England’s mission in Montenegro on Oct 7th is to earn a win or a draw to make sure they finish on top of Group G in Euro 2012 qualifying. Montenegro has to win their last two games to take the group as England has a six point lead on them heading into the match.

England is king of the group at the moment with five victories and two draws for 17 points. Montenegro has a total of 11 points which they earned through three wins a loss and two draws. There are still several scenarios possible in this group as England could finish either in first or second while Montenegro could end up first, second or third.

The winner of the group automatically qualifies for Euro 2012 while the second-place finishers have to go through a two-legged playoff fixture. If Montenegro can beat England they’ll have the opportunity to win the group four days later when they take on Switzerland in an away game. However, if Montenegro fails to beat the Swiss then England still wins the group.

The other scenario would see Montenegro finishing in third place if they lose their last two games and Switzerland wins their last two, away against Wales and at home to Montenegro. Switzerland could also overtake them for second place if Montenegro draws England and Switzerland wins their two games and even if Montenegro beats England and the Swiss pull off two wins and edge out Montenegro by goal difference.

Group G Standings

It’s all quite confusing at the moment, but one thing’s for certain on Friday and that’s England winning the group on a win or draw. Even though England and Montenegro could end up with 17 points each, Montenegro would edge them out on the basis of head-to-head competition providing they win this game as their first matchup ended in a 0-0 draw at Wembley last year.

England finally looks to have some strength up front with Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney, Andy Carroll, Bobby Zamora, and Darren Bent up front. Jermaine Defoe, Peter Crouch, Michael Owen, and Daniel Sturridge are excellent strikers who didn’t make the team. It’d be ridiculous for manager Fabio Capello to go with just one striker considering his options.

Welbeck has five goals in his last six games and Rooney is off to a flying start and leads the EPL. Midfielder Frank Lampard is also hot with four goals in his last two games, including a hat trick against Bolton on the weekend. Capello had the sense to drop the vastly overrated Rio Ferdinand, who’s nothing but a liability in the back four. They will miss Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard who’s out with an injury though.

Predictions for Montenegro vs England

Montenegro will have defender Savo Pavicevic in the squad after he missed last month’s game against Wales due to a suspension. Milan Jovanovic, Miodrag Dzudovic, and Marko Basa are all back as well after missing the Welsh game because of injury.
Both teams control their own destiny, but Montenegro has the tougher task of having to win both of their games. England might not beat them here, but should do enough to get the draw they need to qualify for Euro 2012.

Sportsbook William Hill has the odds of a Montenegro win at 4/1 and an England win at 8/11 with a draw at 5/2

Full Squads:

Montenegro:


Goalkeepers: Mladen Božović (Videoton FC), Srđan Blažić (Panetolikos GFS)


Defenders: Marko Baša (LOSC Lille Métropole), Milan Jovanović (PFC Spartak Nalchik), Stefan Savić (Manchester City FC), Radoslav Batak (FK Mogren), Savo Pavičević (Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC), Miodrag Džudović (PFC Spartak Nalchik), Luka Pejović (Jagiellonia Białystok)


Midfielders/Forwards: Elsad Zverotić (BSC Young Boys), Milorad Peković (SpVgg Greuther Fürth), Mitar Novaković (FC Amkar Perm), Vladimir Božović (FC Rapid Bucureşti), Mladen Kašćelan (ŁKS Łódź), Nikola Drinčić (FC Krasnodar), Marko Ćetković (Jagiellonia Białystok), Petar Grbić (Olympiacos FC), Simon Vukčević (Blackburn Rovers FC)

England:


Goalkeepers: Scott Carson (Bursaspor), Joe Hart (Manchester City FC), David Stockdale (Ipswich Town FC)


Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton FC), Gary Cahill (Bolton Wanderers FC), Ashley Cole (Chelsea FC), Phil Jagielka (Everton FC), Phil Jones (Manchester United FC), Micah Richards (Manchester City FC), John Terry (Chelsea FC), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur FC)


Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Manchester City FC), Stewart Downing (Liverpool FC), Adam Johnson (Manchester City FC), Frank Lampard (Chelsea FC), James Milner (Manchester City FC), Scott Parker (Tottenham Hotspur FC), Theo Walcott (Arsenal FC), Ashley Young (Manchester United FC)


Forwards: Darren Bent (Aston Villa FC), Andy Carroll (Liverpool FC), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United FC), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United FC), Bobby Zamora (Fulham FC).

England sits on top of the group with 11 points from three wins and two draws while Bulgaria is in fourth place with five points from a win, two draws, and two losses. However, England is sharing top spot with Montenegro, who has the same record, but an inferior goal difference.

There will be a new look to England as manager Fabio Capello has called up three youngsters from Manchester United in Phil Jones, Tom Cleverly, and Chris Smalling. United’s Danny Welbeck may also have made the team if he hadn’t suffered an injury against Arsenal on Aug. 28th.

England has Wayne Rooney, Andy Carroll, Darren Bent, Theo Walcott, and Jermain Defoe up front. Peter Crouch, who hasn’t played yet this season for Spurs, was left out of the side. Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard is out with an injury as is Arsenal’s Jack Wilshire and as usual so is Rio Ferdinand of Manchester United.

Bulgarian manager Lothar Matthaus has called up two uncapped players by naming striker Georgi Bozhilov and midfielder Tsvetomir Tsonkov to the squad. Both play in their country’s domestic league. However, defender Apostol Popov is out with an injury as is midfielder Chavdar Yankov. Martin Petrov is questionable for the match.

Striker Valeri Bojinov, who plays in Portugal for Sporting Lisbon was left out of the squad as he’s not fully recovered from an injury. Martin Petrov and Stilian Petrov, who both play in the English Premier League, have been recalled after missing their team’s 1-0 loss to Belarus on Aug. 10th. Goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov is also back in the team. Alexander Tunchev will be playing his first match for Bulgaria since 2009 and defender Valentin Iliev will be playing in just his second game in the past two years.

England will likely need to leave Sofia with all three points since Montenegro is playing in Wales the same night and will probably beat the bottom placed team giving them 14 points. Bulgaria is a dark horse to win the group, but a win over England would give them eight points, just three behind the English. However, they’d need to depend on a lot of other results falling their way to top the group.

England was supposed to play on Aug. 10th against Holland, but the game was called off after riots broke out in the country so haven’t played since June. Capello has made six changes to the squad that was named for that game though. England beat Bulgaria 4-0 at home in their qualifier last year and has three wins and two draws in their past five contests. Bulgaria is as cold as ice with no wins in their past five, made up of three draws and two losses.

Bet on England v Bulgaria

The England team looks good on paper, but it often does and then doesn’t live up to its potential. They should still have enough skill here to win by a couple of goals though.
Sportsbook William Hill has the odds of an England win listed at 4/7 with a Bulgarian win at 4/1 and a draw at 5/2.

The full squads for this Euro 2012 qualifier game are:


Bulgaria:


Nikolay Mihaylov (Twente Enschede), Vladislav Stoyanov (Sherif Tiraspol), Ivan Bandalovski (CSKA Sofia), Ivan Ivanov (Partizan Belgrade), Valentin Iliev (Steaua Bucharest), Nikolay Bodurov (Litex Lovech), Petar Zanev (Litex Lovech), Zhivko Milanov (Vaslui), Alexander Tunchev (Crystal Palace), Kostadin Stoyanov (CSKA Sofia), Stilian Petrov (Aston Villa), Stanislav Manolev (PSV Eindhoven), Blagoy Georgiev (Terek Grozny), Tsvetomir Tsonkov (Chernomorets Burgas), Marquinhos (Anorthosis Famagusta), Ivelin Popov (Gaziantepspor), Georgi Sarmov (Kasimpasa), Spas Delev (CSKA Sofia), Martin Petrov (Bolton Wanderers), Tsvetan Genkov (Wisla Krakow), and Georgi Bozhilov (Cherno More Varna)

England:


Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Man City), Robert Green (West Ham), and David Stockdale (Ipswich)

Defenders: Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Gary Cahill (Bolton), John Terry (Chelsea), Leighton Baines (Everton), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Chris Smalling (Man Utd), Phil Jones (Man Utd), Micah Richards (Man City), and Joleon Lescott (Man City).


Midfielders: Stewart Downing (Liverpool), Gareth Barry (Man City), Adam Johnson (Man City), James Milner (Man City), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Tom Cleverley (Man Utd), Ashley Young (Man Utd), and Scott Parker (West Ham).


Forwards: Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Darren Bent (Aston Villa), Andy Carroll (Liverpool), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham)

Rioting started in London on Saturday the 6th of August in the Tottenham area (home of Tottenham Hotspur FC) and continued for the rest of the week, first spreading to other areas of London and then to other cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bristol.

The match between the two European heavyweights was due to take place in London on Wednesday the 10th. On Tuesday the 9th, the FA announced that they felt there was no choice to call off the game, offering a refund to the 70,000 people who had bought tickets to see the spectacle. As it was a friendly, the match does not have to be rescheduled elsewhere in the football calendar, and unfortunately for the fans, will simply go unplayed.

It seems that the decision to cancel the game was a prudent one, given that rioting continued on the 10th and an overstretched Metropolitan Police would have been in no way able to take on the duties they normally undertake for football matches held in the capital, and the influx of 70,000 people on the city may have exacerbated problems with transport – most importantly, visiting fans could have been put at risk.

This is not the only disruption the UK riots caused to the football world. In just the second week of the football season (and ahead of the first weekend of the Premiership), matches at some London grounds were cancelled because of the riots. Tottenham were due to be playing at home, and as Tottenham had been so central to the riots this game was postponed. Elsewhere in the English League, the Carling Cup matches West Ham v Aldershot, Crystal Palace v Crawley Town and Charlton v Reading were cancelled in London, and in Bristol, the tie between Bristol City and Swindon also failed to take place.

Some of England’s top players have spoken out against the rioters on social media site Twitter, with Manchester United and England stars Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand among those who have condemned the rioters in their tweets. Some UK media outlets were accusing social media sites of making it easier for rioters to coordinate their attacks, but the number of celebrities (including those in the sport world) appealing for the riots to stop on their Twitter accounts shows that essentially, social media was being used on both sides of the argument.

The riots seem to have died down at this point, and hopefully this means that the English Football League, and indeed the rest of the country, can return to normal, though the ticket holders and all of the fans who were planning to watch on TV throughout Europe will not get to see England play Holland in 2011.

Bangladesh suffered a humiliating defeat against the West Indians. Disappointed fans showed their frustration by stoning captain’s Shakib Al Hasan’s home along with the West Indian team bus. Bangladesh are under pressure to perform and will be hoping to put up a good fight against England.

Date: 11th March

London Start Time: 09:00

Venue and Pitch

The match will take place at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong. Bangladesh will be under tremendous pressure after their dismal performance against the West Indians and may face the wrath of their fans if they go down without a fight.

Team News

England came out of nowhere to secure a stunning victory over the South Africans and will be confident of another victory. However, their chances of winning the World Cup took a beating when Kevin Pietersen pulled out of the tournament with a hernia injury and Stuart Broad suffered a side-strain, which means he is unlikely to play against Bangladesh.

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan looked a defeated man after the match against the West Indians and described it as the worst day of his career. He will have to lead from the front and hope that England has a bad day in the field.

Match Odds

England 1/4 will be without the services of Kevin Pietersen and most probably Stuart Broad but still remain favourites to win this game. Bangladesh will be feeling the pressure of playing at home and could succumb quickly, especially if they lose early wickets. Find very good odds at Bodog Sportsbook

Top Batsman

Now that Kevin Pietersen is out of the tournament, England might open with Ravinder Bopara 9/2 or go back to Matt Prior. Jonathan Trott 7/2 and captain Andrew Strauss are the other batsmen to watch out for.

After a batting collapse, much will depend on captain Shakib Al Hasan 9/2 and M Ashraful. If the batting fails again, you can expect fireworks from the spectators which could result in security concerns.

Featured Bet

James Anderson bowled beautifully against South Africa and along with the Graeme Swann will look to bowl Bangladesh out before the completion of 50 overs.

Match Predictions

England will come hard at Bangladesh as they look to build momentum and secure a place in the quarter finals. Security will be a big concern, especially if Bangladesh plays poorly. Bangladesh will lose by a huge margin and will most likely be jeered of the ground. Bet now at Bodog

Best Bet: Jonathan Trott 7/2

Officials for England 2018 has claimed that they would bring the most profitable World Cup tournament ever and that it would be needed after the last one in South Africa and the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

England got a max ranking for a lot of important channels such as media rights, TV, tickets, sponsorship and licensing.

Russia has been the favorite to host the 2018 tournament though, and former Russian FA president Vyacheslav Koloskov does not think England has much of a chance when he comments to Russian press:

“There will be three rounds of voting. Russia and Spain/Portugal will go into the final round. I believe that England are not favourites in this process.”

Koloskov also adds that the support for Englands 2018 bid has now “vanished”.

We believe there is still much to be said in this story and in Fifa’s own evaluation of venues, England has been ranked highest together with Spain-Portugal who is also in the running for the tournament.

Check back at WCBetting.com to read more about the latest happenings in the World Cup bids and much more.

While the 4-1 win against Germany doesn’t look so bad now, considering what Germany has gone on to do and that England had a legitimate goal called back, the country’s fans are more upset over a lack of effort. Losing just one game in four in a World Cup could be considered a success in some nations, but not in England, where the highly-paid players are expected to show some heart and determination.

Capello said he hopes the players and the Football Association can learn from the mistakes of the tournament to build a stronger future. He added that he’s proud to be the manager and is determined to succeed with England. He was glad the country’s football board chairman Dave Richards phoned him with the good news.

Capello said the country should now focus on the qualifying games for the 2012 European Championship. The team has a friendly set up with Hungary in August and will then start the qualifying campaign in September. He hinted that he will be looking to bring in some new players to the squad to re-energize it.

Richards stated that FA Board approved the decision to keep Capello as manager. However, he added the board is still extremely disappointed with the ream’s showing in South Africa, but thinks Capello is still the best person for the job.

Capello has managed Real Madrid and AC Milan in the past and has won several domestic titles. He took over the England job in January 2008 after Steve McClaren was fired for missing out on the 2008 European Championship. Capello is under contract until after the 2012 Euro tournament and makes six million pounds a year in salary.

England looked like on the best teams in the world during World Cup qualifying with nine wins in 10 games, but failed to live up to expectations once the tournament kicked off.

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Capello, of Italy, said that he’s turned down lots of other job offers from big clubs because he wants to stay with England. He is under contract till 2012, after the European Championship. However, England inexplicably extended his deal just before the World cup began. He reportedly earns six million pounds a year.

Capello’s team steam rolled through the World cup qualifying campaign by topping their group and winning nine out of 10 games. But the World Cup was a different story as England finished second in Group C with a win and two draws before Germany beat them in the knockout stage.

The Italian has previously managed AC Milan and Real Madrid, and stated that he understands the FA’s and Richards’ position. He said that he talked to Richards about injecting some youth into the team and rebuilding it. If that’s the case, some familiar names such as Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Emile Heskey, Rio Ferdinand, and John Terry could soon see their international careers come to an abrupt end.

Capello mentioned that his players were tired from a long season and that led to their downfall. However, he failed to mention why he didn’t give them a longer break after the season ended and why other Premier League players in the World Cup seem to be playing fine.

He added that the German league has a midwinter break that seems to have helped them stay fresh. But his reasoning doesn’t really explain why his players continuously gave the ball away, as it takes just as much physical effort to give the ball to an opponent as it does a team mate.

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Geoff Hurst, who had scored in the 18th minute, then slammed a shot that hit the underside of the crossbar and came crashing down on or just over the goal line. The action stopped and the Swiss referee went over to his Russian linesman to confer with him. After several seconds, a goal was given and England led 3-2 after 101 minutes. Hurst then added another in the last minute of extra time to become the only player to score a hat trick in a World Cup Final game and gave England their one and only trophy. Hurst’s second goal is always referred to as the ‘ghost goal’ as it was never proven if it actually crossed the goal line.

In 1986, England was knocked out of the tournament at the quarterfinal stage in Mexico by the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal by Diego Maradona. The Argentinean jumped in the air to head the ball, but then proceeded to punch it into the net past England goal keeper Peter Shilton with his fist for a 1-0 lead in the 51st minute. Still cameras and television cameras caught the act and it only took a matter of seconds to see that Maradona had blatantly cheated and handled the ball into the net. Maradona then went on to score about five minutes later for a 2-0 lead. England’s Gary Lineker cut it down to 2-1 in the 81st minute, but Argentina went on to win the game and the World Cup.

And now, 44 years after the ‘ghost goal,’ England again has been involved in the most controversial game of the tournament so far. Frank Lampard’s shot clearly crossed the goal line in the 38th minute, in England’s game against Germany on June 27 that would have leveled the score 2-2. Germany had scored in the 20th and 32nd minutes for a 2-0 lead, but Matthew Upson got one back in the 37th to make it 2-1. Lampard’s goal would have wiped out the young and inexperienced German team’s 2-0 lead in the matter of a minute, and who knows what would have happened next. It’s a shame that we never had the chance to find out as Germany went on to win 4-1.

Perhaps FIFA can solve the never-ending debate over video technology by just using it for all World Cup games involving England.

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The game started cautiously with Germany getting the first legitimate chance after about five minutes when midfielder Mesut Ozil’s shot from the right flank was kicked out by English keeper David James. However, Germany opened the scoring when goalkeeper Manuel Neuer booted the ball the length of the field over the head of defender John Terry and striker Miroslav Klose outfought Matthew Upson for the ball and slotted it past James for a 1-0 lead. It was his 50th international goal in 99 games and 12th World Cup finals goal. Germany doubled the score 12 minutes later as midfielder Thomas Muller set up Lukas Podolski, who hammered home a left footed shot from a sharp angle.

England answered quickly when Steven Gerrard’s cross from the right side was headed home by Upson five minutes later. It looked like fans were in for a classic game just a minute later when Lampard’s shot from the edge of the 18-yard box hit the bottom of the crossbar and clearly bounced down over the goal line by a foot or two. However, referee Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay and his assistants failed to signal a goal and the first half ended 2-1.

Lampard then struck the crossbar again early in the second half with a superb free kick, but the counter-attacking Germans finished the game off with two goals in four minutes as midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger set up Mueller in the 67th minute and then Ozil set him up again in the 70th. England never gave up and midfielder Steven Gerrard’s shot was pushed past the post by an excellent save by Neuer in the 81st minute. But that was all she wrote for England.

England manager Fabio Capello will undoubtedly come in for some major criticism from English fans and media, and deservedly so. His decision to leave goaltender Paul Robinson at home along with Theo Walcott will be questioned, especially with England in desperate need of some youth in the squad.

His decision to start Matthew Upson in central defence when Ledley King was healthy will also be a talking point, as well as his choice to leave 6 foot 7 inch striker Peter Crouch on the bench when England needed goals in a bad way. Taking off striker Jermaine Defoe and replacing him with Emile Heskey when the team fell behind 4-1 was almost laughable and English fans aren’t liable to forget Capello’s shortcomings anytime soon.

On the plus side, midfielder Steven Gerrard was England’s best player in their four-game tournament and seems to be well suited for the captain’s role. Glen Johnson also played well and James Milner showed some promise. However, former captain John Terry played poorly against Germany after his fine outing against Slovenia and nobody else really stood out.

The Germans made mincemeat of the English defence on quite a few occasions and that’s what led to their convincing victory and England’s biggest ever World Cup loss and biggest loss to Germany.

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He stated that he thought England would be a major player in this year’s tournament, maybe even winning it and that he’s a big fan of English football. He said they have a great manager and team, but like most other fans, was greatly disappointed in them after their first two matches. He added that his feelings of disappointment may have led to his outburst or it could have been just because he was in a bad mood at the time and he apologized for his reaction to the team’s performances. He said he’s looking forward to the contest and thinks it’ll be quite an interesting one.

Beckenbauer also raised eyebrows recently when he criticized the Premier League for having too many foreign-born players and saying the England team is suffering from it. Some people thought this an odd thing to say for the German great, considering that Germany strikers Cacau was born in Brazil, and Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski were both born in Poland.

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