World Cup 2010 Qualification: Previews and Round-up

Tomorrow is another round of crucial World Cup qualifiers throughout the world, including England's qualifier at home to Croatia. It was so different when England last played Croatia in Wembley in a qualifying match, the final Euro 2008 qualifying match against Croatia. In that game, Croatia won 3-2 against an England side bereft of confidence. That match that sealed then-manager Steve McClaren's fate.

These days, under Fabio Capello's management, England appear to be made of much sterner stuff and are playing with a lot of confidence. A win against Croatia tomorrow would seal England's qualification and win Group 6. The last time England played Croatia in the World Cup 2010 qualifiers, England handed a 4-1 drubbing which featured a Theo Walcott hat-trick. That day England's performance was immaculate, although Croatia played much of the game with 10 men due to the sending off of Robert Kovač.

England however will be missing the creativity of Walcott and Joe Cole due to their injuries. Tomorrow, much will rest on the shoulders of Rooney who is in good scoring form for Manchester United so far this season (5 goals in 5 games) and in great form for England (8 goals in his last 7 games), as well as Gerrard, Lampard and the rest of the team. Jermain Defoe may or may not start, but he does have a good recent goalscoring record for England.

Croatia themselves are missing key player Luka Modrić who is injured with a broken leg, replacement Niko Krancjar, Eduardo, and Ivan Rakitić will be expected to start and are potential dangermen for the England team, although Krancjar is said to have struggled in the last game against Belarus. Croatia are expected to be hard to beat and cannot be written off.

In a presumed attempt at mind games, Slaven Bilić, the Croatia manager, is quoted as claiming that that Croatia's 3-2 win at Wembley (two years ago) will be playing on the mind of the players, that the England team is "flawed", "missing something from their game", and "missing some Englishness". Unsurprisingly, Bilić refuses to reveal exactly what is missing:

All I will say is that they are definitely missing something and we know what it is. But of course I am not going to tell you now what it is. It is our secret.
— Slaven Bilić (source: The Guardian)

Frank Lampard had already responded to Bilic's comments and is quoted as saying, amongst other things:

It is probably a few words to fire up his own team a bit, to get them going. It all adds to the spice of a big game.
— Frank Lampard (source: BBC)

While Beckham insisted that revenge is not on the players' minds, and said:

Yes, it was a tough time for the players, for everyone involved in the national team and the fans. But the most important thing is that we go into the game knowing if we win it we are in the World Cup so thoughts of revenge are a long way away.
— David Beckham (source: The Guardian)

Capello himself is probably not at all worried and probably won't pay attention to the mind games. Indeed today he said:

Thank you, Mr Bilić. It is the best. I have no need to motivate my players after this. It's fantastic assistance.
— Fabio Capello (source: The Guardian)

Given England's most recent form, coming back from 2-0 against the Netherlands to draw 2-2 in August, and a drab 2-1 home win against Slovenia last Saturday, both in friendlies, it is tempting to suggest that the next game will also be a drab and tight affair, but most of the underperforming in recent games has tended to be in friendlies rather than competitive games which is reassuring. On the other hand, England's competitive record in the World Cup 2010 qualifiers so far is 100%. Croatia struggled to beat Belarus 1-0 in a qualifying match last Saturday. My prediction for tomorrow's match is England to win 2-1 and secure World Cup qualification tomorrow.

Elsewhere in Europe, Scotland face already qualified Netherlands and need to get a good result to have any chance of finishing as one of the best runners-up, Wales were always up against it in a group containing both Germany and Russia, and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are still in contention. France are struggling and Portugal are in danger of missing out, both having failed to win some crucial games. Other places are still to play for in the other groups. On the other hand only the Netherlands in Europe has secured qualification so far, but more teams might do so tomorrow - as well as England, Spain could also clinch qualification tomorrow. For the full list of European fixtures tomorrow, one place they can be found is here.

Elsewhere in the rest of the world, Brazil secured qualification with a convincing 3-1 win in Argentina last Sunday, winning the clásico as well as putting Argentina's World Cup qualification in jeopardy. Diego Maradona's position as Argentine boss looks insecure as a result as well. There may not have been much joga bonito during the game but Dunga's Brazil were effective and outclassed Argentina. And also on Sunday, Ghana became the first African side other than South Africa to qualify for the World Cup. Elsewhere in the world, there are still qualification places up for grabs.

Qualified teams: South Africa (hosts); the Netherlands; Australia; South Korea; Japan; North Korea; Brazil; Ghana;