the second round in the 2006 world cup, their previous group
performances were electric and a sign of things to come, only hiccuping when faced with a certain
purple patch conjured by the majestic Zinedine Zidane and assisted by a blatant dive from the then
golden boy Thierry Henry.
It was the cruellest of jokes. Even with the reverberations from the 5-0 walloping they took at
FC Porto earlier in the season still quietly rumbling away in the back of their minds, Benfica fans
were still willing to forgive the previous week's capitulation at the Estádio da Luz which had
allowed Porto to saunter away with the title.
France and Croatia lock horns in the most intriguing friendly to take place over the upcoming
international break. Both nations are comfortably leading the way in their respective Euro 2012
qualifying groups, and are well placed to secure their passage to the finals in Poland and the
Ukraine in the coming months.
A new dawn for an attacking Scotland?
Craig Levein had already been musing a change in emphasis before last night's win in Dublin,
dictated by the players at his disposal. This was taken to mean no repeat of the 4-6-0 formation he
used against Czech Republic.
But, as guest blogger Craig Cairns argues below, we should be cutting Levein more slack for his
willingness to experiment.
O guarda-redes Ricardo deverá ser apresentado brevemente como jogador do Leicester, actualmente no
segundo escalão de Inglaterra, onde vai reencontrar dois velhos conhecidos do Euro 2004:
Sven-Goran Eriksson e Darius Vassel, para além dos portugueses Miguel Vítor e Moreno. Ricardo,
que estava livre desde que rescindiu com o Bétis, foi o grande responsável pela elminiação dos
ingleses no Europeu disputado em Portugal quando defendeu o penalty apontado por Vassel que
representava a selecção então orientada por Eriksson.
Kuwait 0-2 China (Zhang Linpeng, Deng Zhuoxiang) China caused one of the upsets of the tournament
when they beat current Gulf Cup champions Kuwait 2-0 in Group A on January 8, 2011. Kuwait also
finished the game with ten following a Mesaed Nada red card. Kuwait vs China 0-1 ( Zhang Linpeng
goal) Kuwait 0-2 [.
