Match schedule draw for European Groups 2 and 5

[Mislav]

A draw to determine the fixture list for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ preliminary campaigns of European Groups 2 and 5 will take place in Zagreb, Croatia on 30 January (16:00 CET), the eve of the XXXII Ordinary UEFA Congress.

As the respective member associations of Group 2 (Greece, Israel, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova and Switzerland) and Group 5 (Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia, Spain and Turkey) were unable to come to an agreement concerning their respective fixture lists, the draw will assign the home and away matches within a schedule spanning from September 2008 to October 2009.

Groups 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 all came to collective agreements on their respective schedules and FIFA has thus approved and finalised these fixture lists, which can be found in detail on FIFA.com. Group 9 (FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway and Scotland) also agreed in principal upon their fixture lists, although due to a possible amendment, FIFA will formally confirm the group’s schedule in the coming days.

[Box]

Steve McClaren remains convinced the 'only way is up' for his England successor Fabio Capello.

Following England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008, McClaren was sacked the day after the 3-2 home defeat to Croatia.

He was replaced by Capello, with the Italian due to take charge of his first game in next month's friendly with Switzerland.

The so-called 'golden generation' has yet to deliver, but McClaren feels the current England squad can still succeed.

McClaren insists Capello has taken on the job at the ideal time and feels the future is bright for his replacement.

"I think Capello is coming into a fantastic situation, where the game in England is at its lowest," said McClaren in The Sun.

"There are no expectations. So the only way for the team and for the players can be up."

[Ifka]

Slaven Bilic, the coach who knocked England out of the European Championship, is tipping Croatia to do it again in the World Cup, despite the appointment of Fabio Capello.

Bilic, who will remain in charge of Croatia until this summer at least, believes that Capello will be powerless to improve England’s chances against his team when they meet again in Zagreb on September 10. As well as predicting a repeat of the 2-0 scoreline from October 2006, he also believes that Steve McClaren, Capello’s predecessor, was unfairly made a scapegoat for England’s failings against a superior team.

“It’s easier to say that the manager was to blame rather than saying that you weren’t very good,” Bilic, the former West Ham United and Everton defender, told The Times. “The same thing happened with the WAGs in Germany [during the World Cup finals in 2006]. The easy thing to do is point the finger at McClaren, so the whole story became, ‘It was all down to him – if we’d had Fabio Capello, we’d have been top.’ Everyone did that, even the players.

“So I don’t know if you were panicking, but you decided to go for the best and that is why you have now got Capello. But that does not mean Croatia are not still the better team. Capello is a great coach. In Croatia, if someone comes and sits at your table and after 20 minutes he is telling you all the systems and the tactics, then we will say, ‘Who do you think you are, Capello?’ Not José Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson or Marcello Lippi, he is regarded as better than all of them. Absolutely the best. Yet he cannot do everything.

“When my players are playing in a big game against England, for the four weeks before the match that game is in their heads. It is all they talk to each other about and I talk to them, too. But your players don’t have time to think about Croatia. It is Arsenal on Saturday, then Barcelona next week.

“That is one of the main reasons your football is like it is. If you have the best league in Europe, there is a danger that you won’t have a great national team because the club game becomes more important. And for the best league in the world you need the best players – and that makes another problem because your best young players do not play.

“I like David Bentley [the Blackburn Rovers winger], he is top class, and Gabriel Agbonlahor at Aston Villa, but the difference is they are playing first-team football now. But you look at the English teams that win your FA Youth Cup and you will see how few get the chance. There was a great Arsenal team I kept reading about, but in the end so many of those players had to leave the club to play. That wouldn’t happen in Croatia.

“I didn’t play Luka Modric, Eduardo [da Silva] and Vedran Corluka because they played for my under21s, I did it because they played regularly for Dynamo Zagreb. They were involved in the Uefa Cup all the time.”

Bilic is convinced that Croatia remain too strong for England, particularly two of the players making a big impression in the Barclays Premier League – Eduardo, the Arsenal striker, and the versatile Corluka at Manchester City. “I think Corluka is the best full back in the world right now,” Bilic said. “Better than [Daniel] Alves [of Seville], better than Ashley Cole.

“They are great players, but Corluka can play in midfield, he can play like a centre half. There are some full backs that are great defenders but cannot attack, or good in attack but weaker in defence. Corluka is good everywhere, every part of his game. He is the best right now, I know it.

“As for Eduardo, he is unbelievable. It took him four months to look at home for Arsenal because he didn’t play at the start, but now whenever he plays, he scores. He is a brilliant player. That is why it will be tough for England again. We have a great team and a great chance. We can play anybody and believe we can win.”