Soccer Blog|Football News, Reviews, Quizzes

A loss to Russia away means that England’s dreams of European qualification are now hanging by a thread. The race in Group E has come down to three teams- Croatia, England and Russia, out of which only two can qualify. Four minutes of madness at the Luzhniki Stadium made what seemed to be three points sealed into nothing at all. And if Russia and Croatia have anything to say, Steve McLaren could become the first English manager since Graham Taylor to fail to qualify for a major international event.
Result : Russia 2-1 England ( Roman Pavyluchenko*2/ Wayne Rooney)

(more…)

Saturday night was witness to some crucial games in European qualifying. Here are the results from those games.

Group A :

Armenia 0-0 Serbia

Poland 3-1 Kazakhstan ( Ebi Smolarek*3/ Dmitriy Byakov)

A hattrick from Racing Santander forward Smolarek sees the Poles take all three points  and retain their spot at the top of Group A.

Azerbaijan 0-2 Portugal ( Bruno Alves, Hugo Almeida)

(more…)

Chelsea and England left back Ashley Cole might miss his country’s crucial Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia on the 17th of October in Moscow. The former Arsenal defender suffered an ankle injury in yesterday night’s game against Estonia, which the Three Lions won 3-0 thanks to goals from Shaun Wright Philips and Wayne Rooney and an own goal from Taavi Rahn

(more…)

Players from African, Carribean and Pacific countries will no longer be considered as non EU by the Spanish La Liga. This is in accordance with the Cotonu accord, signed by the European Union and the ACP ( African, Carribean, Pacific States) in Benin in June 2000.

Spain has a rule which allows domestic clubs to sign only four players of non European nationality. Further, only three players can be named in the squad for a game. The move will allow for more South American talent to flow in, as Africans will no longer be considered as non European. Previously, if you had to free up a spot occupied by an African, you would have to wait till he acquired Spanish nationality.

(more…)

England have announced their squad for their two European Championship qualifying games against Russia and Estonia. The game against Estonia is at Wembley on October 13 and the game against the Russians is in Moscow on October 17. Michael Carrick misses out due to hs injury in the Roma game. Other absentees due to one reason or the other include Man United’s Owen Hargreaves, Tottenham’s Darren Bent and Wigan’s Emile Heskey. The squad for the two games is given below

(more…)

Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick is expected to be out for close to six weeks after fracturing his right elbow in the Old Trafford club’s 1-0 win over AS Roma in the Champions League. The ex West Ham and Tottenham star now joins fellow midfielders Owen Hargreaves and Darren Fletcher on the injury list, leaving veteran Paul Scholes as the only fit midfielder available for selection ahead of the game against the Latics on Saturday.

Carrick will miss the following games

(more…)

This is the second quiz in the Premiership series, and specifically focuses on the 2007-2008 season. The first quiz ( was a general Premiership one) in the series can be found here

As usual, the answers are in Rot 13 format. The questions will be added as the season moves along.

1.) What was the first game played in the 2007-2008 season?

(more…)