Premier League | Transfer Rumour | Daniele de Rossi

Daniele de Rossi, who signed a five year contract with his club, Roma, has made a minor attempt to place some cats in amongst the pigeons by saying;

"I have received many offers from English football. And I must say that I feel attraction for it. 

I like English football very much. I think now it's probably more interesting than Italian football.

 There are lots of outstanding and talented players, as is the case for Spain as well."

 Does he want a move already, or merely creating a bit of mischief?  Perhaps he expected to be playing France in the quarter-finals, and has just seen the pound signs (or Euro signs) flashing before his eyes.

Euro 2012 | England v Ukraine France v Sweden Preview | Betting Tip

England v Ukraine 

 

The big news from the England camp is that the main man is back.  Wayne Rooney is available for selection in this game against the home team who will have a stadium full of fans to provide an intimidating atmosphere at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk.  There has been media speculation (surprise) that Rooney may be a bit of a loose canon, having sat out two difficult games for England.  The fact is that Wayne Rooney is a more nuanced player than he once was.  Last season he received 1 red and two yellow cards, in the previous two seasons he received 8 yellow cards in each campaign.

England report no injuries, so I expect Rooney to replace Carroll.

Ukraine will enjoy home advantage in this encounter, which will be a huge boost, but England are a better team; Ukraine lost to France, with whom England drew.  Ukraine may need to play without their talismanic striker, Shevchenko, who is carrying an injury to his knee.
Whilst England will qualify with a draw, Ukraine need a win.

Betting Tip

[The following tip is for fun only.  Gamble responsibly (if at all) and only gamble money you can afford to lose.]


England are 2.08 (21/20), which isn't great odds, but I can't decide whether there will be goals in this (probably not).

France v Sweden

France are in the lucky position of playing a team who have no possibility of qualification, wheras France need only a draw.  Doubtless Sweden will be playing for pride, and they have good players, if they are a little reliant on Ibrahimovic.
Neither team report any injuries.

Betting Tip

[The following tip is for fun only.  Gamble responsibly (if at all) and only gamble money you can afford to lose.]


France should sweep the Swedes aside, with Nasri, who is having a good tournament and Benzema, who is yet to shine.  They have playmakers and strikers with the ability to score.  So I would back France at 1.62 (5/8).

Euro 2012 | England v Sweden Preview | Betting Tip

Tony Blair, following his 1997 election victory told his more left-leaning backbench MPs not to forget that it was New Labour what won it.  By which he meant the the voters had returned New Labour, and not the old socialist Labour.

At whichever stage England leave this Euro 2012 tournament, Roy Hodgson might well echo these sentiments in a press conference.  It will have been a defensive 4-4-2 what (nearly) won it.

Although it has been widely reported that Andy Carroll will be called into the team with Oxlade-Chamberlain relegated to the bench because Sweden are rightly perceived to be fragile against high crosses and corners, I don't expect England to be very much more attack minded than in the France game.

Andy Carroll gives England a target man they missed against France, and I expect an old fashioned 'attack on the break' type of game similar to the last one, albeit looking to get round behind the Swedish defence as often as possible.  Ukraine did this with some success, as can be seen here;

Analysis by FourFourTwo Statzone [iTunes link]

One word of caution; Steven Gerrard said, a little dismissively, at yesterday's press conference, "Sweden are no France."  To which the obvious answer is "England are no France, either."  Let's hope that that comment doesn't come back to haunt him.

Betting Tip

[The following tip is for fun only.  Gamble responsibly (if at all) and only gamble money you can afford to lose.]

England are good defensively, and have yet to score more than one goal per game under Roy Hodgson, so I expect a low scoring game which England should have the ability to win.

With that in mind I suggest England to win (Draw No Bet) at Betfair at 1.74 (8/11).

Euro 2012 | What Now For England

As a wave of small-time thievery swept England this evening, with thousands of England fans leaving their homes and pubs saying - "We'll take that," following Roy Hodgon's England team's 1-1 draw with France, the question of what this means for the England team.

The England performance was certainly at the very least, workman-like.  They were out-passed and suffered from only having 35% of possession, but defended well and kept France down to just the one goal from 21 attempts (12 of which were blocked).

As this will have been the most difficult match for Hodgson's men, playing Sweden next, followed by Ukraine, qualification from the group should be relatively straightforward.

England is available on Betfair at 1.61 (8/13), which seems like a good price.

After Sweden, there remains a more difficult encounter with Ukraine, who responded well to the home crowd's encouragement to beat Sweden 2-1.  England, however, will have Wayne Rooney available which should offer more firepower in front of goal.

Game Preview France v England 11-06-12

After the Netherlands game against Denmark it would be tempting to conclude that Denmark's organisation defeated a flair team of superstars and so a relatively poor England team could win the competition.

That may be a mistake.  Denmark were not all that well organised defensively.  There were outstanding performances from the centre halves Agger and Kjær for sure, but The Netherlands were allowed 32 attempts on goal, only 5 of which were on target.  Well organised teams do not allow that many goal attempts.  The fact is that The Netherlands were profligate in front of goal and were made to pay by a team who scored with one of their 8 goal attempts.

Having said that, I think England could get a point from this match.  Roy Hodgson's teams are usually well organised defensively, and England have had quite a few days to be drilled.  Steven Gerrard made light of the expected over 30 degree temperature at yesterday's press conference, but England don't always perform well against strong teams in the heat.

France only scored 1.5 points per match in the qualifiers and only let 4 in.  They also have some significant injury concerns in Diarra, M'Vila and Matuidi, which also points to the draw being a good possibility.