Wales

This was always going to be a vital match for Wales as they look to develop under new boss Coleman and a clash with their Celtic rivals will show just how they are progressing.

A 2-0 home defeat to Belgium and a 6-1 thrashing away to Serbia was not the ideal start but those two nations are arguably the strongest in a tough group and may well qualify for the finals in Brazil.

Scotland have not exactly been pulling up any trees themselves and, with two draws from their opening two games, will also have their work cut out to reach the South American showpiece.

A game between any of the home nations is always a feisty affair and this one should be no different, with vital points and bragging rights on offer.

It could be argued that the Welsh have nothing to lose as they are not expected to make it out of the group and victory over the Scots and Macedonia might be as good as it could get for the Principality outfit, with Croatia completing a formidable looking group (Belgium 6/4fav – Group A Winner).

Wales have clearly got problems in front of goal and a return of just one from their last five games must be a worry for the management.

Assistant coach John Hartson has played down the fact that their last goal in open play came nearly a year ago, suggesting that he would be more worried if they were not creating chances.

But the game is about putting the ball in the back of the net and unless they can find someone to do it on a regular basis, Wales are always going to struggle.

The men in red do have one ace in the pack in Tottenham’s Gareth Bale and reports claim that the left winger will shake off a heel problem to take his place in the starting line-up, while full-back Adam Matthews has also been tipped to recover in time to play.

But Coleman does have a number of absentees to deal with as Craig Bellamy, Neil Taylor, James Collins and Jack Collison are all missing.

A football nation the size of Wales can ill-afford to have too many of its best players absent and they will be up against it on Friday.

But they do have a decent record in this fixture as Scotland’s victory in the Carling Nations Cup in Dublin back in May 2011 was the first time they had triumphed over the Welsh since February 1984.

Of the two mangers on show, Craig Levein is possibly under the greater pressure as expectation north of the border is always huge despite the resources available to the coach.

Wales goalkeeper Jason Brown alluded to the fact that Levein’s decision to recall Steven Fletcher proves the stress that he is under to get results – and he has a valid point.

Fletcher had been in the international wilderness for 18 months, after making himself unavailable for a match with Northern Ireland in early 2011, but will be back in the starting line-up in Cardiff on Friday as Levein knows he can bring goals to the party.

And the Scots certainly need his goalscoring prowess in the side as they have found the net just once in their first two qualification games.

Levein will also have to cope with a few missing stars after Jordan Rhodes and Robert Snodgrass were forced to withdraw through injury, while Grant Hanley pulled out on Monday.

Celtic winger Kris Commons has been called up to the squad having not played for the national side for more than a year, while striker Steven Naismith will miss the match and Tuesday’s clash with Belgium because of suspension.

Having been placed in such a strong group, it always looked likely that the British sides would have to play out of their skin to qualify for the World Cup, but victory over one of the great rivals would at least give both Scotland and Wales something to cheer about.

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Ahsan Ali Syed

The Indian businessman is in talks with Rovers over a possible £300million deal and this could see him pledge an initial £100million for new players.

This means that the former Manchester United star, who has not played in the Premier League since leaving Old Trafford seven years ago, is a realistic target for the Ewood Park side.

Discussions between Syed’s investment firm Western Gulf Advisory and Blackburn were described as “cordial and productive” earlier in the week. If an agreement can be reached, Beckham’s signing could pave the way for more big names at the club but manager Sam Allardyce has stressed the importance of getting value for money.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the 36-year-old Syed justified his love of Beckham and hinted why he is interested in swooping for the LA Galaxy star.

He said: “I was 26 when I started following the Premier League. I used to like Blackburn back then and also used to follow Manchester United’s fortunes because of David Beckham.

“If my finances allow and his intentions are positive then I would love to take Beckham.”

Meanwhile, although Allardyce insists that the takeover could bring “great success” to the club, he admits he would have to persuade any new owner that he would not be willing to pay over-the-odds for players. He also stated that he would like to build the club slowly with any money that is available to him and that big-money spending would have to be justifiable to the fans.

Allardyce expressed his belief that the money being talked about is small compared to the mega-money that is available to some other Premier League sides, singling out what Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool have spent in recent times.

He also stated that any comparisons between Syed and Jack Walker – the steel magnate whose investment aided Rovers’ successful Premier League title bid 15 years ago – are moot because back then, Walker was the biggest spender in the Premier League.

Accepting that Walker practically bought a whole team with then-manager Kenny Dalglish, Allardyce stressed that any foreign investment would need to be spent wisely.

He said: “It is fantastic money for a club like ours, but it is still, in terms of the top boys, not (enough to make) as big an impression as they have made over the last few years.

“The numbers that are being talked about at Blackburn, while fantastic to get us close, are not (equivalent to) the sort of money that Jack Walker first put in, which was more than everyone else at the time.”

Blackburn are currently 2000/1 to win the Premier League but these odds could shorten significantly should any takeover be completed.

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The 19-year-old has impressed in recent seasons for the Toffees and established himself in the Everton line-up towards the end of the last season.

England coach Capello has been widely tipped to introduce a new generation of stars with many believing Rodwell should be the man the side is built around.

Alongside the Everton youngster, Arsenal pair Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott and Manchester City’s Adam Johnson and Joe Hart are all tipped as the players to take England forward to the European Champions in 2012.

Rodwell scored four times for the Toffees last year and says he is hoping that scoring more goals from midfield could be the key to catching Capello’s eye.

Rodwell has been one of the stars of Everton’s recent tour to Australia and opened the goalscoring in their final match against Brisbane Roar.

“It was a nice way to sign off the tour,” said Rodwell. “It was good to get another win and to be on the scoresheet, which is my main aim for next season – to get more goals.

“Any goal counts but obviously it was a bit special to get a goal like that. The top players in the world, the Gerrards and the Kakas, score from long distance and that is something I am aiming to work on in my game. I am still young so hopefully I can keep improving.”

Another England hopeful Leighton Baines also commented that the tour had been a satisfying exercise for his side.

“It was a good tour for us and the teams we have beaten have been of a decent standard,” said Baines.

“We played some decent stuff and there are still plenty of top players to come back. The three victories were good and overall we are pretty pleased.”

Tim Cahill was the only player who played in the World Cup to take part in the tour of his homeland with Steven Pienaar, Tim Howard, Joseph Yobo, Yakubu, Jan Mucha and John Hetinga all due to meet up with the squad in the next few days.

Everton start their Premier League campaign on Saturday 14 August against Blackburn and Rodwell is hoping this will be the season where he becomes a key component in manager David Moyes’ side (Everton 8/5 to beat Blackburn).

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The South Americans took the lead through Robinho in the first half but a Felipe Melo own goal and a Wesley Sneijder header turned the tables in the second half as the Dutch ran out 2-1 winners.

Things went from bad to worse for Melo, who was deservedly sent off for stamping on Arjen Robben with 17 minutes to go.

Spain are the 9/4 second favourites to lift the World Cup but they face a tricky test against Paraguay on Saturday evening (Paraguay 7/1, draw 11/4, Spain 1/2).

Paraguay scraped into the last-eight by beating Japan on penalties in the last round after a lifeless 0-0 draw. Their success has been built on a solid defence, which has only conceded one goal in the competition so far.

Paraguay have only scored three goals in the World Cup but coach Gerardo Martino insists that his side will pose a significant threat to Spain.

“In three of the four World Cup matches we had to take the game to our opponents and that’s difficult for a team like ours,” said Martino.

“Our future rivals will let us play. Spain will give us more space.”

However, goalkeeper Justo Villar has warned the Spanish that his side will not return the favour and let their star names play.

“Our football has always been about a lot of hard work and tactics,” said Villar.

“It’s going to be a good match where you will see two types of football.

“One side trying to attack skilfully while we try to stop them and then try to take advantage of our chances.”

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is set to keep faith with misfiring striker Fernando Torres, who has failed to score in Spain’s four games in the World Cup to date.

Del Bosque has expressed his “full confidence” in the Liverpool striker despite Torres clearly struggling for form. In mitigating circumstances, he went into the tournament on the back of knee surgery in April and is clearly struggling for fitness.

In the last-16 clash against Portugal, del Bosque replaced Torres with Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente with the score at 0-0. Llorente twice went close to breaking the deadlock and was involved in David Villa’s winning goal.

This earned him plaudits in the Spanish media and the pressure is now on Torres to deliver with the Bilbao man breathing down his neck. However, he will receive confidence from the backing of his coach and will be hoping to reward this faith with a goal against Paraguay (Torres 4/1 to score first goal).

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Ivory Coast’s

The Portuguese were highly impressive in their 7-0 thrashing of North Korea and will now face Brazil in their final game, fully aware that their superior goal difference puts them firmly in the driving seat to take second qualification spot in the group.

The Brazilians have already qualified for the knockout rounds and are likely to field an under strength team in order to rest their key players for the big matches ahead.

The Ivory Coast have so far been disappointing in the competition opening with an uninspiring performance against Portugal and then losing to Brazil in a bad tempered match which saw Kaka sent off after a seemingly innocuous clash with Abdelkader Keita.

This now leaves the Ivorians, who only have a point to their name so far in the competition, needing to beat the North Koreans by a cricket score and hoping that Brazil can pull off a shock victory to help the Mighty Elephants qualify. (Ivory Coast 16/1 to qualify)

“If we win this match maybe a miracle can happen – only God knows. We will try to win our last match and if we exit, exit with our heads held high. We must believe we can still do it.” defender Artur Boka told reporters.

The Ivorians are in the so-called Group of Death and knew when the draw was made that it would be a struggle to qualify. However, they never believed their task would be so hard and striker Gervinho readily admits that he held his head in his hands during the Portugal’s rout of the North Koreans.”

“Every five minutes when I saw another goal I thought — this is catastrophic and the end for us,” he said.

Boka told reporters that he believed that his side as well as the other African nations had been unlucky not to fulfil the high expectations placed on them ahead of the first finals played on African soil.

“There are teams which in the future will make an impression — we have shown in this competition at least that we know how to play football.”

“We have teams who play good football but found it difficult to finish,” he said, adding hope was not lost for Ghana to progress, the only team from the continent to have won a game in the competition so far.

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Inter Milan’s Brazilian right back Maicon is one of the most respected right-backs in the world and has just played a crucial role in the treble winning Jose Mourinho Inter side.

Maicon’s ability has meant he was able to successfully replace a World Cup legend in the Brazilian team. The gap left by Cafu’s retirement from the Samba Boys was big, but Maicon is up to the task.

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The 28-year-old was already a big part of the success of Roberto Mancini’s Inter when he finally established himself as the starting right-back of the national team. Now, Maicon is one of the main players of Dunga’s Brazil and won the stiff competition with Daniel Alves to play in the right back role for the national side.

More than that, he hopes to be as successful as his predecessor, one of the players with most titles in the history of football.

According to reports in Italy, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini is hoping to be reunited with the Brazilian and is preparing to offer Inter £30million for the right-back as the Italian hopes to improve his back line during the summer.

It’s also widely reported that Jose Mourinho wants to take Maicon with him from Inter to Real Madrid and intends to make the Brazilian a top transfer target in the summer.

The 28-year-old is unsure as to where he will be playing next season but Maicon is not too worried as his full focus at the moment is on winning the World Cup as part of the Brazil squad.

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“My only thought is about doing the quadruple,” Maicon told the press.

“I dream of winning the World Cup after having won the Champions League, Scudetto and Coppa Italia.

“When the World Cup is over, they will tell me where I’ll play next year.”

As always, Brazil are strong favourites to lift the World Cup again in South Africa. Currently they are 5.50 to do so for the sixth time.

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