Translated material
Holy place
England returned to Wembley and lost
Big football has returned to the legendary Wembley Stadium. But the England team failed to celebrate this event with a victory. In the first match after the reconstruction of the famous arena, which lasted seven years and cost 762 million pounds, the British lost to the German national team in a friendly match - 1:2. Now Steve McClaren's team will try not to embarrass themselves at Wembley in the first official games: the Israelis will come to London on September 8, and the Russian national team on September 12.In fact, fans could already appreciate the updated Wembley. In the spring, a match between veterans and movie, show business and sports stars took place there, as well as a game between the youth teams of England and Italy. And only after the lawn was tested on “old and young”, the main team of the country entered it. The opponent was selected at a level appropriate to the event - the German national team, which seven years ago beat the English in the closing match of the old Wembley. Several years later, the result did not change at all: the guests again upset the owners at the housewarming party.
Meanwhile, for the England team, at first everything turned out well. Even weakened by injuries to Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney, McClaren's team opened the scoring. Already in the 10th minute, Frank Lampard etched his name into history as the first footballer to distinguish himself at the new Wembley. The midfielder's shot into the near corner was tight and accurate. But the Germans bounced back before the break. First, Kuranyi took advantage of a mistake by British goalkeeper Robinson, who hit the ball in front of him. And shortly before the whistle for the break, Pander again forced the British to capitulate with an accurate long-range strike. In the second half, the coaches of both teams began to experiment, and Guus Hiddink, who had his own scouts at Wembley, has yet to study the possible surprises prepared for him by McClaren.
The England national team coach himself was dissatisfied with the actions of some of his players, namely goalkeeper Robinson, who defended the goal in the first half. “There was no dangerous moment in the situation when Germany equalized. Of course, you can’t be happy when you score goals like that. We made a lot of bad mistakes. And I don’t want to comment on Robinson’s future in the national team,” said McClaren, who found it difficult to answer the question of who he would call up for the matches against Russia and Israel.
The Israeli team, another rival of the Russians in the qualifying group, also lost in their test match. The Belarusian national team, playing its first game under the leadership of Bernd Stange, defeated the Israelis thanks to goals from Vasilyuk and Romashchenko, to which the guests could only respond with Gershon's penalty kick. Whether Israeli head coach Dror Kashtan was dissatisfied with the actions of his team remained unknown: he refused to go to the press conference, fearing for his safety - at Dynamo Minsk there is no underground passage between the locker rooms and the press center.
Meanwhile, the Russians' closest rival, the Macedonian national team, risks being left without a head coach. On the day of the test match with Nigeria, which ended in a goalless draw, reports appeared that Macedonian coach Srečko Katanec could lead Hajduk from Split. An official offer to the Slovenian specialist will be made in the coming days, but he himself has not yet commented on the possibility of changing jobs.
While the rivals of the Russian national team were honing their skills in friendly matches, an official match took place in Group “E”. Finally, the first points were scored by the Estonia team, beating Andorra - 2:1. But the victory was not easy for the Estonians. At the end of the first half, the hosts, who by that time were leading 1:0, were left with ten men - Klavan was sent off from the field. In the minority, the Estonians held the score that suited them until the 87th minute, when Andorran national team forward Feranado Silva equalized the score with his head. But the guests were not able to celebrate their historic draw - in the second minute of stoppage time, the top scorer of the Estonian championship, Zielinski, nevertheless scored the decisive goal. And he was immediately sent off from the field for being too excited about the victory over Andorra.
Of the other official matches, it is worth highlighting the unexpected draw of the Portuguese national team in Yerevan. It was not in vain that Luis Filipe Scolari warned his players that the Armenian national team was capable of much. The hosts confirmed the words of the Brazilian coach, opening the scoring in the 12th minute. And despite the fact that Cristian Ronaldo soon managed to score the return goal, the Armenians could snatch victory until the last moment, like they did against the Polish team a couple of months ago.
The position of the Portuguese in the group could have become threatening if not for the suddenly awakened Belgians. Having lost four matches in a row, the Belgian national team was eliminated from among the candidates for tickets to the final part of the European Championship, but did not refuse the temptation to distribute the first places in its group. Having scored three goals against the Serbs in the first half, the home team relaxed a little, but did not miss the victory.
Matches of the qualifying round of the European Championship 2008. Group "A". Armenia - Portugal - 1:1 (Arzumanyan 12 - Cristiano Ronaldo 37) , Finland - Kazakhstan - 2:1 (A. Eremenko 13, Tainio 61 - Byakov 23) , Belgium - Serbia - 3: 2 (Dembele 10, 88, Mirallas 30 -- Kuzmanovic 73, 90) . Group "D". San Marino - Cyprus - 0:1 (Okkas 54) . Group "E". Estonia - Andorra - 2:1 (Piiroja 34, Zielinski 90 - Silva 87) . Group "F". North Ireland - Liechtenstein - 3:1 (Healy 6, 35, Lafferty 56 - M. Frick 89) .
Friendly matches. Belarus - Israel - 2:1, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Croatia - 3:5, England - Germany - 1:2, Macedonia - Nigeria - 0:0, Brazil - Algeria - 2: 0, Latvia -- Moldova -- 1:2, Ukraine -- Uzbekistan -- 2:1, Norway -- Argentina -- 2:1, Bulgaria -- Wales -- 0:1, Lithuania -- Turkmenistan -- 2: 1, Luxembourg -- Georgia -- 0:0, Denmark -- Ireland -- 0:4, Romania -- Turkey -- 2:0, Iceland -- Canada -- 1:1, Austria -- Czech Republic -- 1: 1, Montenegro - Slovenia - 1:1, Switzerland - Holland - 2:1, Greece - Spain - 2:3, Sweden - USA - 1:0, Albania - Malta - 3: 0, Scotland - South Africa - 1:0, Hungary - Italy - 3:1, Slovakia - France - 0:1.
Group "A"
| 1. Poland | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 15--7 | 19 |
| 2. Finland | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 11--6 | 17 |
| 3. Portugal | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 16--6 | 15 |
| 4. Serbia | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12--7 | 14 |
| 5. Belgium | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 8--12 | 10 |
| 6. Armenia | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4--8 | 8 |
| 7. Kazakhstan | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6--13 | 6 |
| 8. Azerbaijan | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4--17 | 5 |
Group "D"
| 1. Germany | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 29--4 | 19 |
| 2. Czech Republic | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 15--4 | 14 |
| 3. Ireland | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 12--8 | 13 |
| 4. Slovakia | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 16--13 | 9 |
| 5. Wales | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8--9 | 7 |
| 6. Cyprus | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1--16 | 7 |
| 7. San Marino | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1--37 | 0 |
Group "E"
| 1. Croatia | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 16--4 | 17 |
| 2. Israel | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 17--7 | 17 |
| 3. Russia | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 11--1 | 15 |
| 4. England | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 12--2 | 14 |
| 5. Macedonia | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6--7 | 7 |
| 6. Estonia | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2--15 | 3 |
| 7. Andorra | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2--30 | 0 |
Group "F"
| 1. Sweden | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 17--4 | 18 |
| 2. North Ireland | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 13--8 | 16 |
| 3. Spain | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 13--6 | 15 |
| 4. Denmark | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9--5 | 10 |
| 5. Iceland | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5--15 | 4 |
| 6. Liechtenstein | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5--21 | 4 |
| 7. Latvia | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4--7 | 3 |