| Chelsea in no rush to send Yossi Benayoun for surgery despite fresh Achilles blow Club will make their own assessment of Yossi Benayoun's injury picked up by the midfielder on international duty with Israel. telegraph.co.uk |
Northern Ireland v Italy - live! Hit F5 for the latest, use that auto-refresh thing, join this, and email scott.murray@guardian.co.uk, but don't give him the small talk, give him the big talk2 min: It's a strong start by Italy, though, Cassano bombing down the right and winning a corner. Brunt at the near post heads clear. Northern Ireland have hardly touched the thing yet.And we're off! Northern Ireland set the ball rolling, playing in their classic green shirts. The azzurri ain't so azzurri, in their away white tops. The ball's quickly gifted to Italy, but Borriello attempts to play keepie-uppie with his hand down the right and that'll be the Irish with the thing again.The teams are out! They wait to take the pitch by the side of the main stand. The features of Italian captain Andrea Pirlo - glamorous, rugged, windswept - look ever so slightly incongruous with the functional metal-blue corrugated-iron wall running behind him. Eventually everyone's let onto the grass. The Italian national anthem is pumped out, a brisk march which can't help positively reeking of the extremely dubious can-do attitudes of the 1930s. The Northern Irish anthem is, of course, that dirge. But there's a rare old atmosphere in this place tonight, and everybody's up for God saving Her.Referee: Tony Chapron (France).Italy: Viviano, Criscito, Bonucci, Chiellini, Cassani, De Rossi, Pirlo, Mauri, Pepe, Cassano, Borriello.Subs: Sirigu, Marchisio, Bovo, Palombo, Zambrotta, Pazzini, Rossi.Northern Ireland: Taylor, McAuley, Hughes, Craigan, Jonathan Evans, Brunt, Baird, Davis, McCann, Feeney, Healy.Subs: Tuffey, Clinghan, Corry Evans, Lafferty, McGinn, Patterson, Gorman.Kick off: 7.45pm.Older Italians will also be mindful of this:This defeat at Windsor Park knocked Italy out of the 1958 World Cup, the only time they've failed to make it. (They didn't enter in 1930.) Sent off in the match was the naturalised Italian Alcides Ghiggia, who had previously scored the winner in the 1950 World Cup 'final' for Uruguay.Of course, man for man they should still dispose of Northern Ireland without too much fuss. But ask yourself this. What price a country who can afford to leave the comically disruptive ninja skills of Kyle Lafferty on the bench? Also, the Italian central defensive partnership of Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini has been shipping goals for fun at Juventus, so they'll not relish facing "rejuvenated" Sunderland reserve David Healy, hat-trick hero of that famous Euro 2008 qualifying win over eventual champions Spain. Nigel Worthington has been giving Healy the big talk; this would be a fine evening for a return to the sort of form that saw the striker score a record 13 goals in that last Euro qualifying campaign.Or is it? Now there's this Euro 2012 qualifier, and Italy aren't really up to much. They've only recorded two wins in the entire calendar year of 2010, although both of those came in their first two qualifiers last month, a 2-1 win in Estonia and a brave 5-0 tonking of the Faroe Islands. Their pool of genuine top-drawer acts, usually so deep, contains Andrea Pirlo, arguably Antonio Cassano, and, er, that's about it, really. And Italy very rarely run cricket scores up against supposed lesser sides, so the Irish needn't be too feared here. Still, new boss Cesare Prandelli, formerly of Fiorentina, has got the azzurri smiling again, and after that World Cup campaign, that's no mean feat.It's been a quite a week for Northern Irish sport. On Monday, Portrush's finest, Graeme McDowell, won the decisive match in the Ryder Cup to land the trophy for Europe. His team-mate Rory McIlroy, from Holywood, County Down, had earlier contributed a crucial half-point during the day's singles. And then, later in the week, at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the team picked up a silver and a bronze, a haul that put them only three places in the medal table behind Nauru, the world's smallest republic. But the golf's enough for one week, isn't it?Euro 2012Northern IrelandItalyMinute-by-minute reportScott Murrayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wayne Rooney's Manchester United contract a surprise, says Arsene Wenger Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was surprised to hear Wayne Rooney had agreed a new deal with Manchester United. telegraph.co.uk |
Sydney FC wield the axe Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka will wield the axe with Stuart Musialik and Liam Reddy on the chopping block. foxsports.com.au |
Wayne Rooney's disrespect to fans and team-mates will not be forgotten | Paul Hayward There will need to be plenty of apologies at Carrington and Old Trafford after an astonishing week for Manchester UnitedWhen Manchester United sent in the heavy mob on Thursday to dissuade Wayne Rooney from leaving they noticed a crack in his determination to join Manchester City. Rooney had been shocked by the anger his dismissive comments about the club's lack of "ambition" had aroused among his United team-mates.Buckling under the strain, Rooney needed friends but the United players turned their backs. They would not forgive their colleague's insult in suggesting their side had slipped into mediocrity. More money from the Glazers and a failure of nerve at Rooney's end produced the sweetness-and-light statement confirming his signature on a new five-year deal at Old Trafford. But the resentments felt by workmates and supporters will not be easily erased by the most spectacular U-turn in the history of modern transfer sagas.As Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill, the chief executive, bore down on Paul Stretford, Rooney's agent, in a meeting at Old Trafford, an unconditional apology was a precondition of England's leading player remaining at the club. United were at once pleading with Rooney to stay and playing hardball with the terms on which he might do so. Later that day, 40 men in balaclavas gathered outside the player's Cheshire mansion to warn him of the dire consequences should he defect across town."Wayne has apologised to me and the players," Ferguson told a local radio station when the volte face was completed. "He will also do so with the supporters." This, after United fans had unfurled banners at the midweek Champions League game against Bursaspor calling Rooney a "whore" and promising: "Colleen forgave you, we won't". Short of planting a new forest in Cheshire to compensate for all the newsprint he wasted, Rooney must identify a strategy to regain the trust of team-mates at the Carrington training groundand fans who will now see his alarming slump, retrospectively, as proof of self-indulgence.His problem is that his recent feeble form has come to look like part of a strategy to get away from a club he accused in a statement two hours before the Bursaspor game of failing to match his own grand vision for talent acquisition. By implication, Rooney was saying some of the recent recruits to Ferguson's squad were not fit to share his air space. This, in professional team sports, remains a complete no-no. The outrage expressed by celebrated ex-United players must have drummed in his brain like heavy rain on his roof.Patrice Evra, the team's warrior left-back, was the most explicit in his denunciation. He said: "If one player in the team does not trust the others, he should not play in the team. I trust everyone, I know we can win." Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville, Ferguson's closest confidantes in the dressing room, are likely to have restated the principle they grew up with: that individual egos should not be allowed to destroy togetherness.Even if the senior players forgive him, Chris Smalling, Javier Hernández, Bebé, Gabriel Obertan, Anderson and even Antonio Valencia are unlikely to forget the affront. They will feel Rooney's condescension throughout their time together. They have seen him issue ludicrous statements first justifying his desire to flee and then expressing his fidelity to the cause, all of which is at odds with his reputation for straight-talking and dependability.They will see, in other words, a creature of manipulation and self-contradiction: one they will feel they can rely on less. There is also the problem of his rocketing salary, which will eclipse theirs. Some will think Rooney has extorted an unrealistic wage with his brinkmanship and damaged the club along the way. It seemed significant that Nani kissed his United badge after scoring against Bursaspor: a memo, perhaps, to the traitor, as he was seen then.Selfish and often myopic by nature, most Premier League players would welcome Rooney back on purely pragmatic grounds. More quality in the side equals more chance of winning trophies and bonuses. Simple. But even here Rooney has a complication. If he returns to last season's rampant form (pre-March, at any rate) colleagues and supporters will take it as incontrovertible proof that he has been half-hearted since August. Conversely, a continuation of the droop would say United have broken the bank for a 24-year-old who has already peaked and may even be in decline.Supporters are no less capricious. United's will be blowing a raspberry at Manchester City and will be relieved to escape the stress of not knowing whom the club might find to replace him. Equally, their opinion of him will be lowered. Their willingness to embrace a Merseysider stemmed from the obvious sense that Rooney would run through a wall to wear the United shirt. Will they feel that now? More likely is that they will remember his arrogance for daring to tell Gill and Ferguson they were failing to match his "ambitions".Part of United's strategy on Thursday was to persuade him he was about to make an appalling error. Fans and players will probably feel he already has, with his disrespect.Wayne RooneyManchester UnitedPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |