England Is Confident Against Croatia

Fabio Capello remains full of confidence that England will get a result in Croatia on Wednesday.The Three Lions opened their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign with an uninspiring 2-0 win over Andorra, while Croatia were a lot more comfortable as they overcame Kazakhstan 3-0.Now England travel to Zagreb looking to avenge their two defeats against Croatia from the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign."Wednesday will be a difficult game but more exciting. I prefer the difficult games. Saturday against Andorra was a very dangerous game but I like the bigger challenges," said a confident Capello.

"Croatia are playing at home and they have to play forward. They have to try and score goals. They will be strong and the level of the quality of the players will be better and more dangerous."I followed Croatia a lot in the European Championships. They are a good team and, when they play at home, the fans help the players a lot. Their fans are very strong in terms of emotion and passion."But we are good enough to get a result and I have confidence in my team."

Gerrard Will Miss United Clash

Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard has ruled himself out of Saturday's Premier League clash with Manchester United, live on Sky Sports 1 and HD1.The talismanic midfielder is recovering from a double groin operation which forced him to withdraw from Fabio Capello's squad for England's World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia.Having played through the pain barrier as Rafa Benitez's side scraped into the UEFA Champions League group stages with a hard-fought victory over Standard Liege, Gerrard is eager to be 100 per cent fit when he returns.With star striker Fernando Torres also a major doubt for the Anfield encounter after suffering a hamstring injury against Aston Villa, Benitez could be without two of his key men.

Gerrard told the Liverpool Daily Post: "The United game is too soon."I've a decent chance for the Champions League game in Marseille (on 16th September) but I've spoken to the manager and told him I'd like to do a certain amount of training before I come back."I don't want to go into a big game only having had one session with the boys."There has been criticism from some quarters over the timing of Gerrard's decision, given the impact on the England team, but he is adamant there was no other option as he was in such severe pain.

West Ham Impressed By Italians

West Ham United non-executive director Mike Lee has revealed that Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Donadoni both 'shone' in interviews for the vacant managerial post at the club.The Hammers are in the process of identifying a new boss following Alan Curbishley's resignation on Wednesday, and have so far whittled their shortlist down to four potential candidates.Zola and Donadoni both impressed club officials while Michael Laudrup, who is reportedly set to be interviewed on Monday, and Croatia head coach Slaven Bilic are among the other contenders for the role.Lee confirmed West Ham hope to make an appointment before next week's trip to the Hawthorns, telling the BBC: "There's no favourite at the moment, we have set up a proper selection process."We have been surprised and pleased by the number of applications we have had and we are moving towards a short shortlist and ideally have a manager in place in time for the West Brom match next week.

Rovers Looking For Dutch Winger

Blackburn Rovers have handed a trial to Dutch winger Kiran Bechan, skysports.com understands.The 25-year-old is a free agent after leaving Spanish side Hercules in the summer and he has been trying to seal a move to Britain ever since.He has trained with Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Leeds United over the past few weeks, but is now trying his luck with Rovers.Bechan was a free agent before the transfer window closed, meaning he is allowed to seal a permanent deal with any club interested in his services.Ince will now check on Bechan, who began his career with Dutch giants Ajax.

European Giants Looked Flat in First World Cup Qualifiers

Unconvincing wins for Italy, England, Spain and Portugal were all overshadowed Saturday when France started its attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup with a humbling 3-1 defeat at Austria.While Italy won 2-1 at Cyprus and European Champion Spain beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0, France continued to show the same poor form that brought a surprise first-round exit from Euro 2008 by losing to a team 91 places below it in FIFA's world rankings."Like every other loss, this one hurts," France coach Raymond Domenech said. "We built up lots of pressure but did not convert our chances. It just wasn't going to be today.Philippe Mexes, with an own goal, Rene Aufhauser and Andreas Ivanschitz scored for the home side in Vienna to deal a heavy blow to a France team that faces a tough Serbia team in its next match on Wednesday.

Lithuania took an early lead in Group 7 following a 3-0 win at Romania, while Serbia beat visiting Faeroe Islands 2-0.Italy escaped with victory following an injury-time goal from Antonio Di Natale, while England needed two second-half goals from substitute Joe Cole to earn a 2-0 win at Andorra in Group 6 and end the jeers from their own supporters at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium.Spain, playing its first competitive match since hoisting the European Championship trophy, beat Bosnia through David Villa's 58th-minute strike to extend its unbeaten run to 24 games.

Portugal did better with a 4-0 win at Malta, but that came only after it added three goals in the last 29 minutes after clinging to a first-half own goal for much of the match.Sweden slipped behind Portugal in the race for one of the World Cup places available to the winners of Europe's nine qualifying groups after a disappointing 0-0 draw at Group 1 rival Albania, and Hungary held visiting Denmark to a 0-0 draw.Lukas Podolski scored twice to lead Euro 2008 runner-up Germany to a 6-0 rout of Liechtenstein and the top of Group 4. Wales beat Azerbaijan 1-0 in the other group match.

In the other Group 6 games, England's next foe, Croatia, beat Kazakhstan 3-0 and Ukraine beat Belarus 1-0.Belgium beat Estonia 3-2 in Spain's Group 5, and Turkey won 2-0 at lowly Armenia with second-half goals from Tuncay Sanli and Semih Senturk.Greece took early charge of Group 2 when Vasileios Torosidis, Fanis Gekas and Angelos Charisteas scored in an easy 3-0 win at tiny Luxembourg, while Latvia won 2-1 at Moldova, and Israel rallied from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with visiting Switzerland.Montenegro was denied victory in its first ever World Cup qualifier when Bulgaria substitute Blagoi Georgiev scored in the final minute to earn his team a 2-2 draw, while Ireland won 2-1 at Georgia in Group 8.

The Netherlands lost a friendly 2-1 to visiting Australia but Scotland missed a valuable opportunity to put early pressure on the Group 9 favourites when it lost 1-0 at Macedonia. Iceland twice rallied to draw 2-2 at Norway in the same group.In Group 3, Slovakia beat Northern Ireland 2-1 and Poland drew 1-1 with Slovenia.In South America, Paraguay held Argentina 1-1 to stay on top of qualifying with 14 points, two ahead of Argentina.

An own-goal by Gabriel Heinze in the 11th minute put Argentina in a hole early, and the home side was forced to play a man down for the last hour when striker Carlos Tevez was expelled for a hard foul on Dario Veron.In CONCACAF qualifying, the United States hung on to win its first soccer game in Cuba since 1947, beating the hosts 1-0 in a sloppy, sleepy World Cup qualifier in Havana.Clint Dempsey scored late in the second half and Tim Howard made two key saves to give the United States its third straight road win in qualifying from the North and Central American and Caribbean region.Guatemala scored late to draw with Trinidad and Tobago, and Ramon Nunez scored twice for Honduras in a 2-1 victory over Canada.El Salvador beat Haiti 5-0, and Costa Rica routed Suriname 7-0.

In Asian qualifying, Japan held on to beat host Bahrain 3-2 in Manama after leading by three goals in its opening match of Asia's final round of World Cup qualifying on Saturday.Japan is one of the favourites to advance from Group A, which also contains Australia, Qatar and Uzbekistan. The top two from each group gain automatic berths to the World Cup, while the two third-place finishers face off for the right to meet the Oceania winner for one spot.In other Asian games, it was North Korea 2, United Arab Emirates 1; Iran 1, Saudi Arabia 1; and Qatar 3, Uzbekistan 0.

In African qualifying, Chad beat Sudan 2-1 in a match scheduled for May 31 but postponed after an attack on the Sudanese capital of Khartoum by a Darfur rebel group. Sudan severed diplomatic relations with Chad briefly, but the countries resumed relations at the end of July and FIFA arranged for both qualifiers to be played in Cairo, Egypt.Nigeria beat South Africa 1-0 in a 2010 African Nations Cup qualifier Saturday, with Ike Uche scoring in the 69th minute.South Africa, which as host automatically gets a berth in the World Cup in 2010, needed a win to qualify for the African Nations Cup. The continental tournament will be played in 2010 in Angola without Bafana Bafana.In other African qualifiers it was: Cameroon 2, Cape Verde Islands 1; Rwanda 1, Mauritania 0; Kenya 1, Namibia 0; Sierra Leone 2, Equatorial Guinea 1; and Gambia 3, Liberia 0; and Burkina Faso 0, Tunisia 0.

Brazil Beat Chile By 3-0

Brazil eased the pressure on coach Dunga and boosted their World Cup qualifying hopes with a 3-0 win over Chile.Two goals from Luis Fabiano and another from Manchester City new boy Robinho gave Brazil a morale-boosting victory and move them into second spot in qualifying level with Argentina.Brazil broke the deadlock on 21 minutes when Fabiano headed home Ronaldinho's free-kick.Ronaldinho wasted a great chance to double Brazil's lead soon after when he saw his penalty superbly saved by Chile keeper Claudio Bravo.

Brazil did grab a second a minute before the break when Robinho collected a pass from Fabiano and beat Bravo with a shot from the edge of the box.The visitors suffered a blow two minutes after the break when Kleber was sent off for a second bookable offence.However, Chile were reduced to 10 men just past the hour mark when midfielder Jorge Valdivia was dismissed for a dangerous tackle on Fabiano.Brazil wrapped the game up seven minutes from time when Fabiano turned Gary Medel inside the box and squeezed his shot through the legs of Bravo.

Manchester City Clinch Robinho Deal

Manchester City have confirmed the signing of Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record fee of £32.5million.Robinho has accepted a move to the City of Manchester Stadium having previously expressed a wish to join Chelsea.The Brazilian had been looking to leave Real Madrid after being disappointed by the lack of a new contract at the Bernabeu.At a press conference held in Madrid on Sunday, Robinho reiterated his desire to leave Real in order to sign for Chelsea.

Real, who had rejected several bids from Chelsea over the summer, were reluctant to allow the forward to move to Stamford Bridge.However, City's record-breaking offer persuaded Real to sell and Robinho has signed a four-year contract with the cash-rich club.City boss Mark Hughes, who had also been trying to sign Dimitar Berbatov, could not contain his delight at clinching a swoop for the 24-year-old.

"I am absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to work with such an incredible talent like Robinho," Hughes told the club's official website."I have said that in order to compete with the best teams in the Premier League we have to be in the market for players of this calibre, and Robinho is undoubtedly one of the best players in the world."I am really looking forward to introducing him to the rest of the squad, and to the City fans at the earliest opportunity."This is a real statement of intent as to the ambitions of Manchester City Football Club."