TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

 

Images taken from Soccernet and Manutd.com

 

The headline and above pics pretty much say it all as far as I'm concerned with club and country both keeping up the pace.

To start with, England went into their last game in their 2006 World Cup qualifying group with theoretically nothing to play for, the Three Lions already heading to Germany. With Shaun Wright Phillips at right mid and Ledley King in centre mid covering for the injured Steven Gerrard the team looked pretty messy anyway but England were still well up for the match from the start and Owen opened the scoring in the 43rd minute...only for the Poles to catch our defense off guard before half time and equalise. Evens match for most of the second half till Lampard hit the winner again and England topped the group. Definately a grade up from the Austria game - has Sven lost the plot yet?...not sure, the Crouch for Wright-Phillips substitution felt iffy to me and Sven's kidding himself if he thinks any of the performances recently compare to Munich '01 but...who knows.

Scotland also managed to get some pride back beating Slovenia 3-0 in the city of Cerje with Darren Fletcher, James McFadden and Paul Hartley hitting the net. At least third place in the group(rather than fifth) gives Walter Smith a decent chance of reloading for the Euro 2008 qualifiers and not get too tough a draw.

Elsewhere, the Republic of Ireland also came to the end of the road on Sunday, a goalless draw against Switzerland not good enough to get them into the playoffs. Romania, Greece(not that surprised, didn't take a liking to them during Euro 2004 anyway) and Russia are also going to be staying at home, though the likes of France and the Sweden did get through to Germany on the last night of qualifying. Five World Cup spots are still up for grabs though in a series of play offs. Three will go to European teams but the only European playoff tie that I'm willing to predict is Spain vs Slovakia, the Spanish are pretty much sorted there. No way am I predicting Switzerland vs Turkey or Norway vs Czech Republic right now. Elsewhere, Trinidad and Tobago are going up against Bahrain. The idea of T&T being in a World Cup sounds more sane than Bahrain to me, unless Bahrain have a Dwight Yorke quality player that I haven't heard of. And finally, Uruguay vs Australia, a rematch of a similar fixture for the 2001 tournament. The Aussies have enough good players to deserve to be in a World Cup but Uruguay aren't duds either, we'll see what happens on that one.

So...it's back to the Premiership and Keano may or may not be staying at Old Trafford, Fergie's getting sniffed at for the Republic of Ireland job but he doesn't seem to be interested which is more than fine by me. United's trip to Sunderland was pretty nervy for most of the first half with Mick McCarthy's crew giving Van der Saar a load of heading but then United caught their defence out for tea and biscuits and Rooney hit the net, our other deadly assassin van Nistelrooy seemingly sealing Sunderland's fate in the second half...though Sunderland's James Elliot decided that he'd rather rip United's net off. It was Italian kid Giuseppe Rossi of all people who was left to finish the Mackems off though, scoring his first goal for the Reds first team.

Sounds cool, and the idea of Chelsea 0 Bolton 1 would have had me going beserk...if only the Blues hadn't then turned it into Chelsea 5 Bolton 1. Charlton and Spurs are also keeping up their annoying winning habits. But laughs can be had elsewhere though, West Brom 2 Sunk Guns 1 anyone?

North of the border, things didn't go to plan for Aberdeen, a trip to one-time Highland League sideInverness Caledonian Thistle(OK, they're a combination of two former Highland League sides) ending in a 1-1 draw, midfielder Jamie Smith opening the scoring for the Dons before Caley replied and sent them down to 7th. THe big game north of the border between Hearts an Celtic at Easter Roard ended in a 1-1 draw.

Bring on some Champions League action

Click here to visit the football archive

Comments get emailed here

Click here to return to sports homepage

Click here to return to Matt G's homepage