Belarus v. England

Belarus v. England

Will be live on ESPN Thursday morning, coverage starting at 7.25.

england will win 10-0 and be boo'd off the pitch

Well, the game is in Minsk, so it wouldn't be that surprising...

No Terry, so I wonder if Upson will start after his less than convincing performance on the weekend. No Ashley Cole, so do we play Wayne Bridge - who has apparently played all of 7 minutes of football this season - or Lescott at left back?

get Michael Turner and Andy Dawson in!! 

Nice skills from Rooney and a typical Gerrard strike. That should settle us down early.

Then again, it might just spur on Belarus to a period of sustained pressure.

Bugger. Nice move for the equaliser though with a great build-up.

Belarus defend in numbers and attack in numbers. We seem to be outnumbered at both ends of the pitch. Surely that means we need to change our formation?

At least it's calmed down since it went 1-1. Pretty even now and we're starting to give their keeper some work to do - even if it's not testing him with anything particularly difficult.

Just as a side note, Croatia is 2-0 up over Andorra at HT. Olic and Rakitic with goals.

And Spain is losing in Belgium at the moment...

Wow, Belgium aren't that good at the moment either. Hang on - Spain have equalised.

Heskey sets up Rooney. That's the second bit of good play by Heskey. In the first half, Rooney headed wide when I thought he should have scored. This time, it's played to Rooney's feet and he finishes. Hopefully we can weather the Belarusian reaction this time.

Wright-Phillips on for Walcott.

Crouch on for Heskey. Not sure about that - Heskey has been good today.

Rooney again. This time a simple passing move from Bridge and Gerrard puts him through. I can relax a little now. Belarus don't seem to be playing with the same energy they had in the first half.

 I like football.

Yep, I think Belarus aren't the bogey team I thought they'd be. They have a few good players, and can press well, but don't look like they can sustain it for the whole game.
England's been pretty comfortable in the second in all honesty. I think if we don't do anything stupid, the second place should be ours quite comfortably, and if England slip up and give us an opportunity for first...we'll deal with that if it happens.

Croatia 4-0 over Andorra, FT. 2 goals for Rakitic, Olic and Modric one each. Modric missed a penalty in the first half too.

Gerrard hits the post when he really should have finished. Okay, he was off balance at a wee angle, but it was a pretty simple one. Oh well.

Another side note - the Welsh are still holding on bravely in Deutschland. 20 to go there.

Scheiser. Trochowski, 1-0 Krauts. About 15 to go.

1-0 to Krauts in the end. Ireland beat Cyprus 1-0, Northern Ireland beat San Marino 4-0.

Scotland didn't play.

3-0 to the Training Cones. Tough first half, but the superior technical ability of the cones showed in the second half.

England played well, were pretty efficient and scored some decent goals to say the least. I was rather impressed by Belarus in the 1st half they played some stunning football but faded in the 2nd which is probably to be expected.

Portugal have gloriusly held out the might of 10-men Albania to get a famous 0-0 draw in Braga (Portugal).

Quite possibly the greatest result in the history of Portuguese football.el grapadura2008-10-17 13:48:08

You guys played Romania yet?