Nigeria Content Online

There
are a lot of similarities between England and France, apart from being
connected by the Euro tunnel. They have both won the World Cup once,
when they hosted in 1966 and 1998 respectively. The two national teams
also had forgettable World Cup experiences.

France’s
capitulation in the first round of the tournament under former coach,
Raymond Domenech, takes the cake. The performance led to an 18-match
suspension for Nicolas Anelka, who was believed to have led a players’
revolt against Domenech. The Chelsea forward has since retired from the
national team while the new coach, former defender and 1998 World Cup
winner, Laurent Blanc, has the arduous task of rebuilding Les Blues.

England under
Fabio Capello flattered to deceive during the 2010 World Cup
qualifiers, crashing out 1-4 to Germany in the second round. But the
Italian gaffer has the questionable call against Frank Lampard’s goal
in that game to thank for still being the England coach. Most football
fans had called for the Italian to resign after the tournament, but now
they are calling for a complete revamp of the Three Lions.

This friendly match will therefore help the two coaches gauge the level of their developments – post the 2010 World Cup.

Big names missing

France will be
without Franck Ribery and Patrice Evra while England will be without
John Terry, Ashley Cole, and Frank Lampard with Capello inviting a slew
of youngsters and hopefuls into his squad.

The surprise
inclusion has to be Jay Bothroyd from Cardiff in the Championship
division, even though he has scored 15 goals in 16 games for the Welsh
team. Bothroyd will become the first player from that level to receive
a cap since David Nugent of Preston, in March 2007. Tottenham’s Younes
Kaboul has also been invited for the first time into the French squad.

In predicted zero
degree conditions, the 60,000 capacity sold out arena will be hoping
for fire works from both sides to warm a very cold evening. The last
game for Blanc as a French player was against England in 1998 and it
ended 1-0 in favour of the French. Most of the current team will gladly
take that result against an English side that is trying to find an
identity under their Italian coach.

The El Classico preview

Monday, November 29
is the date for the eagerly awaited league match between defending
champions, Barcelona and the newly revamped Real Madrid team under new
coach, Jose Mourinho.

Today at the
Estadio da Luz in Portugal, majority of the all-conquering Spanish team
(made up of mostly Barcelona players) will come up against the
arch-protagonist of the Madrid team, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Spain’s coach,
Vincente Del Bosque said, “If Barcelona against Real Madrid is good
advertising for football, I hope that Portugal against Spain is as
well.”

There are
intriguing match-ups in the duel as Ronaldo will be playing against
defenders and midfielders he will be expected to get past in the El
Classico.

Portugal will be
fired up for today’s match after losing out to the world champions in
South Africa. A David Villa goal settled the round of 32. The match
will also be about promoting Spain and Portugal’s joint bid for the
2018 World Cup but Portuguese fans will nevertheless expect to witness
a great game between the two neighbours. Both nations, though quite
fierce rivals, have put their differences behind them to present a
united front.

New Portugal coach
Paulo Bento wants to continue his reign by claiming a famous scalp. “We
want to fight, we want to play, we don’t want to watch Spain playing,”
said the former Portuguese international, who took over from Carlos
Queiroz after Portugal made a very poor start to their Euro 2012
qualifier campaign.

“They are the best
squad at the moment, but we want to take advantage of this match to
create our own identity. It is important to not let Spain impose its
playing style. We are very motivated.”

Manchester United winger Nani wants Portugal to put their World Cup failure behind them and use the match to get stronger.

“As a team we are
not the best in the world, but as a group and as players were are
amongst the best,” said the player, who missed the World Cup because of
injury.

“We have to take advantage of these matches against the best (teams) to get stronger.”

The battle of South America

There cannot be a fiercer national rivalry than the one between Argentina and Brazil.

There is the norm
that any match between sides from both countries cannot be lost as it
is a question of pride. Even when the result is 0-0, it will not be
called a dull match. The last time they met, La Albiceleste was beaten
by the Selecao, 3-1 at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires.

The balance of
results in the ferocious rivalry is impressive, but Brazil have enjoyed
the better results in the last ten years. Brazil have 35 victories
against Argentina’s 33 while 28 draws have been recorded.

Brazilian coach,
Mano Menezes, has also called up the Selacao’s forgotten man,
Ronaldinho after an 18-month absence from the national team. Menezes is
unbeaten in three matches in charge as he tries to graft a team of
mainly youthful players, with some experience, which is why he has
called up the AC Milan man.

But Menezes has warned that there is an air of expectancy on the shoulders of the two-time former world player of the year.

“We have been
evaluating everything we did until now and we understood that, for this
moment, we could think about him (Ronaldinho) again.

“Ronaldinho is in a
good moment for the position we need. Experienced, he will bring value
to the Selecao. It’s a position we need to improve and I’ve already
talked about this. He can add something.”

Menezes also explained the specific reasons for inviting Ronaldinho.

“The talk with
Ronaldinho is about the level of motivation and the presence of the
player. But I can say that I told him that he will not be compared to
other players, he will be compared to himself. We evaluate him as one
of the best players in the world.”

On the other side,
Argentina’s new call up, Andres D’Alessandro has confessed that he is
ecstatic at being called up into the national team. D’Alessandro plays
for Brazilian side, Internacional said the derby is always different.

“Argentina versus Brazil is always different,” he said.

“It’s two of the
most important national teams in the world. Brazil versus Argentina is
always a special match. But I think it’s a normal rivalry, between two
of the best national teams.”

The match will be played at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha.