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Euro 2004 Preview England under pressure vs. Turks; France favoredPosted: Monday March 31, 2003 11:34 AMUpdated: Monday March 31, 2003 1:32 PM
LONDON (AP) -- It sounds like a great advertisement for British soccer: an England victory over Turkey on Wednesday should mean that the English, Welsh and Scots will top their Euro 2004 qualifying groups. Don't bet on it. England's form is so poor that a victory over World Cup semifinalist Turkey is far from certain -- even though the Turks have never scored a goal against the English in eight meetings, which include two 8-0 losses. A 2-2 tie at home to Macedonia in Euro 2004 action was followed by a 3-1 home defeat by Australia. On Saturday, Sven-Goran Eriksson's players failed to score more than two goals against one of European soccer's weakest teams, Liechtenstein. The three points from the 2-0 victory in Vaduz put England within two points of Group 7 leader Turkey. That means a victory at Sunderland's Stadium of Light will put England a point ahead at the halfway stage in one of Wednesday's 17 qualifying games. But the Turks have won all three qualifying games so far and appears to have maintained the form that took them to the World Cup semifinals for the first time. While England-Turkey is the biggest game on Wednesday, defending champion France hopes to add to its record of four wins in a row by beating Israel, Group 6 leader Spain hosts Armenia and Scotland goes to Lithuania. In Group 3, the Netherlands goes to Moldova and the Czech Republic hosts Austria. In stark contrast to the Turks' consistency, England is making hard work of every game and its demeanor on and off the field is shaky. While Eriksson and goalscorers David Beckham and Michael Owen each said the three points against Liechtenstein were what mattered, defenders Gareth Southgate and Gary Neville both were critical of the team's performance. Middlesbrough centerback Southgate appeared to criticize Eriksson for selecting too many inexperienced players in his squad, such as Everton's 17-year-old striker Wayne Rooney, Arsenal's 22-year-old forward Francis Jeffers and Newcastle's 20-year-old midfielder Jermaine Jenas. "I feel we are going into games with lads who haven't got the experience for the huge matches they are about to face," Southgate said. "If the plan is to get a team together that will play in 2006 and 2008 then that route will be fair enough. But I don't think you plan that far ahead." Neville's gripe was with the performance against Liechtenstein. "There were a lot of sloppy things right through to the team," the Manchester United defender said. "We were getting balls going under players' feet, passes going out for throw-ins, just general sloppiness." An ever-critical English media has accused Eriksson of taking the passion out of the England team and suggested the players aren't learning anything from the methods that were successful in Italian soccer with Lazio. The apparent discord within the England camp is great news for Turkey, although coach Senol Gunes expects a far better performance against his team compared with the tepid show against Liechtenstein. "The English aren't going to play against us the way they played against Liechtenstein," he said. "They're going to try and boost their morale by beating a team that's third in the world in front of their own fans." England hopes to have Arsenal defender Sol Campbell back in defense. There's a chance that veteran striker and World Cup captain Hakan Sukur could be back for the Turks after being out for several months, partly through injury and partly because he didn't have a club to play for. With some 4,000 tickets sold to Turkish followers, security will be tight, partly because of the reputation of both sets of fans and reports that some may have been sold to British-based Kurds, who are politically opposed to Turkey. Security fears in the Middle East have forced UEFA to move the Israel-France game to Palermo, Sicily. Some 1,000 local police officers, working together with Israeli security officials, will be on duty, twice the number of Israel fans who are expected to travel for their "home" game. Spain's game against Armenia takes place at the 13,000 capacity home of third division Cultural Leonesa. Saturday's 2-2 tie with Ukraine in Kiev was the seventh unbeaten game in a row for coach Inaki Saez and, with the Ukrainians idle, Spain can move four points clear. After a 1-1 tie with the Czechs in Rotterdam, the Dutch are without Arsenal's Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Barcelona's Philip Cocu in Moldova. Coach Dick Advocaat, whose team conceded an equalizer, said it had "thrown away two points" against the Czechs and might give Ajax Amsterdam star striker Rafael van der Vaart a starting place instead of either goalscorer Ruud van Nistelrooy or Patrick Kluivert. Czech star Pavel Nedved had two stitches in his ankle after the game in Rotterdam, while Milan Baros had five after a clash of heads with Jaap Stam. Both are confident of facing Austria. Scotland goes to Lithuania without Rangers midfielder Barry Ferguson because of his persistent groin injury. Berti Vogts' team sits above his former team, Germany, on goals scored after the Germans were held 1-1 Saturday by Lithuania. Surprised that they still lead Group 10, the Swiss go to Georgia, and that has striker Hakan Yakin a little worried. Georgia is just five hundred miles (800 kilometers) from the northern border of Iraq. "I don't think it's sensible that soccer should be played so close to a war zone," he said. Switzerland stayed top because Russia, a point behind, surprisingly lost 3-1 in Albania on Saturday. Five points clear in Group 9 after four wins in a row, Wales has missed out on a chance to move even further ahead of Italy because its game against Serbia-Montenegro, which had been scheduled for Belgrade, has been postponed until Aug. 20. |
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