Abidal eyes Austria boost

October 12, 2009

Eric Abidal has called on France to beat Austria on Wednesday to set their stall out ahead of a World Cup qualifying play-off.

Saturday’s 5-0 win over the Faroe Islands secured second place and a play-off place for Les Bleus in Group Seven behind Serbia, who beat Romania 5-0 to seal their ticket to South Africa.

Wednesday’s match represents a far stiffer test than the one presented by perennial qualifying minnows the Faroes, but Abidal feels his side can take confidence from their goalscoring exploits.

The Barcelona full-back told fff.fr: “Certainly, when you have matches where you have a lot of chances and can score some goals, that is good for the team and the attackers. It gives them confidence.

“We worked on things in training and it paid off, and we hope it will pay off again on Wednesday. The public were behind us, which helped us feel motivated.”

Despite having second spot already in the bag, Abidal is determined to clinch all three points to keep morale high going into the play-off.

“The match against Austria, we have to win it,” he said.

“The ultimate objective is to qualify but this match will serve as a reference point for our level of quality. Austria are stronger than the Faroes and it will be a useful test for us for the future.

“The objective is to get to the World Cup.”

Abhimanyu Rajput

Tags: attackers, Austria, Barcelona, confidence, eric abidal, faroe, faroe islands, faroes, France, les bleus, match, objective, rajput, reference point, Romania, serbia, South Africa, World Cup

United get chance to put City in their place

September 19, 2009

Manchester United have made a habit of putting would-be challengers in their place over the years but it will be with particular relish that they seek to to cut their neighbours down to size this weekend.

Manchester City’s flaunting of their newly-acquired wealth appears to have got under the skin of everyone at Old Trafford from Sir Alex Ferguson down, providing an intriguing backdrop to the most eagerly awaited derby clash in years.

In their public statements, Ferguson’s players have savoured the prospect of pricking City’s bubble of self-confidence.

“They want to show people they are the kings of the city but they are not there yet,” said Patrice Evra, United’s French defender. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

It would be surprising however if there was not a bit of trepidation in there as well, particularly in the wake of City’s impressive 4-2 win over Arsenal last weekend, which extended their perfect start to the season to four matches.

The derby may have been billed as an important benchmark for the potential of Mark Hughes’s side to break into English football’s Champions League elite, but it will also serve as a reference point for assessing the impact of Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure on United’s ability to win the kind of matches that define seasons.

City’s prospects have not been helped by the fact they could be without over 100 million pounds of striking talent at Old Trafford with Emmanuel Adebayor suspended following his stamp on Robin van Persie last weekend, Robinho and Roque Santa Cruz injured and Carlos Tevez struggling to recover from a knee injury in time to face his former team-mates.

United’s main concern is over the availability of the increasingly injury-prone Rio Ferdinand.

The lunchtime encounter at Old Trafford is one of two pivotal derby encounters on Sunday with league leaders Chelsea entertaining Tottenham later in the day.

Tottenham’s own aspirations of breaking into the top four were put into perspective by the ease with which United overturned an early deficit to win 3-1 at White Hart Lane last weekend, but manager Harry Redknapp does not anticipate morale collapsing in the wake of that setback.

“We played well, got the early goal, but like all champions they came back strongly,” he said. “It’s not a case of sharpening up (for Chelsea). For an hour we played as well as we have all season.”

Chelsea will have Didier Drogba firing on all cylinders after the Ivory Coast striker sat out the midweek win over FC Porto because of a European ban.

After defeats by both Manchester clubs, Arsenal will seek to put their domestic campaign back on track by building on a stirring Champions League fightback in Liege in midweek.

Andrey Arshavin and Robin van Persie, who both missed the 3-2 win in Belgium, are in line for comebacks when Wigan visit the Emirates on Saturday.

Liverpool travel to West Ham on Saturday evening with star striker Fernando Torres having recognised that the Reds have very little room for error after losing two of their opening three league matches.

“We are recovering the confidence now after winning three games in a row,” the Spain forward said.

“We have to keep on like this, but also improve. If we lose points in the coming weeks it will be very difficult to stay at the top come January and February.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Portsmouth travel to Aston Villa still looking for their first point of the season, Bolton entertain Stoke, Sunderland are at Burnley and Hull host Birmingham in what, even at this early stage of the campaign, looks like an important relegation battle.

Australia defender Lucas Neill, signed by Everton this week, may be involved against one of his former clubs, Blackburn, on Sunday, which also sees Wolves entertain Fulham.

Fixtures (1400 GMT unless stated)

Saturday

Arsenal v Wigan, Aston Villa v Portsmouth, Bolton v Stoke, Burnley v Sunderland (1145 GMT), Hull City v Birmingham, West Ham v Liverpool (1630 GMT)

Sunday

Chelsea v Tottenham (1500 GMT), Everton v Blackburn, Manchester Utd v Manchester City (1230 GMT), Wolves v Fulham (1300 GMT)

LONDON (AFP)

Tags: alex ferguson, carlos tevez, challengers, cristiano ronaldo, emmanuel adebayor, former team, knee injury, league leaders, manchester city, Mark Hughes, old trafford, public statements, reference point, rio ferdinand, Robinho, roque santa cruz, self confidence, sir alex ferguson, team mates

Motta wants Deco at Inter

June 30, 2009

Italian club Inter Milan’s midfielder Thiago Motta has revealed that Chelsea’s out of favor Deco would be a great addition to the San Siro club.

Playmaker fell out of favour at Stamford Bridge after a bright start to the season and it is being rumored that, Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho wants to offer him a lifeline with his Italian champions.

Motta, who moved to Inter this summer from Genoa, believes his former Barcelona team-mate would be a great addition to Inter.

“When I played with him (Deco) at Barcelona, you had the best Ronaldinho while Lionel Messi was beginning to shine, but the reference point for everyone was Deco,” said Motta in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.

“He is the most complete midfielder there is. He would be a fantastic reinforcement.”

Deco joined Chelsea last summer from Barcelona for £8million but after a promising start, the Portuguese midfielder failed to live up to the hype and was rarely used in the second half of the campaign.

The 31-year-old is under contract with Chelsea until June 2011.

Written by: Abhimanyu Rajput

Tags: Barcelona, CHELSEA, club inter, deco, English Premier League, favour, Gazzetta, genoa, hype, inter milan, italian champions, italian club, jose mourinho, lifeline, lionel messi, midfielder, Milan, playmaker, portuguese, reference point, reinforcement, ronaldinho, San, san siro, Serie A, stamford bridge, team mate, Thiago Motta

Japan to play Chile, Belgium in World Cup warm-up

May 26, 2009

TOKYO (AFP) – Former Asian champions Japan will tune up for the World Cup qualifiers by playing Chile and Belgium in the three-nation Kirin Cup football tournament this week.

In the Asian final qualifying round Group A, Australia lead the table with four wins and a draw for 13 points, followed by Japan on 11 points and Bahrain on seven points. Uzbekistan and Qatar each have four points.

The top two teams will qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, while the third-placed team will have to survive playoffs.

One more win for Japan will secure qualification.

“It is natural to think we are just one step away from the World Cup, but I’ve seen so many times that the tables can turn before winning. We haven’t got anything yet,” said Japan coach Takeshi Okada.

“We plan to gain our top form through these two games. We are just determined to do our best to beat Uzbekistan in our next game and concentrate on that,” he added.

Japan will play Chile in Osaka on Wednesday and Belgium in Tokyo on Sunday in the Kirin Cup before playing Uzbekistan away on June 6, Qatar at home on June 10 and Australia away on June 17.

Chile and Belgium will play each other in Ichihara, near Tokyo, on Friday, vying for the winners’ prize of 100,000 dollars. The runners-up will receive 50,000 dollars and the third place team will get 10,000 dollars.

“I really wanted to have a game against Chile again since we played them last year,” said Okada, referring to the 0-0 draw the teams played out in his first game after taking over when Bosnian tactician Ivica Osim suffered a stroke in late 2007.

“I was surprised, because they put pressure on us very well. They will be very helpful for us to improve our game.”

Belgium always play solidly, he added, and would be a useful reference point ahead of the qualifiers.

Seven-time World Cup participants Chile have 20 points and are in third place in their group. They trail Paraguay by four points and Brazil by one point, well within an automatic qualification of the top four in the South American round.

Belgium, who have played 11 World Cups, are fourth in their group on seven points behind powerhouse Spain on 18 points, Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 points and Turkey on eight points.