Croats wary of England out for football revenge

[Freddy Adu]

Croats wary of England out for football revenge


Written by: AFP

	FIFA 2010 football World Cup qualifying draws for the African zone at a ceremony in Durban. England paid the price for their failure to reach Euro 2008 on Sunday when they were drawn with Croatia again in one of the toughest qualifying groups for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

DURBAN, South Africa (AFP) - Croatia coach Slaven Bilic has admitted he would rather have avoided facing an England squad bent on revenge in the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup.

Bilic's talented young squad beat England twice to ensure that they missed out on Euro 2008 and trigger the dismissal of Steve McClaren as manager.

But despite his confidence that he can inflict just as much pain on whoever succeeds McClaren, Bilic admitted he would have preferred to avoid a rematch.

"When I saw the draw, I was saying 'Oh no!'," Bilic said. "Everyone in Croatia was saying 'give us England again' but I wanted to avoid them. It is a very, very hard draw because they are by far the best team from the second pot.

"We are not afraid of them but they have got a terrific team and brilliant players. They should gel and they are going to gel."

England, who were left vulnerable to a tough draw after losing their status as top seeds because of their slide down the world rankings, may have been relieved to have avoided the likes of France, Italy and Germany.

But as well as the clashes with Croatia, whoever succeeds McClaren as manager will also have to prepare his side for difficult matches against 2006 World Cup quarter-finalists Ukraine and gruelling trips to the former Soviet states of Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Brian Barwick, the chief executive of England's Football Association, said the Croatia clashes would offer a new coach with the chance to prove he could improve on McClaren's record.

"The new coach will be in place and his job will be to get a better return out of those Croatia games," Barwick said, while warning that Croatia were not the only opponent England had to worry about.

"It's not just about one team, it is a group and there are banana skins in the group. This is an important time for England -- our elimination was a wake-up call, one of the biggest wake-up calls in the last 20 years.

"We go into every qualifying group expecting and determined to qualify but there's no complacency any more."

Defending champions Italy will begin their quest for a fifth World Cup in a group that contains fast-improving Bulgaria as well as Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro.

"It is a very good draw," admitted Giancarlo Abete, the President of the Italian Federation. "We could not have asked for better. As world champions we should win this group."

France, beaten finalists in Germany last year, expect Romania and Serbia to provide them with their biggest challenges in group seven, which is made up by Lithuania, Austria and the Faroe Islands. "On paper, Romania look like our toughest opponents given the ease with which they qualified for Euro 2008," said head coach Raymond Domenech.

"But it is always going to be complicated with only one team sure to go through in each group."

Greece, the team that leapfrogged England to secure the final place among the top seeds, were rewarded with a place at the head of what looks like the weakest of the groups in the European zone.

The reigning European champions will face Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg.

Scotland, who pushed France and Italy all the way before narrowly missing out on Euro 2008, will be optimistic of their prospects of reaching their first major tournament since the 1998 World Cup after being drawn in the only five-team group in the region.

Although Holland will expect to top the section, the Scots look favourites to claim second place ahead of Norway, Macedonia and Iceland, which would give them a chance of qualifying via a play-off.

Scotland manager Alex McLeish said: "Holland are a cracking side but if we can beat them in Glasgow, and I think we can beat anyone in Glasgow, who knows?"

Dutch coach Marco van Basten acknowledged Scotland were a much-improved side. "I watched their match aginast Italy last week and they were very good and we know they will always fight to the last minute."

Germany's route to South Africa could be blocked by a Russian side that is on an upward curve, while their group also contains Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein.

"Russia will be tough but we must not under-estimate Finland," said assistant coach Hans Flick.

Portugal and Spain also face tough battles to top their groups. The Portuguese have both Sweden and Denmark in their group while Spain must get the better of Turkey and Belgium.

The winners of the nine European groups qualify automatically with the eight best runners-up entering two-leg play-offs to decide the remaining four spots for the region.

There are eight groups of six teams and one with five countries. The best runners-up will be determined on the basis of the number of points won with results against the bottom team discounted in the six-team groups.

[I MaG1KxSkiLLs I]

nice .................

[eurosoccerdaily]

I honestly cannot see Russia beating out Germany over a long qualifying campaign. I'm sure they will split their games and Germany will do better against everyone else than Russia.

The Holland group is quite worrying though. Everyone of those teams can be a big spoiler and Holland might lose out to Norway if they aren't careful.

Can't wait for it to get underway !! Go Oranje !