Maradona admits “I might need more than the Hand of God now”

Argentina have lost 3 – 1 at home to Brazil. The result means their chances of automatic qualification for South Africa 2010 are now in considerable doubt.

By contrast, Brazil have officially qualified, and deservedly so. They will soon be followed by Spain, who battered Belgium 5 – 0 and will probably give Estonia a kicking on Wednesday night.

Elsewhere, there was cause for rejoicing on both sides of the border as Northern Ireland and the Republic secured wins. Both now have a great chance of at least making the play-offs.

In Group 1 Sweden have renewed hope of a place in the finals after a 2 – 1 victory in Hungary.

Switzerland beat Greece and now look in control of Group 2.

France are officially rubbish – unless they beat Serbia this week.

Scotland must avoid defeat against Holland on Wednesday. If they don’t, their best hope is for Norway and Macedonia to draw in Oslo.

As expected, Croatia overcame Belarus. Now they must beat England at Wembley to have any chance of automatic qualification.

Reports that Cameroon brought Roger Miller out of retirement are of course untrue. Whatever the cause, if they repeat yesterday’s 2 – 0 victory over Gabon against the same opposition on Wednesday evening, they’ll be dancing in the streets of Yaounde.

And if the Ivory Coast don't qualify from their group now, we can expect a ridiculous conspiracy theory from Didier Drogba within hours.

The North, Central America and Caribbean group is still up for grabs after wins for the USA, Honduras and Mexico.

That’s the qualification stuff over and done with for now. Now for the important stuff - inventing quotes from Maradona which hark back to this infamous Hand of God goal against England in 1986.

Quizzed by reporters after the loss against Brazil the legendary No. 10 may or may not have said “I might need more than the Hand of God now”.

He may or may not have gone on to say “I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing.”

And finally, there is of course some doubt about whether Maradona actually said “I’m genuinely sorry about that incident. It should never have happened and I probably deserved to be booked or even sent off. Of course the second one was a belter, so I’d prefer to talk about that if you don’t mind.”

Somehow I can’t see that happening...

Macedonia, Norway, Iceland and Scotland - thank God they aren't horses

Looking ahead to World Cup qualifiers in September – Part 9

Europe: Group Nine


Take out the Dutch and you’re left with four mediocre teams who between them have scored 20 goals and conceded 34 in 25 games. Putting this in perspective, the already qualified Holland have scored 16 and conceded just two in their seven games.

I think I can say without fear of exaggeration or censure that this is probably the worst group in Europe. No-one would be surprised if this group failed to provide a contender for one of the runners up spots. Collectively and individually, Macedonia, Scotland, Norway and Iceland are so poor that if they were horses someone would have shot them by now.

Forthcoming fixtures (if you insist):

September 5th

Scotland - FYR Macedonia

Iceland - Norway


September 9th

Norway - FYR Macedonia

Scotland - Netherlands

Latest World Cup qualifying results

Spent some of last night ‘tweeting’ (2010bafbaf) goal news as it came in from around Europe. Discovered that if Croatia and Slovenia score around the same time, and one of the scorers has 17 letters in his name, you will run out of available space or 'characters' as Twitter fans call it. Lesson learned.

Europe

Group 3

Slovenia 5 San Marino 0

Group 4

Azerbaijan 0 Germany 2

Group 6

Belarus 1 Croatia 3

Group 7

Faroe Islands 0 France 1

Group 9

Norway 4 Scotland 0

North, Central America and Caribbean

Mexico 2 USA 1

Trinidad and Tobago 1 El Salvador 1

Honduras 4 Costa Rica 0

Costa Rica. What are you like?