Everyone's more interested in the transfer window at the moment, but here it is anyway. England face Malta tomorrow and Slovakia on Monday in two World Cup Qualifiers. Two wins would basically seal it and it's no less than what's expected. Squad: Keepers: Jack Butland (Stoke City), Joe Hart (West Ham United, on loan from Manchester City), Tom Heaton (Burnley), Jordan Pickford (Everton). Defenders: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Aaron Cresswell (West Ham United), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Michael Keane (Everton), Harry Maguire (Leicester City), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Tottenham Hotspur), Kyle Walker (Manchester City). Midfielders: Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathaniel Chalobah (Watford), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United), Jake Livermore (West Bromwich Albion), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City). Forwards: Jermain Defoe (AFC Bournemouth), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal). Scotland travel to Lithuania for tomorrow's game, then face Malta at Hampden on Monday. If they were to beat the two bottom sides in the group, then it would put them right back in it. Anything less and they're pretty much finished. Northern Ireland travel to San Marino before facing the Czech Republic. They're currently second in their group to Germany, which is pretty impressive. A win and at least a draw would put them in a very strong position. Wales host Austria on Saturday before heading out to Moldova on Tuesday. It's a very tight group and both sides are below them currently, so they need to win both games, really. Ireland are one place above them and they have a trip to Georgia before facing the group leaders Serbia. That could be a massively important fixture in deciding who tops the table. We have a load of players representing their countries around the world and I'll leave that to you to fill in. Hugo Lloris will start us off tonight with France as they face the Netherlands in Paris. The Stade de France will see Dick Advocaat return to the helm, following Blind's mid-campaign sacking. Both sides currently trail Sweden in Group A, so it could get quite heated.
This season I am quite happy for Walker to play in both matches, even if he picks up a slight knock in the first
It's all going a bit Spursy for South Korea right now, as their 0-0 draw against ten-man Iran has left them needing to win their final matcch against Uzbekistan in order to claim the second automatic qualification spot, as any other result could see Syria pip them to the second automatic place and dump them into a playoff against one of Saudi Arabia/Australia/UAE for the final AFC spot. ...since I'm on the subject, if already-qualified Japan could batter Saudi Arabia 6-0 while Iraq conspire to lose 3-0 to the UAE, that would guarantee the World Cup won't feature the ISIS-funding, 9/11-planning, refugee-murdering, human-rights abusing allies appearing in the tournament, which sounds like a win/win to me.
Belgium having a prison romance at Gibraltar's expense, with them 6-0 up at half time I like to think it's related to having a vaguely sensible starting formation for the first time in years...
Belgium being down to ten doesn't seem to have phased them, as it's now 7-0. Just how bad are Gibraltar when Belgium's right back is on for a hat trick?
No doubt the media will be banging on about Lukaku's hat trcik against Gibraltar, and ignore the fact it took him until an 84th minute penalty to do it - unlike right back Thomas Meunier, who scored his third in the 67th minute. Bottle job of the night goes to Bosnia, who were 2-0 up at half time against Cyprus only to lose 3-2 Also congratulations to both Luxembourg and the Faroes, with the Grand Duchy winning 1-0 against Belarus, while the Faroes scoring against Portugal has to be some king of multiplier so they actually won 10-5.
FFS Syria? their country in serious conflict, thousands dying and they can send a football team to play in a tournament. I like football but come on! While Saudi Arabia are so uncivilised I don't know where to start.
Marcus Edwards for the U20s yesterday evening, in their 3-0 win over the Netherlands: I'm glad that the ref didn't stop it, but if that defender had edged any closer, then he could've taken it himself.
Some really bizarre team selections and results in the latest round of COMEBOL fixtures Columbia had both James Rodriguez and Davinson Sanchez sit on the bench for 90 minutes in their 0-0 draw away to Venezuela Argentina had Aguero benched all game while Fazio and Otamendi played 90 minutes in their 0-0 draw away to Uruguay in a match Argentina had to win Alexis Sanchez taught his Chile teammates how to play like Arsenal as they conspired to lose 3-0 to Paraguay at home, letting Argentina keep pace in spite of their flatering qualifying campaign