Disastrous start for Russia

In their first match Russia lost to Spain 1:4.
Many mistakes in the back. Central defender Kolodin instead of clearing the ball tried to dribble it past Torres and was robbed by him. Torres squared to ball to Villa who coolly converted in empty net.
Russia could get a lifeline but Ziryanov hit the post after neat passing in the box.
At the end of the first half Russia conceded another unnecessary goal. Iniesta send a cutting pass through the center that put Villa one on one where he just connected with a ball sending it below advancing Akinfeev. It seemed that Russia goalkeeper could have done better in this situation.
In the second half Russia still have the possession but their attack lacked the creativity and sharpness that suspended Arshavin could add. Rolling the ball in midfield, passing back - that's the main impression of Russia's possession.
The subs Bystrov and replacing him Adamov never looked up to the task not bringing anything to the game. Torbinsky, another sub, looked a little better, won a free kick 30m in front of the goal but sent it over.
Villa scored his third bamboozling through Russian defense teasing Shirokov who turned to slow for lively Villa.
Pavluchenko converted a corner kick with a powerful header. A little consolation for Russia before conceding the fourth.
At the end another shot from Villa was parried in the path of another substitute Fabregas who easily nodded in with a header perhaps being in offside position.

Sweden beat defensive Greece 2:0 in another game in a group D.

HIDDINK: POGREBNYAK WILL STAY IN THE TEAM

Guus Hiddink is pleased with Russia’s gathering in Germany prior to the European championship.
Hiddink spoke about his team’s readiness ahead of friendly clash against Lithuania. The Dutch manager s glad with Russia’s preparation session which takes place in Germany.
"After the friendly game against Lithuania we will make for Austria where we will prepare for Euro-opener", said Hiddink.
"As for Pavel Pogrebnyak, I would like to mention that he won’t leave the team and I am not going to fins a replacement for him."
"I am pleased with players’ work at this training camp."
"We attained positive results against Kazakhstan and Serbia, but players shouldn’t relax ahead of crunch games."

Гус Хиддинк: "Я не намерен вызывать кого-либо на замену Погребняку"

Гус Хиддинк накануне заключительного контрольного матча сборной России против литовцев провел пресс-конференцию, в ходе которой отметил, что доволен работой игроков на немецком сборе.
- После матча с Литвой мы не будем возвращаться в гостиницу, а сразу отправимся в австрийский Леоганг для подготовки к матчу с Испанией. Что касается Павла Погребняка, то он усиленно работает с физиотерапевтом. Я не хочу, чтобы журналисты постоянно мучили его вопросами о здоровье. Не стоит загонять его в рамки одного матча. Даже если он не сможет сыграть с испанцами, он никуда не уедет. И хочу заметить, что я абсолютно точно не намерен вызывать кого-либо ему на замену, - цитирует главного тренера сборной сайт телеканала "Спорт". - Я очень доволен работой игроков на этом сборе, но должен заметить, что россияне не имеют преимущества из-за системы "весна - осень". В премьер-лиге было сыграно 11 туров, но футболисты, прибывшие на сбор, физикой меня не порадовали. Зато в матче с Сербией уже выглядели вполне прилично.
- Не могли бы вы сравнить процесс подготовки к турниру сборной Кореи, когда вы с ней работали, и нынешний?
- Тогда у нас было гораздо больше времени для подготовки. Убежден, что достичь такого уровня готовности сейчас сложно любой европейской сборной.
- Как вы думаете, какой тактики будет придерживаться сборная Испании 10 июня?
- Мы следим за сборной Испании, так же как и ее представители - за нами. Мне кажется, что независимо от того, как будут играть против нас испанцы, мы должны придерживаться своего стиля игры.
- В Испании считают, что главная звезда у сборной России на чемпионате Европы - ее главный тренер.
- Я работал в Испании, и поэтому меня там знают. Но надеюсь, что утром 11 июня в Испании будут известны имена российских футболистов благодаря хорошей игре.
Рассуждая о результате в контрольном матче со сборной Литвы, Гус Хиддинк отметил, что он важен, но не настолько, чтобы придавать ему огромное значение.
- Мы удачно сыграли со сборными Казахстана и Сербии. Главное, чтобы после побед у футболистов не было расслабленности. К тому же завтра в составе могут произойти определенные изменения, - приводит комментарий Хиддинка официальный сайт РФС

Van der Sar heroics win the penalty shootout and the trophy

Moscow - May 28. Manchester United were crowned kings of Europe for thethird time on Wednesday when they beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties after abreathless all-English Champions League final had finished 1-1 after extratime.
United's 37-year-old goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, appearing in his thirdfinal 13 years after his first with Ajax Amsterdam, saved the decisive spotkick from substitute Nicolas Anelka.
The victory completed a famous double for the Old Trafford team who pippedChelsea to the Premier League title 10 days ago.
It was an emotional triumph for United, coming 50 years after the Munich airdisaster, and there was a huge cheer for one of the survivors, BobbyCharlton, when he joined the team at the presentation of the trophy helifted in 1968 before Alex Ferguson led the team to a second success in1999.
"We've had fate on our side all season and I felt that fate played its handwith John Terry slipping," Ferguson said of the Chelsea captain's penaltymiss.
HEARTBREAKING NIGHT
It was a heartbreaking night for Terry, who had the chance to take thetrophy to Stamford Bridge for the first time but sent what would have beenthe winning penalty against the outside of the post.
"John Terry's a man's man, not many centre halves will stand up and say Iwill take the last penalty because everybody knows that's the thing it canhang on," said Frank Lampard, whose equalizer had cancelled out CristianoRonaldo's opener.
United's Portugal winger had been inexplicably left unmarked to head home acurled right-wing cross from fullback Wes Brown for the 42nd goal of hisall-conquering season.
The goal brought the game to life as Van der Sar prevented a Rio Ferdinandown goal with a terrific instinctive save while Chelsea's Petr Cech kept outCarlos Tevez's stooping header and then tipped over Michael Carrick'sfollow-up drive.
Chelsea had shown little but leveled when Essien's long-range shot wasdeflected into the path of Lampard, who duly dispatched it from six meters.
The Londoners looked much more energized in the second half as MichaelEssien and Michael Ballack fired shots just over.
The patient, European-style approach of the opening quarter had beenreplaced by football with a Premier League trademark -- high-paced andphysical, with a sprinkling of errors and battered bodies littering thetemporary turf.
Didier Drogba was among them 12 minutes from time, but as he has so oftenbefore, made a miraculous recovery to curl a 20 meter shot against a post.
Ryan Giggs, the only survivor from United's treble-winning 1999 final team,came off the bench in the 87th minute for his 759th appearance, breakingCharlton's club record.
But he could not fashion a repeat of the storied last-gasp victory of thatyear and the game went into extra time.
Chelsea maintained their momentum and Lampard scooped a shot against the barwithin four minutes of the restart but they needed Terry to deny Giggs afairytale goal by heading the winger's shot over the bar with Cech beaten.
As the clock ticked down -- towards 2 am local time -- tempers boiled overand Drogba was sent off for slapping Nemanja Vidic.
The shootout first went Chelsea's way as Ronaldo, who had missed a penaltyearly in the semi-final against Barcelona, saw his effort saved.
Ballack, Juliano Belletti, Lampard and Ashley Cole all scored for Chelseabut when Terry failed the momentum shifted.
Anderson and Giggs netted for United and, although Salomon Kalou was ontarget for Chelsea, Van der Sar blocked Anelka's effort to secure the giantsilver trophy once again.
Manchester United, the winners of the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League will nowface the winners of the 2007-08 UEFA Cup, Zenit St. Petersburg ofRussia.from Saint Petersburg in a match for 2008 UEFA Super Cup. The matchwill be played on 29 August 2008 at the Stade Louis II in Monaco.

Zenit lift UEFA Cup after 2-0 win over Rangers

Manchester - May 21. Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg won their firstEuropean silverware when second-half goals from Igor Denisov and KonstantinZyrianov secured a 2-0 victory over Rangers in the UEFA Cup final onWednesday.
Denisov slotted home after 72 minutes and fellow midfielder Zyrianov sealedvictory with a close range effort in stoppage time at the City of Manchesterstadium to secure the trophy for Zenit in their first European final.
It was the second UEFA Cup success by a Russian side in four seasonsfollowing CSKA Moscow's triumph in 2005.
"Winning a prize like this does not come often in your life," Zenit coachDick Advocaat told a news conference. "We are very proud that Zenit wontonight and after the way we played in this tournament, we really deservedit."
Rangers supporters traveled south from Glasgow in their thousands, easilyoutnumbering the Zenit fans inside the stadium and thronging the city centreto watch on big screens.
However, trouble flared when one screen broke down and riot police had tomove in to restore order under a hail of bottles. A total of 30 fans werearrested during the evening and one Russian fan was stabbed in the backafter the match.
On the pitch, the defeat suffered by Rangers ended their quest for anunlikely quadruple with the Scottish League Cup winners still contesting theleague title and also lining up in the Scottish FA Cup final later thismonth.
"I cannot speak highly enough of the group of players we have," said Rangersmanager Walter Smith. "We didn't think this season would lead to a Europeanfinal. Obviously, we're disappointed to lose after a good campaign for us."
Zenit failed to reproduce their impressive demolition of competitionfavourites Bayern Munich in the semi-finals but their attacking qualities,honed by Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, were too much for a spirited Rangersside.
Zenit gave an early demonstration of their counter-attacking prowess whencaptain Anatoly Tymoschuk robbed a hesitant Brahim Hemdani in midfield and aswift break ended with Andrei Arshavin shooting narrowly wide.
Rangers quickly settled though and Zenit's Victor Fayzulin made a well-timedinterception to clear Jean-Claude Darcheville's dangerous cross into thegoalmouth in a decent opening for both sides.
The Russian side enjoyed plenty of possession with Tymoschuk at the heart ofsome intricate passing moves. Fayzulin headed over an Arshavin cross, thenAlexander Anyukov tested Rangers goalkeeper Neil Alexander with a raspingdrive.
Rangers were content to soak up the pressure, showing little attackingintent of their own as Zenit probed away with Arshavin a menacing presenceon the left flank.
Walter Smith's side conceded only two goals in eight games en route to thefinal and their organized defense held firm.
Zenit's Turkish forward Fatih Tekke, handed a place up front by Advocaat inplace of suspended striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, was given no opportunity togain from a succession of Arshavin crosses into the danger area.
Rangers were the first to threaten after the break when they at last createda clear opening, Darcheville getting ahead of his marker to fire a low shotthat was parried by Vyacheslav Malafeev.
In the ensuing scramble Rangers were adamant they should have been awarded apenalty by Swedish referee Peter Frojdfeldt when Barry Ferguson's flickappeared to strike the arm of Denisov.
Rangers were pushing further forward but in doing so left themselves exposedto Zenit's swift counter-attacks which on 64 minutes nearly brought thebreakthrough.
Alexander rushed out of goal to intercept a long clearance downfield butArshavin was first to the ball. Rangers were fortunate to have two defendersalive to the danger and Sasa Papac got back to clear Arshavin's curlingstrike off the line.
Zenit finally found a way to beat Alexander when Denisov and playmakerArshavin split the Rangers defense through the middle with the formerslotting the ball home from eight meters.
Konstantin Zyrianov hit the post from close range a few minutes later beforethe midfielder converted Tekke's cross in added time after a fine passingmove to spark a Russian party.
Arshavin got man of the match award for outstanding performance.

UEFA cup semifinal results

By Zaven Aharonian

Zenit St Petersburg may not be the most fashionable club but the Russian champions made the rest of Europe take notice when they crushed German giants Bayern Munich 4-0 to reach the UEFA Cup final on Thursday. The Russian side play Rangers in the UEFA Cup final in Manchester, England, on May 14, while the English clubs will go the other way to contest the Champions League showpiece in the Russian capital a week later.

Zenit's attacking display against the former four-times European champions in Thursday's second leg semi-final at the Petrovsky stadium even impressed Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. "Any team that beats Bayern 4-0 must be the favorites (for the final)," the German said.
Zenit will have to do it without the services of their top striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, however., who scored twice against Bayern.

Zenit coach, Dick Advocaat is used to replacing team members after Zenit played the second leg against Bayern without three suspended players - Russia playmaker Andrei Arshavin, Czech international Radek Sirl and Dutch midfielder Fernando Ricksen.

Rangers beat Fiorentina 4-2 on penalties on Thursday to face Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final.

A new beginning for England?

Fabio Capello is confirmed as the new England manager. He will take charge of the England national team on a four-and-a-half year contract, the Football Association confirmed on Friday. The former AC Milan and Real Madrid CF coach replaces Steve McClaren, who was dismissed from the post last month following England's failure to qualify for next summer's UEFA EURO 2008 finals.There was no shortage of criticism directed at McClaren by English press. Today when EURO 2008 groups are formed, and the new English manager is appointed, I'd like to take a look at the most tightly contested EURO 2008 qualification group E. That's the only group E where four teams - Croatia, Russia, England and Israel are finished with more than 20 points. If Croatia convincingly won the group with 29 points then England and Russia where going neck to neck to the very end. Dramatic finale separated themby a point with Russia squeezing in to the second place with 24 points. England finished disappointing third on equal 23 points with Israel after, loosing the decisive last game to Croatia 2:3, where England could qualify with a draw.
First of all I'd like to praise Israel for showing true sporting spirit in a game that did not have a tournament value for them, playing with their heart and defeating Russia, a strong favorite for the game that could have secured them a place in Austria and Switzerland. But true heroics came from Croatian team at Wembley. Already securing one of the two qualifying berths before the game at Wembley they almost burried the England hopesgoing 2:0 after first 20 minutes in a crunch game for England. In a game where a draw would take England through and Croatia playing only for their pride. Although England equalized in the early second half it was still Croatia that had an upper hand of spectacular game.Not only the disappointing finish but the whole game draw harsh criticism from the press and cost McClaren his job. Not being McClaren fan I think few things I can say to McClaren defense. I'd like to remind also that in previous outings England wonfive games in a row, very convincingly - all of them 3:0! No team in Europe could match that record! He had the game in Moscow going his way too, but only until 72 minute. Did anyone in England ask himself why would be Wayne Rooney pulling Konstantin Ziryanov's shirt while Russian midfielder entering the box from the right side. Why no one said a word of condemnation to a player for bringing on a penalty, for this totally unjustified foul in penalty area. This is not the first time the English strikers actioncost his team dearly. Everybody remembers Rooney getting a red card at World Cup 2004, for stomping on Ronaldo and England crashing out in a quarterfinal. The player certainly having a discipline problem repeatedly turning his team down at a critical moment. Russia equalized and kept attacking. They pressed the advantage and in three minutes scored the winning goal that proved fatal for English campaign. The whole criticism fell to McClaren. Although I strongly believe Rooney was the guilty party whose fault turned the game around, ironically after scoring spectacular goal inthe first half. Again, I am not big fan of McClaren but I absolutely convinced that he hadall credentials to carry out as the England coach. He was assisting Sven Ericsson for 5 years, coming from the ranks in ManU and successfully coachingMiddlesboro. English football community, I strongly believe, grew very impatient and created unnecessary havoc by putting the English team, the coach and the goalkeeper - Paul Robinson, under unprecedented pressure, for conceding only one goal in 6 games (another one came from the penalty). As a result McClaren made virtually hisonly mistake throughout the campaign by picking inexperienced Scott Carson for a decisive game against Croatia, to replace in form Robinson, having at the same time David James, an experienced keeper, available. This cost him dearly. No one even Croats expected to perform so successfully at Wembley. Their coach, Slaven Bilic, admitting, he would play for a win, but will be happy with a draw. A lesson hard to forget.Another reason for "underdog" teams performing beyond the expectations is the rear ability of England team to bring out the best of their opponents by showing extraordinary arrogance and disrespect towards them, their press and supporters.Russian players after the game at Wembley approached the English to exchange shirts. England players gave out their shirts but refused to take those of their Russian counterparts.This sort of disrespect is unheard of at international level. One can only guess the embarrassment the Russian players went through. But let's not feel sorry for them - they could not get a better retribution than beating England in Moscow in front of their home crowd and to the delight of the whole country, eventually securing a place at Euro 2008 and surely won't regret keeping their shirts to themselves.
Steve McClaren refused to answer Russian journalists’ questions at the press conference in Moscow. He also did not permit to translate his post-game press conference in Russian. Insulted Russian journalists left the press conference. I would certainly called UEFA attention to that. As rightfully commented Guus Hiddink, the head coach of the Russian team: "Talking to the press is part of your job. Win or loose you come out tothe public and speak to them." Apparently it did not help McClaren but left a bitter taste at least for Russian public. Not for long though. Croat Mladen Petrić, the scorer of the winning goal at Wembley was quoted by UEFA.com saying "We did not want to exchange our shirts with English players. They got what they deserved for their arrogance. None of their shirts is worth mine."
Indeed, England did not draw too much sympathy from their opponents, which is not surprising. However, England remains an important team in a world football. Alongside teams like Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Argentina, Brazil and others England remains integral part of footballing "Dow Jones". That's why as a true football fan I want to see England back on their feet and Fabio Capello is the right coach to bring England to the world elite. It is more than 40 years since Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, BobbyCharlton and Geoff Hearst lifted the World Cup trophy in 1966. England did not appear in a major final for more than 40 years despite many European trophies on a club level and the all talent in English league. Even today the likes of Gerard, Owen. Terry, Joe Cole the core of the English team remain formidable force that can be a major factor for future success. Getting right man for the top English job could be one of the major elements English football needs to achieve success.

I met Fabio Capello in summer 2000 when he was in NY with Roma for preseason friendly with Benfica. All media attention was directed at first Japanese player in Seria A Hidetoshi Nakata who was with Roma at a time. A lot of attention went to Cafu the Brazilian national team captain. Capello was mainly busy with the press conference. Later I approached signor Capello in a hope to ask a question or two and to my surprise we spoke for about 40-45 minutes instead. I met if not modest then at least very humble, down to earth man, who was very articulate, weighing his words carefully, trying to be accurate in his answers, showing respect and patience with me, forwhom it was the first interview, first game coverage in my journalist career. He did not know yet that he will win scudetto that year with Roma and years later will do it again with Yuventus twice, and then win the second time La Liga with Real Madrid at his only second one year spell with the team.
You can't get a better coach, who has so many great victories under his belt, who's decisive and humble at the same time. He takes responsibility and is capable of admitting his mistakes. I think he has this sense of justice in him. I never heard him falling of with a player. We all saw how calmly and fairly he handled the situation with David Beckham at Real after the latter signed a lucrative contact with LA Galaxy. First dropping him from the team than bringing him back after noticing how hard David was continuing totrain. And that eventually turned beneficial for both. Real won the Spanish title and Beckham returned to the national team. He knows how to deal with a star players, how to deal with a press.
Saying all this, I think, English football community should learn to be more patient, considerate and supportive if they want to see their national team to be successful. The football never ends and I wish success to England and Mr. Capello in upcoming 2010 world cup qualifying campaign.

P.S. Fabio Capello got his England reign off to a winning start against Euro 2008 co-hosts Switzerland at Wembley.

Zaven Aharonian