ITV have reached an agreement with Setanta Sports to show highlights of Englands remaining away 2010 World Cup Qualifiers!
Highlights of England’s away games against Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine will be shown shortly after the games finish. This has been a long awaited decision as many fans have not been able to catch up on the game due to Setantas hold on the games.
It certainly is a Super Sunday today for Premiership football with a lunch time Midlands derby between West Brom and Aston Villa quickly followed by Chelsea V Man U at 2pm and with another 3 Premiership games this Sunday I will be certainly watching MOTD 2 tonight at 10pm.
West Brom Villa was a good to game to start the day with, with Villa scoring twice in the first half through Carew and Abonglohor before James Morrison pulled one back for West Brom just as I was finishing off my full English.
Villa hit the post twice in the 2nd half and West Brom probed with some good football but there were no more goals.
Chelsea against Man United is one of the BIG games in the Premiership and could go someway to shaping the title race as a Chelsea victory would see them open up a 9 point gap on United, although it is early days yet. The big question from Chelsea is if Drogba would start and from United would Ronaldo start after coming on in mid week?
The answer is both players begin on the bench and Deco picks up an injury in the warm up and is replaced by Ballack. The game doesn't disappoint and after a lively opening Park gives United a 1-0 lead after 18 minutes and classic high octane Premiership battle continued with United going in 1-0 up at half time.
Chelsea haven't been beat at home since February 2004 and they were not going to relinquish that record to United. Drogba replaced Maloude at half time but it was another substitute, Kalou who headed in the equaliser ten minutes from time. There was a bizarre end to the game where both Andy Gray and Martyn Tyler were left bemused as to whether the ref had blown for full time or not but a decent Sunday spectacle and I'm looking forward to MOTD2 with Man City putting 6 past Portsmouth and 4 goals shared at the KC stadium in a 2-2 draw between Hull and Everton there will be some good games on there tonight.
Theo Walcott was England’s hat-trick hero last night as England beat Croatia 4-1 in their World Cup qualifying tie in Zagreb. The 19-year-old opened the scoring, and despite damaging one of his boots in the first half returned to find the net again in the second half of the match.
Wayne Rooney scored England’s other goal, with Mario Mandzukic scoring the consolation goal for Croatia. "Tonight was a bit of revenge. It was a great performance and a great result," Rooney said. "You always enjoy a 4-1 victory, especially after what Croatia did to us in the last qualifying campaign."
England had lost twice against Croatia in qualifying for June's European championship, including a 3-2 defeat at Wembley in November.
Englands next game will be Belarus v England on 15th October, 8.00pm Setanta Sports 1.
This was not a performance to strike fear into Croatian hearts, but as England know very well it could have been an awful lot worse. The first half saw them at their worst, many of the fans starting to boo when passes went astray, but at least they switched things around and brightened up in the second half. England finally overcame a very-well organised but highly defensive Andorra team, winning 2-0 thanks to goals by Joe Cole both in the second half. England will be in trouble if they perform as cluelessly in Croatia, though the two games will be nothing like each other. England travel to Croatia on Wednesday which promises to be a much tougher and probably far more exciting game of football.
England will play Croatia at 8.00pm on Setanta Sports 1, find more information at www.footballonthetv.co.uk
The soap opera that is Newcastle United continues as it has just been announced that King Kev has quit the Toon citing differences with Owner Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise over the way they have handle the transfers policy leaving him with "no choice but to resign" after only 8 months back in charge.
Next Newcastle Manager Odds
Gus Poyet - 5/2
Dennis Wise - 9/2
Alan Shearer - 11/2
Didier Deschamps - 8/1
David Moyes - 8/1
Glenn Hoddle - 25/1
More odds click here
It can be quiet a struggle to watch all the live football games on tv if you don't have a digital tv sports package and we are all aware of the credit crunch and the need to save that extra £10 a month, so here are 7 ways to get by without:
Englands World Cup Qualifying Campaign kicks off against Minnous Andorra on Saturday 6th September on Setanta Sports 1. There should be a host of goals for England, my prediction will be a 6-0 victory for the three lions, hopefully seeing goals from Rooney, Defoe and a first cap for Jimmy Bullard.
Here's the team........
In Goal:
Robinson (Blackburn), James (Portsmouth), Green (West Ham);
Defence:
Lescott (Everton), Bridge (Chelsea), A Cole (Chelsea), Terry (Chelsea), Brown (Manchester United), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Johnson (Portsmouth), Upson (West Ham);
Midfield:
Barry (Aston Villa), J Cole (Chelsea), Lampard (Chelsea), Bullard (Fulham), Beckham (LA Galaxy), Downing (Middlesbrough), Bentley (Tottenham), Jenas (Tottenham);
Attack:
Walcott (Arsenal), Rooney (Manchester United), Defoe (Portsmouth), Heskey (Wigan).
