Weekly Highlights: 2010 World Cup qualifiers take place while Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United grab points
By admin at 10 October, 2008, 4:48 am
Last weekend saw some brilliant football matches, but for the players and fans it is now time to turn their attention to the International Qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup, which will be played this Saturday, with the majority of the top teams in the world all ready to play for their country in desperate hope of getting through to the finals.
This week’s Premier League fixtures were played out brilliantly, with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all on form to take three points each. Arsenal, however, didn’t do so well against Sunderland. Roy Keane’s side played brilliantly throughout the game to shut down Arsenal’s attacking system, defending well and holding the game to a draw which ended with one goal a piece. Arsene Wenger admitted that his team lacked sharpness, but also claimed that “Sunderland just tried to defend for ninety minutes”, adding that they “often had ten men behind the ball”. Wenger was clearly unhappy with the style of play that Sunderland used, but other teams will take note and perhaps use the same tactics as the northern side. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/
Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson will be much happier with their result though, playing against Blackburn at Ewood Park and winning by two goals to nil. In other games, Chelsea beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Stamford Bridge; Liverpool beat Manchester City after coming back from 2-0 down to win the game by three goals to two and Hull continued their winning streak at the expense of Tottenham, leaving the newly promoted team in third place! Newcastle got just their first point of the season by drawing against Everton. West Brom beat Fulham 1-0 while Wigan lost against Middlesborough, with Bolton and Portsmouth beating West Ham and Stoke City respectively.
The results this week mean that Chelsea lead the table on goal difference, tied on seventeen points with Liverpool, and, much to everyone’s surprise, Hull City are in third place. Manchester United have finally crawled out of the bottom half of the table, and they now sit in eighth place. http://www.premierleague.com/
There will be no Premier League fixtures played this weekend due to the 2010 World Cup qualifiers that will take place this Saturday, with England playing at Wembley against Kazakhstan in the Group 6 fixture. It seems, unfortunately, that John Terry will not be available to captain his home nation due to a back problem (although there is still a possibility), but Wayne Rooney, who suffered an injury against Blackburn, should be fit to play. Rio Ferdinand is expected to captain England, with on form Theo Walcott also expected to start the game. http://www.thefa.com/England/
In other games, Ukraine play Croatia in Group 6, while the home nation’s games include Scotland playing Norway in Group 9, Slovenia against Northern Ireland in Group 3, and Wales facing Liechtenstein in Group 4. The managers of Scotland and Northern Ireland have both admitted that they are confident that their sides will cruise to victory, but Liechenstein’s midfielder, Burgmeier, said that his team are hoping to keep a clean sheet.http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/
No comments yet.