Reuters Soccer Blog
World Soccer views and news
Milan again drawn in Real’s group for Champions League
New Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho will get a quick return to the San Siro but instead of facing former club and champions Inter Milan, it’s another double header with AC Milan for the Spaniards like last year.
Chelsea’s Didier Drogba can look forward to a trip to old haunt Marseille and Arsenal will have a speedy reunion with ex-striker Eduardo who now plays for Shakhtar Donetsk.
Holders Inter, who can boast UEFA keeper of the year Julio Cesar, defender of the year Maicon, midfielder of the year Wesley Sneijder and forward of the year Diego Milito, have been drawn with Werder Bremen and debutants Tottenham Hotspur.
A battle of Britain between Manchester United, of course managed by a Scot, and Rangers promises some fireworks while Barcelona will probably be the happiest of the top seeds with their easy-looking group.
What do you reckon? Group G is probably the proverbial “group of death”. How many European Cups between Milan, Real and Ajax?? Come on, put that calculator away!
The other groups are somewhat low-key but there’s bound to be some cracking surprises like always.
Euro 2012 qualifying draw throws up England v Wales
The Euro 2012 qualifying draw in Warsaw got off to a mixed start with a less than tuneful performance from a Polish boyband.
However, when we finally reached the main event, those famous coloured balls did not disappoint with Andriy Shevchenko (who surely should have been voting in Ukraine’s election) helping dish out some fabulous encounters like England v Wales. Germany, Turkey and Austria are in the same group while Denmark, Norway and Iceland will also all meet.
Here’s the full draw. What do you reckon? England in the group of death? Interestingly, Armenia were switched from the same group as Azerbaijan on political grounds.
Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
Group B: Russia, Slovakia, Ireland, Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra
Group C: Italy, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands
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england fans we have a good team. lets enjoy the world cup and support our team. lets not expect miracles from them. we not winning the wolrd cup, lets forget that and enjoy . u then never konw what can happen. however if we expect miracles from teh lads they ll just drop under pressure.
Live World Cup draw blog on Friday – please join in
Just a heads up we will be running a live World Cup draw blog on this site from around 1630 GMT on Friday so feel free to join in the fun.
Which seeded teams will be the unlucky ones to get France or Portugal? Will hosts South Africa get a fortunate draw?
No doubt we’ll touch on referees, handballs, security worries, African hopes for a first title etc etc.
I’m not as beautiful as South African actress Charlize Theron, who is hosting the draw in Cape Town, but hey you can’t have everything…
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France miss out on being World Cup seeds
France, winners in 1998 and finalists last time, will not be one of the eight top seeds at next June’s World Cup.
FIFA said the decision was based on world rankings and had nothing to do with Thierry Henry’s handball.
Just looking at the pots, a very weak-looking group could emerge from Friday’s draw.
South Africa, North Korea, Paraguay, Slovenia anyone?
Then again… Italy, USA, Ivory Coast, France could be a nightmare for all!
would have been amazing to see ireland in the draw. imagine playing england, regardless or result would have been great.
All the Euro 2012 qualifying Games will be streamed live at http://www.WorldCupTV.org 12:22