England miss Euro ’08 bus

England hopes of a place in Euro 2008 finals disappeared at Wembley yesterday when they lost 2-3 to Croatia after fighting back from conceding two early goals to pull level. Subsequently, head coach Steve MaClaren was sacked.
Instead of hanging to the point that would have secured their place in the tournament co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, they conceded a third goal 13 minutes from time, allowing Russia to steal into second place in Group E and qualify with Croatia.
It was the first time since 1984 that England missed out on the European Championship finals and the first time since the 1994 World Cup that they failed to qualify for a major tournament.
Former England captain David Beckham, a second-half substitute said, “This is a big setback, not just for the players but the nation… We have to show the English way which is to fight back.”
The home crowd was stunned after eight minutes when Scott Carson, controversially chosen in goal after making his debut in a friendly only last week, allowed a speculative shot by Niko Kranjcar to skid off him and into the net, and it looked all over when Ivica Olic doubled the lead six minutes later.
England pulled level with a 56th-minute Frank Lampard penalty followd by a great goal by striker Peter Crouch, who expertly controlled a cross from half-time substitute Beckham before volleying the equalizer.
Croatia, though, continued to look dangerous and won it in the 77th-minute when substitute Mladen Petric lashed in a shot from the edge of the box.
The Croatians will be among the second seeds when the draw for the finals is made in Lucerne, Switzerland on December 2.

Bolton hold Bayern Munich 2-2

Struggling Bolton Wanderers held European soccer aristocrats Bayern Munich to a 2-2 draw in UEFA Cup Group F on Thursday. Bolton, second from the bottom in the English Premier League , shocked Bayern with an eight minute opener in Munich, the first goal in five years for defender Ricardo Gardner.
Bayern, 9past winners of four European Cups, a cup Winner’s Cup and a UEFA Cup, replied with goals from Germany striker Lukas Podolski either side of half time.
But Kevin Davies made it a night to savour for new coach Gary Megson with an 82nd minute strike against the run of play.
Bayern stay on top of the group with four points from two games.
Aris Salonika jumped to second after beating Red Star Belgrade 3-0 and Bolton are third a point behind.

Arsenal Face Action

Three season ticket holders at English Premier League side Arsenal claim the club could be in breach of contract for allegedly allowing racist chanting at their stadium, a report said. The Independent newspaper said the trio had written to the club chairman, claiming that the use of the words “Yid” and “Yiddos” to refre to fans of Tottenham Hotspur broke human right laws.

Man U, Arsenal advance

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have very little nice to say to each other and little in common but for once they shared the headlines for the right reasons as Manchester United and Arsenal became the first clubs to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Their means of qualifying like their managers, couldn’t have been more contrasting as united whipped once proud Ukrainian outfit Dynamo Kiev 4-0 , while a second-string Arsenal side drew 0-0 away yesterday at Slavia Prague – a team they trounced 7-0 a fortnight ago.

Gerard Pique nodded United ahead with his first goal for the club and Carlos Tevez scored his first in the Champions League after a darting run hand one-two with Wayne Rooney.

Record Win for Liverpool

English giants Liverpool registered a record win in he Champions League group stage, thrashing sorry Besiktas 8-0 in their clash at Anfield.
“The Reds” showed no stage fright whatsoever in a must-win match as led by a hat-trick by Yossi Benayoun, they trod all over a side they lost to a fortnight ago and kept themselves in with a fighting chance of making it to the knockout stage.
While Benayoun took the scoring honors of the night’s Champions League action, the seemingly ageless 34-yr old Italian forward Filippo Inzaghi went level with Gerd “Das Bomber” Muller in the history of the European cup scoring charts as his double in the 3-0 away win for AC Milan over Ukrainian outfit Shakthar Donetsk liftem him to 62 goals.

Arsenal Stay Unbeaten

Willam Gallas scored a injury-time equalizer for Arsenal to draw 2-2 with Manchester United and stay unbeaten in the English Premier League.

Gallas’ shot crossed the line before it was pushed out by Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin ven der Sar, with the linesman awarding the goal.

“The referee interrupted the game and I thought he had given a free kick against us because the wall was in,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 83^rd minute to give Manchester United 2-1 lead, Gallas had scored an own goal in first-half injury time before Arsenal leveled through Cesc Fabregas in the 48^th.

Arsenal stay on top on goals scored with 27 points – the same as United – but the Gunners have played one game less.

Chelsea, Arsenal in League Cup quarters

Frank Lampard scored his third goal in injury time to give defending champion Chelsea a 4-3 victory over Leicester in the League Cup Wednesday, while Arsenal also moved into the quarter finals of England’s second-tier cup competition with a 3-0 win at Sheffield United.
Chelsea trailed twice against Leicester, but Andriy Shevchenko and Lampard both scored in the last three minutes for the victory.