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Freddie Ljungberg's pre-match warning that Sweden should not understimate Malta proved irrelevant (or crucial) as they ended up winning 7-0 in their opening WC qualifier on Saturday. Freddie scored 2 second half goals, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (himov the extraordinary flicked goal in Portugal in the summer) scored a first half hattrick.
No-one would expect England to get off to such an emphatic start to a qualifying campaign, and only a fool would be surprised by the 2-2 draw in Austria. The second goal in particular has been put down to a keeping error by David James, but the way the defence backed off from the goalscorer for so long and just let him have a pop was shocking. Wasn't the fault of the only Arsenal representative on the pitch, though. Ashley Cole was on the other side of the pitch. He had another decent game, building on the superb performances in Portugal where if it weren't for Rooney's explosive arrival on the scene he'd have been lauded as England's best player (in fact Gordon Strachan has described him as the best in the tournament!). Former Gunner Alex Manninger had a few scary moments in the Austrian goal. He dived on a backpass to give away the free kick that led to England's opener, but I'm not sure he had any choice with Owen right on the spot. Then he got away with handling just outside the box. But he had no chance with England's second and he did make an amazing save in the second half.
Eriksson has been praising Jermaine Pennant's performance in the U21s against Austria on Friday. "He was fantastic, the best player on the pitch". But let's face it, Eriksson is never going to bring Beckham off because he's not playing well enough or because he wants a bit of extra pace on the right. It's not as if he didn't have the option of Wrighty's boy against Austria. So Jermaine's chances are likely to be few and far between, at best.
France got off to a terrible
start to their qualifying campaign with a 0-0 draw at home to Israel. Patrick Vieira did play, his first as captain, and there are no reports of any reaction from his injury. He had an early header saved off the line. Thierry Henry forced a good save and missed a header, but France created too little and missed the target with much of what they did create. Robert Pires came on in the second half.
Spain's friendly against Scotland was abandoned due to floodlight failure. They had just equalised when Raul scored a penalty which had been won by our José Antonio Reyes.
Both our Brazilians started the qualifier against Bolivia, a 3-1 win. Edu came off with quarter of an hour to go, but Gilberto played the full 90.
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