It’s make-up time for two of Europe’s big guns as the latest round of Euro 2008 qualifiers get under way on Wednesday.
England and France have it all to do to erase the memory of severely disappointing results on Saturday.
Having limped to a feeble 0-0 draw at home to the anything but mighty Macedonia, England travel to Croatia for a considerably more testing examination of their stature.
Despite a seemingly new positive approach under Steve McClaren, on Saturday in Manchester England revoked memories of their dire negative World Cup approach under Swedish coach Sven Goran Eriksson.
And with influential midfielder Steven Gerrard suspended and both Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole injured, England will be without three of their four first-choice midfielders.
In fact, the only one playing will be the out-of-form Frank Lampard, due to win his 50th cap, who some even believe should be left on the bench after his recent insipid displays.
One piece of good news for McClaren, though, is the return of centre back Rio Ferdinand, who will resume his partnership with Chelsea’s John Terry in the heart of the England defence.
”Rio trained today [Monday] and it’s good to have him back with us,” said McClaren on Monday before England flew out to Croatia.
”He will be travelling with the squad and we expect him to train tomorrow [Tuesday] in Croatia, providing there’s no reaction.”
It is not only England who have come under fire from their own media, though.
World Cup finalists France have been castigated for their failure to deal with set-pieces after falling to a sorry 1-0 reverse at plucky Scotland on Saturday.
”Caught in a trap” was respected sports newspaper L’Equipe’s assessment.
The goal France conceded in the World Cup final against Italy was from a corner and again against Scotland the defence went missing from another such dead-ball situation as Gary Caldwell prodded the ball home.
Having earlier believed that qualification from the group would be a two-from-three competition between Italy, France and Ukraine, French coach Raymond Domenech has now had to re-assess the goal posts.
”We thought the favourites would be the teams who were at the World Cup but Scotland are a team that can hurt others and will cause many problems during qualification,” conceded Domenech after the defeat.
However, he can now look forward to a much simpler task ahead and a possible goal fest as France take on the Faroe Islands in Sochaux.
Given that both Georgia, whom France beat 3-0 away last month, and Scotland have given the Faroes six of the best, with their far superior array of talent France should be looking to bag at least that many goals.
In other matches, Germany can somewhat fortunately call on the World Cup’s young player of the tournament for their tough trip to Bratislava to face Slovakia.
Lucas Podolski was sent off in a friendly win over Georgia on Saturday but his two-game suspension only has to be served in friendly matches.
”The important thing is that I am not suspended for the Euro qualifier against Slovakia,” said the Bayern Munich forward. ”I would like to apologise to the team by scoring a goal there.”
In other crucial encounters, Russia are looking for their first win of the qualifiers as they entertain Estonia and The Netherlands will be trying to put their recent boycott troubles behind them as they host Albania.
Italy travel to Georgia hoping to continue the improvement they showed against Ukraine, although after taking just one point from their opening two games before Saturday’s victory, only a win will do to keep them in the hunt at the top of their group. — AFP
