England begin life without stalwart John Terry on Friday but San Marino are the perfect opponents for his yet unknown replacement to ease his way into the centre back's boots with all the goals expected at the other end.
Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has apologised to English Football Association chairman David Bernstein for a Twitter insult he aimed at the FA last week and is free to play for England against San Marino on Friday.
Harry Redknapp will leave his role as Tottenham Hotspur manager, the club said on Thursday, bringing to an end a successful four-year spell with the English Premier League side.
Craig Shakespeare is the bookmakers' favourite to succeed Claudio Ranieri as manager of Leicester City after taking charge of Monday's impressive 3-1 victory over Liverpool.
Following is a match by match look at the English Premier League's weekend fixtures
Germany central defender Jerome Boateng has questioned whether England have enough quality to excel at the European Championship that will commence in France this week.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says his team will not be daunted when they attempt to clinch a place in the Champions League at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday against a side playing their last match under England-bound coach Roy Hodgson.
Manchester United teenage striker Marcus Rashford is all set to sign a new lucrative long-term deal with the club.
England looked nothing like the disciplined team Roy Hodgson is trying to build but inspired by substitute Theo Walcott they beat Sweden 3-2 in a thrilling Euro 2012 Group D match.
Harry Redknapp was seemingly on the verge of scaling the highest peak in English soccer but, just six weeks later, he has been brought down to earth with a bump after being jettisoned as manager of Tottenham Hotspur.
France and England battled to a 1-1 stalemate in their opening Euro 2012 Group D match on Monday after Joleon Lescott's opener for England was cancelled out by Samir Nasri.
France have a long unbeaten record to protect as they seek to confirm their renaissance under coach Laurent Blanc by winning Group D to sweep into the quarter-finals at Euro 2012.
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has said he fears his England career is over after being overlooked for Euro 2012 by manager Roy Hodgson.
England and Russia are the big beasts of Group B and, though each would love a winning start when they meet on Saturday, the fear of losing could well become all-pervading and lead to a cagey encounter. With games against Wales and Slovakia to come, and the potential for three teams to qualify with two guaranteed, a point at the Velodrome might look a very useful result in a couple of weeks. England, on the back of winning all 10 qualifiers, not to mention a rare victory in Germany in a friendly, start favourites and will expect to make the running in front of a 60,000 crowd that will be predominantly behind them.
England's third choice goalkeeper John Ruddy has been ruled out of Euro 2012 after breaking a finger in training, the Football Association said on Friday.
Peter Odemwingie scored a hat-trick as West Bromwich Albion triumphed 5-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday to move further away from danger and leave their beleaguered local rivals inside the Premier League drop zone.
Mohammed Haneef, a doctor of Indian origin based in Australia, who was wrongfully accused of terrorism, has struck a 'substantial' compensation deal with the Australian government, reports claimed on Tuesday.
For all the positives that England can take from their performance against Russia in their opening Euro 2016 game there remains the worrying issue that their sophisticated modern defenders remain vulnerable to the most basic of attacking ploys -- a long punt into the box.
IMAGES from the English Premier League matches played on Sunday
When England fans sang about '30 years of hurt' at Euro '96 they had high hopes of ending the pain with a first trophy since the 1966 World Cup but 20 years on from that agonising near miss there is precious little optimism in the air.
Sunderland have given permission to the Football Association (FA) to speak to manager Sam Allardyce about the vacant England post, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.
New manager Kenny Dalglish was again unable to deliver the Midas touch as Blackpool beat Liverpool 2-1 at Bloomfield Road on Wednesday to complete a remarkable Premier League double over the 18-times champions. The victory lifted Blackpool to ninth with 28 points while Liverpool, who brought in interim appointment Dalglish on Saturday to replace Roy Hodgson, are 13th on 25 after their eighth defeat in 11 away games.
Following is a match by match look at the English Premier League's weekend fixtures:
Denmark midfielder Christian Poulsen was reunited with former manager Roy Hodgson on Thursday when he agreed a three-year contract with Liverpool.
Liverpool ensured it was an unhappy return for former manager Gerard Houllier with a comfortable 3-0 Premier League win over Aston Villa at Anfield on Monday.
Carlos Vela scored an injury-time equalizer to give West Bromwich Albion a 1-1 draw with Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in a typically passionate Black Country derby on Sunday.
Germany central defender Jerome Boateng has questioned whether England have enough quality to excel at next month's European Championship. Despite having the world's richest league, England go into the competition in France having not won a major tournament since landing the 1966 World Cup on home soil. "England beat us 3-2 in Berlin (in March) but I do not know if in matters of quality and consistency they have enough for an entire tournament," Boateng told German Railway DB Mobil magazine.
IMAGES from the EPL matches played on Sunday.
Barcelona have agreed a transfer fee with Liverpool for Javier Mascherano and the Argentine midfielder is expected in Spain for a medical this weekend, the clubs said on Friday.
Liverpool will be without key duo Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres for Thursday's Europa League playoff second leg away to Trabzonspor.
Midfielder Joe Cole was given the chance to rekindle his career on Monday when he joined Liverpool after being released by Chelsea in May.
For the first time in the seven-year history of the new Wembley, the arena was less than half full for an England international as 40,181 underwhelmed fans witnessed a familiar old diet of mostly turgid, uninspiring fare from Roy Hodgson's World Cup failures, enlivened mainly by the sparky contribution of Raheem Sterling.
Chelsea's Didier Drogba proved Arsenal's nemesis again on Sunday when he scored the opening goal in the champions' 2-0 win over their London rivals which stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League. Blackpool also had an afternoon to remember, with a shock 2-1 win at Liverpool, which left Roy Hodgson's mis-firing side in the bottom three.
England beat France 2-0 in an emotional friendly at Wembley on Tuesday when more than 70,000 fans paid tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks with English fans roaring out a spine-tingling rendition of the visitors' national anthem.
Goals from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli gave Gareth Southgate's side a deserved 2-0 last-eight win over Sweden on Saturday, and they must now prepare to take on Croatia in three days time for a spot in the World Cup final.
Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, who was wrongly detained in Australia for alleged terror links, has cancelled his temporary Australian visa. Haneef is believed to have cancelled the temporary business visa on August 17 to unlock the superannuation contributions made before he was wrongly accused of supporting terrorism.
Losing striker Jamie Vardy to Arsenal could spark an exodus of players from Leicester City, former defender Gerry Taggart has said, adding that the move could be catastrophic for the Premier League champions. Arsenal tabled a bid for Vardy before he left for the European Championship in France with the rest of England's squad on Monday, according to British media reports. The 29-year-old was the joint second-highest scorer in the English top-flight last season and Arsenal's bid comes at an uncomfortable time for England, whose manager Roy Hodgson has banned players' agents from the team hotel in Chantilly to avoid his players being distracted. "If Vardy goes then one or two others might want to leave as well," Taggart, who made over 100 appearances for Leicester, told the BBC. "For the good of the whole team and the club it is important Vardy stays."
England hailed as heroes after World Cup heartache
Soccer highlights from across the globe.
Soccer fans mock as England dumped out of Europe twice in a week.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances