Italy, Spain and France secured their Euro 2008 passages on
Saturday, but there was heartbreak for Scotland while England's
slim hopes received a major boost from Israel.
After last month's loss in Moscow, England's Euro 2008 fate was
taken out of its hands. But Israel's 2-1 upset of Russia in Tel
Aviv made them masters of their own destiny once again.
A win or draw against Croatia in its final Group E game on
Wednesday will now be enough to see Steve McClaren's team through,
even if Russia beats minnow Andorra as expected.
"It will be a difficult game," McClaren told the Football
Association website.
"But I'm convinced we will get the result we need and will
qualify for Austria and Switzerland.
"It's back in our own hands now and we really need the whole
country to get right behind the team over the next few days.
"We've got to get the result on the pitch on Wednesday, while we
really want the fans to generate another really big Wembley
atmosphere - just as they did against Russia."
While precious new life was breathed into England's campaign,
Scotland's European dream ended in tears as world champion Italy
beat Alex McLeish's men 2-1 at Hampden Park.
That saw the Italians qualifying alongside Group B runners-up
France and left the Scots to rue yet another missed international
competition.
Scotland's hopes of making it through to its first major event
since the 1998 World Cup were cruelly crushed courtesy of Christian
Panucci's injury-time winner.
Luca Toni had fired Italy into a second minute lead but
McLeish's side battled back bravely and deservedly leveled through
captain Barry Ferguson in the second half.
Despite then bombarding Italy in the closing stages it was the
visitor who scored the decisive second goal after the regulation 90
minutes had ended.
A bitterly disappointed McLeish said: "We didn't deserve to
lose. It would have been a long shot if we'd drawn and needed
France to lose to Ukraine, but it wouldn't have been the worst
result.
"For the last 15 minutes we had Italy on the ropes and I thought
we were going to Austria and Switzerland.
"I feel so disappointed for the players and it's very
unfortunate we're not going to the finals but we've given a few of
the big teams a scare on the way."
Italy manager Roberto Donadoni could not hide his elation at the
end but praised the Scottish team and its supporters.
He said: "I'm not going to get philosophical but I just wish
everyone could feel the way I did in that dressing room after the
game.
"It was fantastic for me to celebrate with the players at the
end.
"But the Scottish fans have shown us how to get behind their
team and how to behave before, during and after a game and we
should learn from them."
In Tel Aviv, Elyaniv Barda sent Israel into an early lead with
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov equalizing for Russia on the hour mark before
Israel shocked the visitor when striker Omer Golan grabbed the
injury-time winner.
Russia coach Guus Hiddink, interviewed on Sky Sports, said
England was capable of getting a result against Croatia at the new
Wembley.
"At home, they are capable of doing so. We have to be realistic
and honest about that. I have hope, but let's be realistic. They
(England) can do what they want."
He added: "It's a blow for Russia because we were very close. We
were very naive in the first 20-25 minutes. All the opportunities
were there. We were pressing forward second half but we were not
fine-tuned in the ultimate and final pass.
"We had a lot of half-chances but we were not very sharp in the
final pass."
In Group F Northern Ireland is still in with a chance after
beating Denmark 2-1, David Healy grabbing the winner with 11
minutes left with a goal fit to win any game, a delicate chip over
the goalkeeper from an acute angle which capped a marvelous
fightback.
Warren Feeney pulled Northern Ireland level after Nicklas
Bendtner had given Denmark the lead and now it goes down to the
wire against Spain, who qualified after beating Sweden 3-0, on
Wednesday.
Healy was taking his tally of goals in qualifying to 13 - a
record for the competition, overtaking the previous best tally of
12 set by Croatia's Davor Sukor for Euro 96.
Other teams to book their seats at the Euro 2008 high table
after the penultimate batch of qualifiers were the Netherlands,
Poland and Croatia, despite the Group E leaders losing 2-0 in
Macedonia.
They join already qualified Greece, the holders, the Czech
Republic, Romania and Germany with the remaining few places to be
decided on Wednesday.
(China Daily via Agencies November 19, 2007)