France manager Raymond Domenech insists he will not walk away from his job amid his growing unpopularity. Despite leading the nation to the World Cup final in 2006, Domenech has often been a figure of ridicule in his homeland for below performances. His reputation was not helped by a mediocre World Cup qualifying campaign which [...]
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Eric Cantona, French football, Raymond Domenech, Thierry Henry, World Cup
Manchester United fullback Patrice Evra has defended France teammate Thierry Henry amid his handball controversy. Henry admittedly handled the ball in the build up to William Gallas’ equalising goal which sent France through in their World Cup playoff with the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday night. The goal has been the talk of European football [...]
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Arsene Wenger, European Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Patrice Evra, Thierry Henry, World Cup
I know what you’re thinking, ‘not another blog on Thierry Henry’s handball,’ but the reality is, even as club football returns this weekend, it’s the biggest topic in football at the minute. I’m a traditionalist as far as football goes. I accept that players get sent off when they shouldn’t. That they get flagged offside [...]
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Europa League, Thierry Henry, William Gallas, World Cup
Martin Palermo scored with virtually the last kick of the game as Argentina scraped a win against Peru on Saturday night. The victory just keeps the Argies hopes of reaching the World Cup in South Africa alive. They have struggled in the South American qualifying group and have been no match for the likes of [...]
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Diego Maradona, Martin Palermo, Messi, South American qualifying group, World Cup
Only three players in the last year and a half have asked Fabio Capello why they are not in the England side. This is the perfect example of the authority and loyalty that the Italian has installed into the England side and goes a long way to show why the side have been so successful [...]
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Argentina, Fabio Capello, Poland
Scotland has been dumped out of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa next summer as they lost a crucial qualifying match 1-0 against the Netherlands. In a match that Scotland simply had to win, they could not make the most of their chances and saw their dreams slip away after a Dutch goal in [...]
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Darren Fletcher, George Burley, James McFadden, Manchester United, Netherlands, Scotland, World Cup
England romped to a 5-1 victory over Croatia last night and became one of the first teams to book their place in South Africa next summer. In a match that looked traditionally tricky for England to win, the new Capello generation sent shock waves around the world as both Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard got [...]
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2010 FIFA World Cup, Croatia, England, Football
Two of the biggest football nations in the world are struggling to make ground in terms of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup next summer. Both Portugal and Argentina, both archenemies to England, are failing to get into a good position in their qualification groups as the number of games left is running out. [...]
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2010 FIFA World Cup, Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo, Denmark, England, Euro 2008, Portugal
Fabio Capello has made a bizarre thank you to Slaven Bilic, the coach of Croatia. Bilic has been reported in recent days criticising the way England are run as a national side and saying that they are still clearly haunted by the Euro 2008 exit that his team dished out to them at Wembley. Well [...]
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2010 FIFA World Cup, Croatia, England, Euro 2008, Fabio Capello, Slaven Bilic, Wembley
Fabio Capello is set to leave out Jermaine Defoe for yet another match when England play Croatia on Wednesday. There has been huge pressure on the England coach to play Defoe who has been in brilliant international form over the last few weeks. Defoe has seemed like one of the only hungry players in an [...]
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Capello, Croatia, Defoe, England, Fabio Capello, Jermaine Defoe