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Chelsea crowned champions of Europe after great escape
by Daniel Taylor
19 May 2012 at 10:51pm
• Didier Drogba slots the winner in a dramatic shootout
• Game went to penalties after extra-time finished on 1-1
These are the moments Chelsea will never want to forget. They gave everything and finally, when it was all done, they had the European Cup in their possession and the players in blue were celebrating the greatest triumph this club has ever known.
It was a rare form of euphoria on a night when, just like Moscow four years ago, it came down to the gut-wrenching drama of a penalty shootout. At one stage Bayern were leading 3-1. Juan Mata's effort had been saved by Manuel Neuer and the Chelsea players stood in line, heads bowed, knowing they were on the brink of walking past the European Cup and not being allowed to touch it.
What happened was extraordinary and went against everything we know about German clubs and penalties. Petr Cech started the turnaround by saving from Ivica Olic and then Bastian Schweinsteiger's effort came back off the post.
David Luiz, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole had all beaten Neuer and suddenly it was left to Didier Drogba with possibly the last kick of his last match for the club. What a parting gift for the Ivorian considering that it was also his 88th-minute goal that had dragged the match into extra time five minutes after Thomas Müller had headed the goal that looked like giving Bayern their fifth victory in this competition.
The trophy was being adorned with red and white ribbons by the time Drogba headed in the equaliser. This may not be the most exhilarating Chelsea team of the Abramovich years but nobody can dispute their resolve because this told only part of the story on a night when Cech also saved Arjen Robben's penalty in the first period of extra time.
Officially, Uefa will stick to their line that the tickets were divided equally between the two clubs. It was a nonsense, though. At least two thirds of the stadium was bedecked in red. Bayern's supporters were beery and boisterous and before kick-off they unveiled a huge banner of the trophy, covering the entire end behind Manuel Neuer's goal. A collage of red and white sheets formed the accompanying words: Unser Stadt, Unser Stadion. Unser Pokal. Our City. Our Stadium. Our Cup.
What should not be overlooked is that Bayern are formidable opponents on this ground, with only two home defeats in the Bundesliga last season, 49 goals scored and six conceded. They began the game with great adventure, attacking from the flanks. On one side, Arjen Robben was an elusive opponent. On the other, Franck Ribéry was a constant menace for José Bosingwa. Chelsea had to endure some intense pressure during those early stages. Not quite as relentless as the two legs of their semi-final against Barcelona but still fairly unremitting, all the same. Once again, they were having to defend with great togetherness and commitment before they could even contemplate causing problems of their own.
This was how Bayern had started the 1999 final against Manchester United except, unlike then, they could not turn their superiority into the hard currency of an early goal. Petr Cech turned away their best effort inside the opening half, lashed in from Robben's left boot. Thomas Müller flashed a volley wide from one of Diego Contento's overlapping runs and there were other moments when Chelsea were simply grateful for their opponents' finishing. At other times, Cech seemed to fill the entire goal-frame.
Chelsea's first-half attacks were far more sporadic but there were glimpses of real quality from Mata and an encouraging 10-minute spell before half-time. Even then, however, the most inviting chance fell to Mario Gomez only for the striker to continue with the theme of erratic penalty-box finishing.
It was probably inevitable Chelsea would have to live dangerously at times given that their most influential defender was watching from the stands and their centre-backs, David Luiz and Gary Cahill, had not played for five weeks and four weeks respectively. This was a patched-up side in many ways, not just missing John Terry's influence but the energy and drive of Ramires and the extra solidity Branislav Ivanovic offers instead of Bosingwa. Ryan Bertrand worked diligently but was only on the edges of the game on the night he was brought in for his first ever Champions League appearance.
Bertrand's involvement on the left of midfield, often doubling up with Cole so that Chelsea had two full-backs in close proximity to Robben, confirmed how seriously Di Matteo regarded the Dutchman's penetrative bursts.
The second half began the same way. It was difficult to keep count with the number of telling blocks or interceptions Luiz made. Cole, reiterating his position as one of the great big-game players, stuck to the task of chasing Robben. Cahill, like David Luiz, seemed determined that Terry's absence should not be a key factor. In midfield, Lampard curbed his natural attacking instincts to play a more conservative role alongside Mikel John Obi.
When Ribéry did turn the ball past Cech after 53 minutes, only to be denied by a marginal offside decision, it was from a swift counterattack on the back of a Chelsea breakaway. Mostly, though, they were ploys of containment from the side in blue. Di Matteo had set them up to play very much as the "away" team, meaning Drogba was often isolated in attack.
Their resistance finally crumbled on 83 minutes when Ribéry chipped his cross to the far post, Cole found himelf outnumbered by players in red and Müller came in from behind them both to direct a stooped header past Cech.
A lesser side would have hoisted the white flag but that this not the way of this Chelsea team. Mata's corner was whipped across the penalty area.
Drogba was fast and decisive, flashing his header goalwards. It was the perfect connection, carrying enough power to find the top corner of the net via Neuer's glove.
In probably his final game for Chelsea, it would have been cruel on Drogba if his silly trip on Ribéry, three minutes into extra time, had been the decisive moment. Robben struck his penalty cleanly enough, low and hard to Cech's left. The goalkeeper smothered the shot.
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Blackpool 1-2 West Ham
by Paul Wilson
19 May 2012 at 5:02pm
Ricardo Vaz Tê spent most of the afternoon infuriating the West Ham faithful with his indecisiveness in front of goal, before redeeming himself three minutes from time with the strike that sends Sam Allardyce and the Irons back into the Premier League after a year's absence. It was not quite as breathless a finish as the Premier League title decider last Sunday, but Blackpool were every bit as awkward as Queens Park Rangers and the relief of the West Ham fans at the end was almost tangible.
Extra time, like the match itself, could have gone either way, though in that event West Ham would kicked themselves over the number of opportunities they missed in the second half alone. You could see how Blackpool managed to concede four in each of their two league meetings with West Ham this season, even if they kept their promise to make more of a game of it at Wembley.
"It was a very difficult game for us, especially after they equalised," Allardyce said. "The result was all that really mattered, though, and we couldn't have scored the winner at a better time. We haven't managed a last-minute winner all season, so what a time to do it, in the 49th game. I thought we could have made it easier for ourselves had we gone in two up at half-time, when Vaz Tê had that chance just before the interval, but we kept going until the end, changed the system a few times, and it is brilliant just to go through. We would have liked to play a bit better, but you have to give credit to Blackpool for not letting us."
The first half-hour passed scoreless, which was remarkable given the number of clear chances created at each end. With better finishing Blackpool could easily have been two goals to the good before West Ham properly got started, Stephen Dobbie slipping effortlessly past Matt Taylor to bring a sharp near-post save from Robert Green after just three minutes, then Matt Phillips shooting only weakly at the goalkeeper when clean through from a threaded Dobbie pass. Perhaps Blackpool's best chance of all fell to the normally reliable Matt Phillips after Guy Demel's mistake gave him a clear run on goal and a good sight of the target, only for the eventual shot to fly wide.
After a slow start, and Vaz Tê unwisely attempting a shot from the left byline when he would have done better to square to a colleague, West Ham gradually imposed themselves on the game. Vaz Tê fired wide again from a lay-off by Carlton Cole and Kevin Nolan, Cole headed too high from an inviting Taylor cross, and Jack Collison gave an indication of growing adventurousness when he attempted to chip Matt Gilks from the edge of the area but put his shot over the bar.
Kevin Phillips, playing from the start up front in the absence of Gary Taylor-Fletcher, was struggling either to hold up the ball or make much impression on James Tomkins, and after pushing Blackpool back into their own half and forcing a series of corners West Ham made the breakthrough 10 minutes before half-time. When Thomas Ince lost possesion by the touchline West Ham rapidly transferred the ball forward from the left, and a marvellous diagonal pass by Taylor gave Cole the start he needed to bring the ball down, hold off Ian Evatt and place his shot beyond Gilks. Blackpool's early promise appeared to have evaporated, and they could have turned round two goals down had Vaz Tê put his shot the other side of a post with the defence split open again.
Ian Holloway's sides tend not to let their heads drop, however, and within three minutes of the restart Blackpool put themselves back on terms. A glorious diagonal ball from just inside his own half by Matt Phillips gave Ince the chance to show his speed, and he duly got in front of Winston Reid to slip the ball past Green with a crisp finish.
It was anybody's game now, with Collison volleying over from Taylor's cross and Matt Phillips trying to send Ince in for an identical second but overhitting the pass. Cole forced a fingertip save from Gilks with a shot on the turn, Dobbie misfired with the goal at his mercy from Neal Eardley's inviting cross, and Alex Baptiste put a good chance over from a half-cleared corner. Blackpool enjoyed a brief spell on top culminating in Dobbie seeing a shot saved by Green, then back came West Ham and Nolan thumped a volley against the bar when he seemed to have struck the winner.
Just when extra time appeared a more likely prospect than a decisive moment, Vaz Tê provided the latter with three minutes to spare. His finishing had been erratic all afternoon, but when the ball ran free after Gilks hurled himself at Cole's feet from Mark Noble's cross, he really could not miss.
Cue bubbles, fireworks, and specially printed T-shirts proclaiming Nothing Beats Being Back. Blackpool would have felt the same way, but they had to slink off almost unnoticed. If you believe the hype that this game is worth £90m to the winners, and after a game that was far from one-sided, Blackpool left Wembley looking like they had had their hands on just such a sum and then seen it snatched away.
"We experienced the other side two years ago, and compared to that this feels pretty lifeless now," Holloway said. "I'm just sorry the lads didn't get the bonus they deserved, but we can still feel proud. Half the world thought West Ham were going to win but it didn't feel that way halfway through the second half. Good luck to Sam and his team, though if you are going to go up this is the way to do it. You get the Wembley buzz all through summer and you get another medal."
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England turn screw against Windies
by Vic Marks
19 May 2012 at 7:05pm
• England on course for comfortable victory at Lord's
• West Indies fight back in field but lose wickets cheaply
So far this has been a match devoid of surprises. England have dictated but not with absolute authority; West Indies have been plucky but occasionally self-destructive (there was another crass run-out on Saturday); inexorably the home side are on course for their anticipated victory even though Shivnarine Chanderpaul is still there.
But our anticipation has often been thwarted. We craved something from the new boy Jonny Bairstow to light up Lord's. He only tickled our fancy with a 27-ball innings of 16, tantalisingly decorated with three crisp boundaries; the West Indies pacemen, potentially a thrilling sight, have been stifled by a clogging docile pitch, their batsmen by typically disciplined English bowling. Instead, England have ground down the opposition with their customary efficiency in the field. It has been an impressive performance, not an enthralling one.
England turned the screw in the 10 minutes before tea. Faced with a deficit of 155 the West Indian openers had proceeded with just the odd alarm to 36 without loss, whereupon England pounced as good sides tend to do. The West Indies would take tea in a mess – at 36 for three.
Tim Bresnan made his first significant contribution of the match, thereby suggesting that he was in the side for more than reasons of superstition. He had yielded 10 runs from the first four balls of his spell, but his fifth was a beauty, which feathered the outside edge of Adrian Barath's bat. Until then Barath had impressed – again – with the fluency of his cover driving.
In the next over, from Stuart Broad, Kieran Powell's callowness was exposed. Broad, from around the wicket, pounded the ball into the turf. Powell obligingly could not resist the hook shot but he was hurried and cramped and the ball came off his bat in a gentle parabola down into the hands of Ian Bell in front of the Tavern.
To state the bleeding obvious, England's bowlers are happier bowling at Powell than to Chris Gayle. Unlike Gayle, Powell has had a prolific time in Somerset; he was at Millfield School as a 15-year-old alongside Craig Kieswetter, Rory Hamilton-Brown and Tom Maynard. Further up the cricketing ladder run-scoring is proving trickier.
Worse was to follow. Dwayne Bravo, a run-out victim in the first innings, was the culprit in the second. He pushed his second ball from Bresnan into the covers; he beckoned the unfortunate Kirk Edwards for a single and then had second thoughts. Now Bairstow swooped; his throw shattered the stumps and Edwards could keep jogging towards the pavilion.
No one is quite sure whether Bairstow is a better batsman than Ravi Bopara at the moment, but he is certainly a better fielder (and wicketkeeper). There was once a time when keepers could not throw the ball hard enough to remove the fluff from a dandelion. Not any more.
Unlike Chanderpaul in the first innings Bravo could not make amends. He was all diligence and self-denial, but his judgment was fallible against Graeme Swann. Bravo shouldered arms to a delivery from the Nursery End that just kept coming down the slope until it hit the off stump.
However, Chanderpaul remained. In their eagerness to dispose of him England tried a review for lbw just before the close, but to no avail.
Even so, England's first-innings lead still looked sufficient at the close even though they may have been disappointed that it was a mere 155. On a muggy morning Andrew Strauss added one run before he was dismissed, caught behind on review, off Kemar Roach.
Strauss has an odd record when resuming his innings on three figures – although this need not fuel further debate about his suitability to keep captaining England. This was the sixth occasion that he had failed to add more than six runs after starting a day's play with a century to his name.
This is not a bad problem to have. My solution probably borders on the heretical for this regime. There is the suspicion that Strauss is so responsible and well-ordered as a captain that he denies himself much celebration upon completion of a century if he remains not out overnight. Clearly he needs to celebrate more. At the very least he needs to change his routine. If he was blotto on Friday night, accept this apology for getting it completely wrong.
Bairstow's innings barely qualified as a cameo but grabbed the attention until he was leg-before to Roach. He may not bat again in this match, which would leave the selectors with a conundrum for the Trent Bridge Test that starts on Friday, if Bopara is restored to full fitness. Should they give Bairstow another go?
Technically, the Yorkshireman did not replace Bopara in the side; it was merely assumed before the Test that Bopara would be recalled to the XI. One of them will have every reason to feel grumpy when the squad is selected.
Bell will feel more secure in his place after an innings of 61, which was polished but forgettable in a fitful batting performance from the lower order. Neither Matt Prior, with a skittish 19, Bresnan, with a distinctly un-skittish duck, nor Broad could last long as the ball swung a little.
However, Swann and Bell combined in a significant partnership of 55 for the ninth-wicket. No one in the England innings timed the ball as effortlessly as Swann when invited to drive through the covers. The off-spinner contributed a silky 30 and it was a mystery why the West Indies pacemen chose not to pepper him with a few bouncers. It is not a mistake their predecessors would have made.
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Dominant Leinster rule roost again
by Eddie Butler
19 May 2012 at 7:19pm
Leinster 42-14 Ulster
It ended as a rout, with Leinster romping to their third victory in four seasons and staking a claim as the finest side to have graced the Heineken Cup. The competition's history is 17 years old, but this is a rare team, from the defensive strength of Rob Kearney at full-back to the all-round qualities of Cian Healy at loosehead prop, with the peerless Brian O'Driscoll limping but somehow imperious in the middle.
Leinster won by a record margin, but it was only in the closing minutes that they tormented Ulster and ran away with it. Until then, Ulster had fought tigerishly and inventively. And looked second best in both departments. But it was a contest to a point somewhere near the end.
The losers began by asking one of the more obvious questions: can Rob Kearney catch? The answer was even clearer: like no other. The full-back soared above a throng to claim the ball and one avenue of attack, by the aerial route was slammed shut.
The second probe seemed just as unpromising, a thrust by Darren Cave at the Leinster centres, the international pairing of O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy. But suddenly Cave was through and in open space. Leinster scrambled back and forced the turnover, if only to see O'Driscoll's clearance charged down. The ball rebounded to safety, but it showed that this was to be a final of many surprises.
John Afoa was prominent in the loose as a ball-carrier for Ulster, the work by the prop opening up a little space for Paddy Wallace. With the percentage of possession registering 82% in their favour after seven minutes, Ulster took their reward, three points from this build-up, a penalty from Ruan Pienaar.
Then came the first of the Ulster errors, Stefan Terblanche kicking straight into touch from inside his own 22, but from a pass from Pienaar who was outside it. The lineout led to a scrum, from which Pedrie Wannenburg tried to pick up and charge. The No8 was turned over and Leinster converted all the back-foot pressure into forward momentum. D'Arcy made ground, Kearney went through the challenge of Wanneburg, as did the prodigious Sean O'Brien on his way to the line.
It seemed to represent a turn of the tide, a swing that would have been confirmed had Jonathan Sexton not hooked a relatively simple penalty shot. But all the first try did was increase the intensity of the action. Ulster threw their forwards into midfield and instead of blindly going to ground, Afoa, Chris Henry, Tom Court and Stephen Ferris were slipping passes away, short and long, ending up putting pressure on a Leinster lineout five metres out.
Not that Leinster were disconcerted by being so close to their own line. Richardt Strauss led the break-out, supported by Eoin Reddan and they finished with Isa Nacewa being tackled into touch in the corner diagonally opposite their staring point.
Little errors began to show, the more costly committed by Ulster. Paddy Jackson kicked out on the full, a sign that the occasion was taking its toll on the 20-year-old. Individually he was struggling, and the Ulster pack were about to struggle collectively, Leinster shoving them off their own feed. It led to a glimpse of O'Driscoll at his finest. Eight days after keyhole surgery on his knee, at the end of a season ruined by a shoulder injury, the centre straightened simply and flipped sublimely a pass to O'Brien, the surge ending with Healy touching down.
Ulster's response was to string together another stream of attacks with trademark passes from the forwards, all their work undone by Jackson when he ignored an overlap and went on his own. The missed opportunity was softened when Pienaar thumped over a penalty from 60 metres, but Ulster still trailed by eight points at the interval.
The unravelling of Jackson was completed at the start of the second half when he again kicked out on the full. From the lineout, Leinster launched a ferocious drive that resulted in a penalty try.
Jackson was hauled off and despite his replacement, Ian Humphreys, also ignoring an overlap, Ulster did offer the possibility of a comeback when Dan Tuohy crossed.
It triggered nothing of the sort because from then on, Leinster were magnificent, sealing the game with two more penalties by Sexton and putting a thick layer of gloss on their performance with tries by a pair of front-row replacements, Heinke van der Merwe and Sean Cronin. The Leinster replacements were as good as the starters, the forwards as skilled – or nearly – as the mighty O'Driscoll. A great player's career – compare his day with poor Jackson's – may have hit its final high point.
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Brilliant Frankel races to a perfect 10
by Greg Wood
19 May 2012 at 5:49pm
• Sir Henry Cecil-trained runner is five-lengths winner
• Royal Ascot in June the next step for brilliant colt
If there was an image to sum up the afternoon when Frankel returned to racing looking as exceptional as ever, it was the sight of Prince Khalid Abdullah, the colt's owner and normally one of the most retiring men on the track, signing autographs for racegoers as he left the winner's enclosure. There were ruddy-faced country gents in tweeds clutching "Go Frankel!" banners too. Frankel is extraordinary, and the aura around him is now becoming rather surreal.
A win in the Group One Lockinge Stakes would have been enough for the thousands drawn here, to extend Frankel's unbeaten record to 10 races and set him up for greater challenges ahead, so his five-length defeat of Excelebration, a very good horse with the bad luck to have been born in the same generation as Frankel, exceeded most expectations. But it was not simply the winning margin, but the manner of his performance from start to finish that was so thoroughly impressive.
Relaxed and professional in the paddock, Frankel showed no hint of the bubbling exuberance that often prefaced his appearances last season. Ten races into his career, he finally looked like the finished article, ready to channel all his energy into the race, and within a few strides of the start he was settled in second place behind Bullet Train, his pacemaker.
From that point, it was an exercise in joining the dots, and when Tom Queally, Frankel's jockey, began to stoke him up with a quarter of a mile to run, Joseph O'Brien, on Excelebration, was already getting to work, and with far less impressive results.
Frankel burst clear and Excelebration, as so often in the past, was booked for second place. This was a small field and a straight mile, but it was still hard to imagine any set of tactics, employed by any number of rivals on any track, that could frustrate such a freakish – and focused – talent.
Aidan O'Brien, who took over as Excelebration's trainer at the start of the season, was among the first people to congratulate Sir Henry Cecil, Frankel's trainer, in the winner's enclosure, and even a man who has trained countless champions seemed genuinely surprised by just how easily his horse had been beaten.
This, it seems, is just the beginning, with Cecil insistent that Frankel will come on significantly for his first run, having missed 10 days of his build-up to the Lockinge with a minor leg injury. "You have to feel your way, because you can't make up time, you can't suddenly put 10 days' work into him in the time [that you have]," Cecil said. "So you have to get him there without flattening him out.
"He behaved beautifully, there was very little sweat between his legs. He always takes a tiny bit of a hold, but he had a really good blow afterwards, and I'm absolutely certain, or I'll be very surprised, if he doesn't come on from the race. He could do no more than he did today."
The question of where Frankel will run next is all but decided, and all being well, he will appear at Royal Ascot next month. However, whether he will appear on the opening day, in the Queen Anne Stakes over a mile, or step up to a mile and a quarter, for the first time, in the Prince of Wales's Stakes, has yet to be resolved.
"He will probably tackle a little bit further as the season goes on," Cecil said, "but there's no hurry, is there? What are we trying to prove? As long as he does it some time, when he's ready to do it. I'd think it's more likely we will go for the Queen Anne and then go from there. Whether he goes for the Eclipse or the Sussex and then the Juddmonte, we'll just see. He'll tell me.
"He's stronger this year, and Tom Queally said that his acceleration was incredible. It's exciting, because he does improve for his races. If you look at last year, he improved as the year goes on, and there's no reason now that he's stronger why he shouldn't."
For all Frankel's authority on Saturday, he remains an even-money chance with William Hill to finish his career later this year without a blemish on his record. That the bookies still think it is 50-50 that he will be beaten in one of his next four or five starts is a reminder that bad luck can strike at any moment. He has been the favourite for all 10 of his races, however, and odds-on for the last nine, and is quoted at around 1-3 for the Queen Anne.
That seems his most likely target, although Cecil's question – "what are we trying to prove?" – was still hanging in the air long after Prince Khalid had signed his last autograph.
Frankel's last five Group One wins have been over a mile, and with his seasonal return now safely negotiated, what they are trying to prove is that Frankel is as good, or better, as any thoroughbred that has peered through a bridle.
A step up to 10 furlongs, perhaps for the remainder of his career, would demonstrate versatility as well as brilliance, and provide fresh opponents to test him. It will be Frankel's next great challenge in what promises to be an incredible season.
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How the Olympic torch could ignite Europe
by Chris Riddell
20 May 2012 at 12:04am
Chris Riddell on Greece's Olympic - and financial - legacy
Chris Riddell
Didier Drogba hails Chelsea's never-say-die spirit in Champions League
19 May 2012 at 11:33pm
• 'They never give up until the end. This team is amazing'
• Lampard wants Drogba to stay after Bayern victory
Didier Drogba hailed his side's never-say-die spirit after helping Chelsea claim the Champions League for the first time in their history.
The Blues beat Bayern Munich 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out after tonight's final at the Allianz Arena had finished 1-1 after extra-time. Drogba struck the winning penalty, having also headed home an 88th-minute equaliser to cancel out Thomas Müller's opener for Bayern five minutes previously.
Drogba said of his team-mates: "They never give up until the end. This team is amazing."
The Ivory Coast international added: "It was written, I think, a long time ago. I want to dedicate this cup to all the managers we've had before, all the players I've played with before."
Drogba also hailed the performance of the goalkeeper Petr Cech, who saved a penalty from Arjen Robben in extra-time and then also played a key part as Bayern missed twice in the shoot-out. "When we have this guy in goal you have to believe," Drogba said.
Frank Lampard hit one of Chelsea's four successful penalties and the 33-year-old, who joined from West Ham in 2001 and captained the team tonight in John Terry's absence, savoured the club's glory night. He said: "I can't believe it. The determination we've shown... we didn't play fantastic but the main man Didier dug us out of trouble there. He's a hero. Without him we're not here. He scores the goals in the big games."
Lampard said of Drogba, who is out of contract this summer: "I'd love him to stay. What he did tonight he's been doing all his career."
Of the club's triumph, Lampard said: "It means everything. We've been so many years trying to do this. This is the one we really wanted and we've got it."
Asked whether the win should lead to interim manager Roberto Di Matteo being given the job permanently, Lampard said: "It's not a question for this moment. He took us from a struggling team maybe going out of the Champions League and we won it, so look at that."
Di Matteo refused to discuss his future after Chelsea were handed the trophy. "I'm enjoying this moment and I'd just like to go out and celebrate with the players. I won't talk about it now. I just want to enjoy the moment."
The Italian hailed his team's spirit, saying: "We have a group of players that have a big heart, passion, motivation and desire. That was the only way to be able to achieve this trophy. It's been an immense effort by the whole group - staff, players - and we are very happy tonight."
As for Drogba, who joined Chelsea from Marseille eight years ago, Di Matteo said: "He's been incredible for this club. He scored a fantastic goal tonight to keep us in the game, then the winning penalty as well."
Di Matteo took over from Andre Villas-Boas at the start of March, and said: "It's been an incredible three months, demanding and challenging for everybody."
Cech believes Di Matteo has staked a strong claim to be manager on a permanent basis. Cech said on ITV1: "Whatever happens to him he's got two fantastic cups and he's deserved that. I think he's done enough to get the job but now it's up to the board to decide."
Looking back to Chelsea's last Champions League final four years ago, Cech said: "When we lost the penalty shoot-out against Manchester United in Moscow maybe it was not meant to be our moment. But as a player you hope you will have the same opportunity to play the final. It was a rollercoaster road, we all enjoyed it, and we got there in the end. I faced six penalties and six times I went the right way, four times I touched the ball."
Absent skipper Terry still got to lift the trophy, sharing the duties with Lampard, and afterwards he called for Di Matteo to be given the job on a full-time basis. "Robbie has been fantastic since he came in," he said. "You look at that trophy. That's certainly what we've been waiting for, what the owner's been waiting for, what the owner was in tears for.
"He's strived for this, he's pumped an awful lot of money into this football club trying top achieve that. Tonight we've done that and Robbie deserves a lot of credit for that."
On the Italian's chances of becoming manager permanently, he added: "We hope so. He's been fantastic. He can't do any more than he's done. To win the FA Cup and the Champions League, he can't do more than that."
The England international also added on Sky Sports 1, that he was grateful to UEFA for allowing him to carry the cup. "It means the world to me," he said. "It was a great touch from Frank and a really nice gesture from UEFA. It was a really unfortunate situation I put myself in, but on nights like this you have to be involved."
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Wayne Rooney's England break could be a blessing, says Roy Hodgson
by Owen Gibson
19 May 2012 at 11:00pm
• England manager says striker will benefit from enforced rest
• Rooney suspended from first two games at Euro 2012
Wayne Rooney's period of enforced rest could turn out to be a blessing in disguise, believes the England manager, Roy Hodgson. The Manchester United striker is unlikely to have played for a month by the time England face Ukraine in their final group game at the European Championship, as he is banned for their first two matches and is unlikely to feature in either warm-up friendly.
Hodgson also revealed that Rooney had been carrying an injury during the closing weeks of the season that would benefit from two weeks' rest. "He has been playing with a slight injury for the last three or four games and that needed a couple of weeks to really clear up," he said. "It would have meant asking him to continue playing with this minor injury, which has been kept relatively quiet for the obvious reason that Manchester United didn't want to alert opponents. It [the break] will benefit him in every respect."
Rooney will not travel with the squad to Oslo for Saturday's friendly with Norway, during which Hodgson will experiment with striking options in his absence, and the new manager has yet to decide whether he will feature during the final warm-up match against Belgium at Wembley on 2 June – six days before the start of Euro 2012.
But Hodgson said he expected Rooney to return at full fitness and that he would benefit from the break at the end of a long season. He will join the squad on 29 May, the same date as Chelsea's players who have featured in the Champions League final.
"His enthusiasm for the task was really fantastic. When I offered him a couple more days rest if he wanted, he was adamant he wanted to get in [and join us]," he said. "We've got time to get people fit. The good thing about football players these days is that they look after themselves quite well."
Hodgson said he had decided against becoming the latest England manager to try to tempt Rooney's Manchester United team-mate Paul Scholes out of international retirement. "I'm a great admirer of Paul Scholes, he has gone back to United and had a major part to play in the second part of their season. He's a wonderful player but he is coming to the latter end of his career," he said.
Hodgson said that he would have approached Scholes only if there had been a "void" at the heart of England's midfield, which he did not believe was the case. "He knows as well as I do that there isn't a void. I'm not 100% sure he wanted to juggle England and Manchester United again," he said.
But he said another long running conundrum for England managers – grappling with the perennial problem of fitting Frank Lampard and his captain Steven Gerrard into the same starting XI – held no fear for him.
"I've seen them both do very good central midfield jobs for their club sides. I've seen Steven do it for me at Liverpool and I've seen Frank Lampard do it extremely well, not least in the last couple of weeks against Barcelona – one of the most talented midfields you could ever wish to play against," Hodgson said.
"I don't want to sit here and say of course it can work because I'd be flying in the face of evidence that you could put before me that says that's not true. But I don't see Gerrard or Lampard as being exclusively offensive or defensive. They are all-round midfield players who have all the qualities you need."
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Champions League final 2013: new pretenders set sights on Wembley
by Amy Lawrence
19 May 2012 at 11:00pm
The party is still going strong in Munich but football's glamour game is heading back to London in a year's time
Football's A-listers are in Munich this weekend. Quite apart from the two clubs involved, the Champions League final is a magnet for every club, every coach, every fixer who likes to consider himself a part of the elite. The mingling, preening and backslapping in Uefa's official hotel needs to be seen to be believed. It is as close as football comes to putting on an equivalent of an Oscars afterparty, albeit without the dresses.
There will, though, be a handful of clubs not preoccupied by making an appearance in Germany over the weekend as they are otherwise engaged. Juventus are playing Napoli in the Italian Cup final on Sunday, with a chance to embellish the Alessandro Del Piero farewell tour with another trophy. In France Montpellier visit relegated Auxerre intent on securing the point they need to claim the title for the first time in their history. Paris St-Germain, who need Montpellier to lose, are at Lorient on the final weekend of Ligue 1 fixtures, hungry to pounce.
It is only when their seasons are finally over that teams such as Juventus, Napoli, Montpellier and PSG can reflect on the significant campaigns they have all had. Napoli, in particular, will not easily forget the leaps and bounds they made in the Champions League this season. The Coppa Italia final gives them a chance to celebrate a campaign that has at times been wonderfully uplifting as they won new friends with their boldness against Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. In Serie A they were too inconsistent to finish high enough to qualify for Europe's top table again but this team wants honours before a summer that is likely to see some of its crucial components broken off. Ezequiel Lavezzi is already halfway out of the door of the San Paolo, with his agent flirting openly with PSG and rumours heating up regarding Internazionale.
The Coppa Italia may not be the most adored of competitions but it would mean a great deal to the Partenopei, who last won it at the height of the Maradona era. "We haven't won a trophy for 25 years and we have all of the ingredients at our disposal to play a great game," says the Napoli captain, Paolo Cannavaro.
Juventus go into the final on the back of their invincible scudetto. They have had a few days to attempt to come down to earth after the volcanic emotions of last weekend, when Del Piero's parting gift of a goal on his last home appearance for the Turin club coincided with the conclusion of an undefeated league campaign, and an open-top bus parade that was defiant and cathartic. Taking their place back at the Italian summit after the calciopoli scandal was never going to be something to underplay. "It's fun walking down the street in Turin and seeing people hit the brakes in the middle of the road so they can get out of their cars, hug you, cry and thank you for everything," reflected the coach, Antonio Conte.
Juventus are eager to return to the Champions League next season after four years in the wilderness and it will be fascinating to see how they fare. They can bring more strength, more savvy, more consistency and a sharper winning mentality to the party than Napoli did. The great unknown issue for next season is that their players do not have much experience at the top level of European competition. Next season there will be only three survivors from the lineup the last time Juventus played a Champions League game – Gianluigi Buffon, Georgio Chiellini and Claudio Marchisio.
Juve are expected to bolster their squad over the summer. While they must somehow address the departure of Del Piero and are openly in the market for a high-calibre centre-forward, they could do with strengthening in midfield and defence, too. With the added pressures of Champions League football next term, they want more depth in the squad.
Milan, too, have a recruitment drive on their hands after the retirements of a cluster of old favourites. They have already started, having brought in a couple of free agents, Riccardo Montolivio from Fiorentina and Bakaye Traoré from Nancy.
Although Montpellier are favourites to win the league at the expense of PSG, it is not hard to predict which of the French clubs will be aiming to make an impact on next season's Champions League. Montpellier face the same problem Lille experienced a year ago, when they lost three of their most valuable players in one fell swoop as soon as they had won the title. Montpellier are braced for bids to come in for their target man Olivier Giroud, playmaker Younes Belhanda and defensive linchpin Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. Meanwhile PSG have chequebook and pen at the ready. They have a reported €100m to spend and will hoover up as much talent as they can. They are quite a few players short of the standards they want to reach but the club's Qatari owners will have noticed the strides made by Manchester City this season.
Roberto Mancini's team, now that they have proved they have sufficient power and technique to topple Manchester United on the domestic front, are under pressure to make more of an impression in the Champions League. Another early exit will not easily be tolerated now that the club have stepped on to a level where they have to be judged as contenders – as all Premier League winners should be.
Borussia Dortmund have to show they belong with the best in Europe after an inhibited showing last term. Although Shinji Kagawa is on his way out, Jürgen Klopp's team will be boosted by the return of Marco Reus. It was an important signing by Dortmund in that it made the point that the best young Germans do not automatically move to Bayern.
But no matter how much money is spent elsewhere, as usual, it is hard to escape the feeling that any team that wants to go far in the Champions League will have to ride its luck and get past Spain's heavyweights. Barcelona and Real Madrid are both on the hunt for improvements. Defeat by Chelsea in the semi-finals has made Barça talk again about the merits of having a taller centre- forward, and they also need a left-back. Real are well equipped as a squad but one marquee signing is on the agenda. A goalscorer, with Sergio Agüero, Radamel Falcao and Robin van Persie on the radar, is in their sights.
Not long after the parties in Munich come to an end planning cranks up for the road to Wembley 2013.
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Liverpool may find Roberto Martínez is the limit of their ambition | Paul Wilson
by Paul Wilson
19 May 2012 at 11:00pm
The owners FSG may have to convince such as Pep Guardiola that the Anfield job is still one to covet
Dave Whelan's rentaquote tendencies appear to have created the impression that Roberto Martínez is the frontrunner for the Liverpool job, though Fenway Sports Group are spreading their net wider than the Wigan manager – much wider. In fact any shortlist that contains Martínez and Brendan Rodgers, plus Jürgen Klopp, Didier Deschamps, André Villas-Boas, Fabio Capello and Pep Guardiola is not really a shortlist at all, more of a supermarket sweep of all Europe's brightest young managers.
Correction – Capello may be bright but he is not young. The Italian is four years older than Kenny Dalglish, only five years younger than Sir Alex Ferguson and, given that Liverpool are understood to be looking for a manager with enough of his career ahead of him to invest a significant chunk of it in a major overhaul, the former England manager's inclusion on the wish list is surely a red herring. Capello would be a better fit at Chelsea, where he knows half the players, could retune the squad with a couple of key changes and where managers last only a season or two anyway.
The rest of the Liverpool targets, even Guardiola, all fit the bill of young, talented types who could devote several years to a project that could potentially define their careers. It could be argued that anything Guardiola does after Barcelona would constitute a step down, though putting Liverpool back on their perch, to borrow a phrase of Ferguson's, is an invitation that ought to excite any ambitious manager with a belief in his own ability. There are snags, of course; there always are when the best jobs become available.
The residual affection for Dalglish may prove a problem for any relatively untried young manager trying to step into his shoes and after the money that has already been spent there can be no certainty that the club's American owners will provide the funding necessary to compete with Manchester City and the leading London clubs.
Yet with due respect to Dalglish Liverpool have just finished in their worst league position for 18 years and have been brutally described by Whelan, who appears to have an opinion on everything, as a club with no heart. The scope for improvement is obvious and, if you are a manager who has just led Swansea comfortably into mid-table at the first attempt, or delivered back-to-back Bundesliga titles within four years of your appointment at Borussia Dortmund, the chance to join up with one of Europe's truly great clubs and write your name into Liverpool's glorious history ought to be irresistible.
That is what the brochure will say, even if Rodgers has already ruled himself out. In reality you would be Liverpool's fourth manager in four seasons, in charge of an expensively assembled team that finished 37 points behind the two Manchester sides, with only limited funds to rebuild and attempting to please an audience that, brought up to expect success, has proved impatient with anything that smacks of a small-club mentality or a departure from tradition.
Klopp in particular, in charge of a side regularly watched by 80,000 at the biggest stadium in Germany, may regard Anfield as a relatively puny field of dreams and the ongoing uncertainty over Liverpool's new ground is just one more reason to view the FSG revolution with caution.
Dalglish never used to complain about Anfield because it was his spiritual home but, if Liverpool are talking about bringing in a coach from Barcelona or Borussia Dortmund, they are going to have to sell him the element of downscaling quite carefully. Anfield remains a grand old place to go to but even by English standards it is holding Liverpool back in terms of matching the revenue generated by the Emirates, the Etihad or Old Trafford, which was the reason the original owners sought foreign investment in the first place.
The present foreign owners do not seem able to make up their mind about whether to go for a value pick, in the form of a comparatively untried and inexpensive managerial candidate such as Martínez or Rodgers, or whether only proven title-winners need apply.
There is little logic to claiming Guardiola is the preferred choice but placing Rodgers on the same list and perhaps the Swansea manager has been quite clever in saying thanks but no thanks.
Equally, if you start out by letting it be known you are in the market for someone with title-winning experience, it seems odd to sound out Martínez, who for all his brightness and personability, is chiefly famous for avoiding relegation. Yet stick to the title-winning criterion and Villas-Boas heaves into view. Winning a title and the Europa League with Porto did not seem to prepare the Portuguese for life at Chelsea and, given his faltering start in England, a move to Liverpool would make even less sense.
Second-guessing FSG is quite difficult in view of their apparent inability to identify the exact type of manager they require, though assuming Guardiola remains out of reach, Klopp would perhaps be the most exciting appointment, if he would be willing to take on the challenge. Martínez does not lack a willingness to take on any challenge but for that to work either Liverpool would have to discover patience or results would have to go right from day one, not something that ever seemed to happen at Wigan.
The most obvious choice for Liverpool, however, has received hardly a mention. Alan Pardew's season at Newcastle could have been a sequel to the Moneyball movie: excellent results on a limited budget achieved through inspired scouting and progressive management. No, Pardew has not won a title either but he made far more of the Andy Carroll revenue than Liverpool have made of Andy Carroll. That ought to count for something. In fact Liverpool fans would probably prefer FSG to talk to Newcastle's chief scout rather than Martínez or Villas-Boas. If he could bring Papiss Cissé or Hatem Ben Arfa along with him, so much the better. Pardew may not have been a top manager 12 months ago but he is now. He is manager of the year, no less. The real question is whether Liverpool is still a top job.
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Euro 2012: Roy Hodgson to set out code of conduct for England players
by Owen Gibson
19 May 2012 at 11:00pm
• England manager will demand squad behave as adults
• Football Association document compiled with input from RFU
Roy Hodgson will outline a standard of behaviour off the field of play he expects from his squad in stark terms before they travel to their city-centre base in Poland for the European Championship.
The England manager will do so with the help of a Football Association document compiled with input from the Rugby Football Union and drawing on the experience of the national team's troubled World Cup campaign in New Zealand last autumn, which was significantly undermined by an incident at a dwarf-themed bar night and other disciplinary issues.
While not seeking to replicate the austere atmosphere of the Fabio Capello era and emphasising players would be treated "like adults", Hodgson said they should exercise common sense. "I don't believe that imprisoning people is the way of getting the best out of them. And I also believe that treating people like adults is the best way of getting a working relationship going. We're not at school, we're footballers," he said. "My message is a very simple one: 'Not only do I expect you to behave as adults, I'm going to demand you behave as adults. And I'm going to demand also that if you're in a public place and you do anything you shouldn't, you're not letting yourself down, you're letting us all down because the criticism will pile upon us all.'"
The 23-man squad, who will be based in Krakow, will not be given a list of rules, but Hodgson is likely to address them on the subject based on a briefing compiled by Club England's managing director, Adrian Bevington, and understood to include input from the RFU and others.
"These are people with an incredible public profile, they know that every time they take a step out of the door, the eyes of the world are on them. There are cameras everywhere, they are fully aware of their responsibilities," Hodgson said. "But I won't hesitate to point them out. Adrian has put together a document that we'll take up with them. Particularly in light of what happened with the England rugby team, we don't want a repeat of any of those type of things."
Shortly after his appointment, the FA's chairman, David Bernstein, decided that the monastic experience of South Africa will not be repeated and that in future England players would be "good tourists", staying more centrally and engaging with fans and their hosts as the Holland team did with notable success in Johannesburg at the World Cup.
The choice of Krakow's Hotel Stary is designed to provide a balance between the Wags circus that Sven-Goran Eriksson's Baden-Baden camp became in 2006 and the austere surroundings of Capello's Rustenburg regime in 2010 that dispirited many in the squad.
Hodgson, who led Switzerland to the World Cup finals, said he had experienced both extremes of international tournament football and far preferred a city centre location. "It wasn't my decision to go to Krakow. But if I was asked whether I'd like an isolated camp or one where there's contact, people can have a cup of coffee, see something else other than their roommate and the coaching staff, I'd take that any day," he said. "The Swedes have done that for years. We'll trust them that they've got to behave like proper people. I hope it will go well and if it doesn't, we'll learn another lesson."
There was a large degree of frustration among the England squad in South Africa at the long days with little to do. But Hodgson said that, while the city centre location would help, coping with boredom was a fact of life in tournament football. "I know how it feels, I know how difficult it is to fill the days. I know it is a situation that needs to be looked at. But there is no answer to it – that's what tournament football is," he said.
"When you sign up for it, you work on the basis that for the next four weeks it's going to be football, football, football. You will be a bit isolated, there's only going to be a limited amount of training time and a lot of free time during the day."
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'Roberto Mancini and Sir Alex Ferguson are cut from the same cloth' | Paul Wi...
by Paul Wilson
19 May 2012 at 11:00pm
Having worked with the managers of both City and United, Brian Kidd believes the future is bright in Manchester
Brian Kidd is 62 years old, even though Mario Balotelli insists he is older. "He keeps telling me he hopes he looks as good as I do when he is 84," Manchester City's assistant manager says. "He makes me laugh, but take it from me there's no nastiness in him. He's a good lad, a kind lad, and I really like him."
The player who scored a goal on his 19th birthday to help Manchester United win the European Cup at Wembley in 1968 now makes a point of telling the sometimes wayward Balotelli that he too had a dark side. "You can't just say: 'I wouldn't have done this,' or: 'You shouldn't do that' all the time," he says. "We were all young once and no one wants to be the teacher's pet. I got sent off in a semi-final for Everton and I told Mario that. You've got to have some empathy. At that age, you make mistakes."
At his present age, Kidd eschewed the city lights after the impossibly dramatic manner in which his club clinched the title on Sunday, and went quietly home to be with his family. "I don't do the glitz," he says. "Boring anorak that I am, I went to see my kids and grandkids and had a cup of tea. They were the ones I wanted to share it with, the ones who have been behind me all the time."
That must have been someone else then, cavorting about the Etihad technical area in stoppage time last Sunday, leaping into Roberto Mancini's arms in celebration of Sergio Agüero's stunning winner. "I couldn't do it again now," Kidd says. "I wouldn't be able to get up off my knees. It was just emotion. I'm not being cheesy, but you can't hide that. You don't know it's happening at the time, it's only when you see yourself on television you think: 'Bloody hell, what was I doing?' But you couldn't write a script like that. I don't think anyone has experienced anything like it before and probably won't in their lifetimes again. It was unbelievable, but fantastic for the fans, because we all know what they have been through over the years."
Yes, and City fans do not want to go through another 44 years like that again. So how does Kidd see the future shaping up for the two top teams in England, now that the league table suggests Manchester is the country's unassailable powerbase? Someone who has helped bring titles to both United and City ought to know.
"This season, in fact the last two seasons, has been like recreating the late 60s," Kidd says. "The Blues won the Cup, the Reds won the league, then we won the league. So to me it feels like turning full circle, something I am comfortable with, but we all know what happened after the late 60s, don't we? United had to wait 26 years for their next title, City had to wait 44. You just never know with football. No one 20 years ago would have dreamed Liverpool would go so long without winning, or even that Arsenal would have to wait so long for their next trophy.
"The signs are good for both Manchester clubs, 89 points would have won the Premier League outright most years, but all I can honestly say is that we won the FA Cup last season and now we are champions, so we are moving in the right direction.
"People are talking about creating a dynasty, but no one knows what is going to happen in the future. Some people are unhappy about the money that has been spent, but I'm sad to say that modern football is all about money. The grassroots game that I came through, when I thought I was the luckiest lad in the world to win an apprenticeship with the Reds, is just a memory now.
"You can't win the league without money, that's just the way it is. This club is lucky enough to have been fast-tracked, that's all. But we could have been fast-tracked and ended up with nothing. Money gives you a chance but it can't guarantee anything, as we saw on Sunday. But the trophies we have on the sideboard now are tangible. It feels like we can move forward now we have something solid to build on."
What is moving forward, though? Is the Champions League the next item on the tick list, or will City be concentrating on staying on top of the domestic pile for another season, presumably trying not to leave it until the very last seconds of stoppage time to thwart United again?
Kidd cannot speak for Mancini or the owners, but tends to take a cautious view. "The Premier League is the bread and butter," he says. "For me it's about making a good fist of being defending champions next season. That's the starting point, and maybe to be successful you have to prioritise, because going out of Europe fairly early certainly helped City and United at the end of the season.
"I think you have to grow into European football and while I am not saying it is impossible to combine a successful league campaign with a long run in the Champions League, the boss has only been here two-and-a-half years and it's not a long time. Europe is a learning process. That's what United found in the early days and that's what more experienced teams than Manchester City have found this season. Everyone expected Barcelona or Real Madrid to win the Champions League didn't they, but it didn't pan out that way."
With Mancini about to be offered a lucrative deal to tie him to City for the next three or four years, his chances of outlasting Ferguson appear better than ever, and though the Italian may strike outsiders as too pleasant and courteous to drag his team to the top of the European tree by sheer force of personality, Kidd believes the two men have a lot in common. "They are cut from the same cloth," he says. "People might think I'm a balloon for saying that, but I have seen both of them up close. Roberto isn't afraid to make big decisions, and top players and big personalities don't frighten him. He knows how to handle players and how to handle himself. I just feel blessed for being lucky enough to work with both of them."
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London Olympics countdown: 10 weeks to go
by Sachin Nakrani
19 May 2012 at 11:00pm
The selection of six Reading players brings familiarity and form to Great Britain's women's hockey squad for London 2012
If familiarity does indeed breed contempt than Great Britain's women's hockey team are set to be a hotbed of hostility this summer. The squad have just been announced and six of the 16 players come from one team – Reading.
In truth the selection is little surprise given that Reading are champions of the Investec Women's Hockey League and in Kate Walsh have Britain's captain. The other Reading players who will represent their country at London 2012 are Beth Storry, Helen Richardson, Laura Bartlett, Emily Maguire and the league's top scorer and player of the year, Alex Danson.
The six all played in the Champions Trophy in February, when Britain finished runners-up to the hosts Argentina, and then in the London test event earlier this month when Britain beat the same South American opponents on two occasions.
"I want to offer my congratulations to those that have been selected, who I know will do our squad proud in London," said the coach, Danny Kerry. "I also want to offer my commiserations to those that have not been selected – they have given everything."
Having failed to progress through their group in Beijing four years ago, the women's team will aim to progress on home soil this year and are certainly showing encouraging form. They will get another chance to warm up for the Olympics at the London Cup, which is to be held in Chiswick on 5-10 June and will see the involvement of Germany, Australia, South Africa and Ireland.
Britain will not name their men's squad until next month and, in contrast with the women, Reading's representation in the final party is unlikely to be strong with the Mantell brothers, Simon and Richard, both unsure of their places. Simon is nursing a fractured metatarsal while Richard was excluded from the team for the test event, during which Britain finished third.
Athletics: Mo gets Bekele backingAs ringing endorsements go, the one received by Mo Farah will sound pretty good to the man himself. "He has a good chance to win in the Olympics, he's at a good level, he's in good shape," the legendary Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele said on Friday. "From what he showed last season, I think he has a good chance."
Bekele, like Farah, is aiming for a 5,000 metres and 10,000m double in London and, despite having struggled with calf and knee injuries for the past three years, is confident he can make an impact in both disciplines. The 10,000m is his primary focus, though, given that winning Olympic gold would be his third in succession at that distance, a feat that was beyond even his great compatriot Haile Gebrselassie.
Farah took Bekele's 5,000m world title at last year's championships in Daegu, South Korea, and there will be a chance for the 29-year-old Bekele, who returned to the track only last week, to exact some revenge when the pair line up against each other in Oregon next month.
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Euro 2012: How refreshing – England for once does not expect | Paul Wilson
by Paul Wilson
19 May 2012 at 11:00pm
The new manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that far from the strongest squad ever to leave these shores will be going to Euro 2012. Which should help ease the pressure
Within hours of Roy Hodgson naming his England squad for the European Championship, bookmakers announced Wayne Rooney was still favourite to be his country's leading scorer in the tournament, despite the not inconsiderable handicap of being suspended for the first two games.
If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about how limited England's options have become and how far expectations have been lowered, Hodgson himself can fill in the blanks. "I'd refer you to the Danes in 1992 and the Greeks in 2004," the new England manager said, when asked whether he would be travelling to Poland and Ukraine with any real hope of success.
Unlike his immediate predecessors the new England manager is not a man of few words, and a tendency to overelaborate may yet prove his undoing, but that was a diplomatic way of saying England have little chance. The winners of Euro 92 and Euro 2004 did not travel to their respective tournaments with any expectation of winning – Denmark famously did not even expect to be playing in the finals until they gained a late pass due to war breaking out in Yugoslavia – but prospered through bigger teams misfiring in their group stages to help create a surge of confidence that lasted all the way into the final. Neither Denmark nor Greece played great football but between them they managed to send England, France, Spain and Russia home early before going on to overcome the favourites (Germany in 1992, Portugal in 2004) in the final.
No one seriously expects England to do anything like that this summer, but Hodgson's chances of running a happy camp in Krakow, and hopefully freeing his players from the burden of duty and expectation they laboured under in South Africa two years ago, will surely be enhanced by the candid acceptance that this is far from the strongest squad ever to leave these shores.
Hodgson did not actually say so, a sensible manager does not rubbish his players on the eve of a tournament, but if England are now at the level of complete outsiders hoping for a fair wind to help them sneak up on the competition almost unnoticed then it is about time a manager admitted it. No new manager, least of all a new England manager, would choose to come into the job and begin to lower everyone's expectations, though in Hodgson's defence he is merely continuing a process begun by woeful displays under Fabio Capello and Steve McClaren. Capello in particular seemed to be haunted by the ineptitude he had to answer for at the last World Cup, and Hodgson shrewdly appears to have realised that with that level of performance as a base, the only way is up.
His squad is essentially conservative, since he has not had any time to experiment or adapt, and, while there are individual preferences that may be disputed here and there, there has been little outcry over players left out. Few imagine that Adam Johnson or Daniel Sturridge would have made much of a difference. It is no longer possible for columnists and pundits to amuse themselves by selecting alternative England sides, because give or take a handful of fringe players anyone who is any good is already in, and probably has been for years.
That is why so much has been made of the inclusion of John Terry ahead of Rio Ferdinand: it is one of the very few either-or situations. It was argued here last week that Terry would have been a better choice to leave at home, but no matter. At least Hodgson made a decision and did not fudge the issue by taking both.
A nation now waits with bated breath to see how Hodgson deals with the similarly troublesome Steven Gerrard‑Frank Lampard axis, having guaranteed the Liverpool player a place by making him captain. The nation doesn't really. Wait with bated breath, I mean. It would be more honest to report that England wonders with mild curiosity what sort of a shambles may be served up next. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. Not if your markers are Denmark and Greece.
If England could just do themselves justice in a tournament it would be a vast improvement. Joe Hart has shown he is a class goalkeeper. If the backline plays half as well as most of it has played for Chelsea in this season's Champions League, England should not leak too many goals. And whether leading goalscorer or not, Rooney is certain to be fresh and rested. Of course, there is also the wild card, some may call it a joker, that is Andy Carroll. With that list of positives England have no cause for overconfidence, which makes a weirdly refreshing change.
As does going into a tournament fearing the worst, which for once gives England a fighting chance of being slightly better than expected. It all depends on how the first game goes. But then again it usually does.
EnglandRoy HodgsonEuro 2012 Group DEuro 2012European footballPaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Luton Town aim for take-off after Paul Buckle's amazing turnaround
by Paul Doyle
19 May 2012 at 10:54pm
New manager has transformed club in five weeks and they face York City in play-off final with place in Football League at stake
Five weeks ago Paul Buckle was a concerned onlooker as Luton Town lost 3-1 to Braintree Town. "They were so poor, everything was pathetic," recalls the man who, back then, had just agreed to become the team's manager but did not officially take over until the next day.
Luton were three points off the Conference play-off spots and falling, without a win in eight matches. Buckle reversed the trend and, after four wins and two draws from his six matches at the helm, will on Sunday lead the club out at Wembley, where they will play York City for the right to call themselves a league club again. York may not recognise their opponents. The teams have already played each other four times this season, including the semi-final of the FA Trophy. The record so far reads one draw and three victories for York, the most recent of which, on 30 March, led to the dismissal of Gary Brabin as Luton manager and the transformative hiring of Buckle.
"It was a tough decision to make the change but we weren't playing well enough to make the play-offs and even if we somehow did make them we wouldn't have won them," says the Luton chairman, Nick Owen. "Paul has come in and really reinvigorated the place. His man-management has been superb."
It has also been direct. "I tore right into them after seeing the Braintree game," Buckle says. "It was so half-paced it was clear that they were not fit. When I looked at the training ground, even that was tired and scruffy so the first thing to do was get that into shape, which we did with the help of the apprentices. Since then we've had double and triple training sessions and really improved the core stability of the players. And they've really bought into it. I think they were embarrassed about how they were playing: they had been brought to Luton to get promotion but their performances were rubbish. They're turned it around."
Buckle has turned his own season around too. At the start of this campaign he was in charge of Bristol Rovers, who hired him last summer after being impressed by the success he had achieved during four years at Torquay United, whom he helped to regain league status. But Buckle was soon belted out of Bristol, sacked in January by popular demand. Results were glum and fans were angered by his decision to get rid of almost 20 players, including crowd favourites such as Stuart Campbell.
He spent three months mulling over his managerial style before Luton came calling. "I had a long hard think about things after Bristol and I haven't changed," says the 41-year-old. "A lot of things weren't right off the pitch there. When you have to do a big sorting out process, you need to be given time to see it through. I was given 24 games."
Luton, of course, had undergone a drastic sorting out process even before Buckle took charge. They were effectively kicked out of the league three years ago after financial mismanagement led to them being docked 30 points, which made avoiding relegation impossible.
"Our first task was to get the club back living within its means and we've done that," says Owen, the figurehead of the Luton Town 2020 consortium that replaced the dysfunctional previous regime. "When we went down we knew it wasn't going to be easy getting back into the league. You've got a lot of clubs with great league pedigree in the Conference so the competition is intense." In their first two seasons in the Conference they reached the play-offs but lost. "We're hoping this is going to be third time lucky," he says.
Nearly 30,000 Luton fans will be in attendance at Wembley, the FA having twice responded favourably to appeals to increase their allocation. That gives an indication of the potential of the club; getting back into the league is key to unlocking that potential. "It's not win or bust but in both sporting and financial terms it's hugely important to get back into the league," says Owen. "A lot more money comes with being in the league and that enables you to build further."
One of the things Luton intend to build is a stadium to replace the 10,000-capacity Kenilworth Road. "We have a huge catchment area but to attract more people on a regular basis you have to have a stadium that's nicer, more accessible and offers a more comfortable experience. We're vigorously looking into getting that as soon as possible," says Owen. Winning at Wembley will bring it closer.
Luton TownBlue Square PremierPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
The latest stories from the Sport section of the BBC Sport web site.
Live - Champions League final
19 May 2012 at 4:37pm
Live text commentary as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties in the Champions League final at the Allianz Arena.
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19 May 2012 at 5:23pm
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19 May 2012 at 6:59pm
Leinster win the Cup for third year in four.
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19 May 2012 at 6:40pm
England are closing in on victory at Lord's after dominating the third day, which ended with West Indies 120-4 and trailing by 35.
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19 May 2012 at 4:48pm
Rudi Skacel scores twice as Hearts hammer Edinburgh rivals Hibernian to claim the Scottish Cup in a goal-laden Hampden final.
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19 May 2012 at 10:32pm
Chelsea achieve a dramatic Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich following a penalty shoot-out at the home of the German side.
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19 May 2012 at 9:28pm
Novak Djokovic will play Rafael Nadal in the final of the Italian Open after the Serbian's straight-sets win over Roger Federer.
Lawrie & McDowell into semi-final
19 May 2012 at 6:03pm
Paul Lawrie and Graeme McDowell make the World Match Play semi-finals with respective wins over Retief Goosen and Sergio Garcia.
Super Frankel makes it 10 from 10
19 May 2012 at 3:54pm
Frankel maintains his 100% record by storming to victory by five lengths in the JLT Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.
French rally car crash kills two
19 May 2012 at 7:33pm
A rally car ploughs into spectators in the Var region of southern France, killing a marshal and one other person, and injuring 17.
No fall-out with Holt - Norwich
19 May 2012 at 4:49pm
Norwich chief executive David McNally insists the club have not fallen out with striker Grant Holt after rejecting his transfer request.
Solskjaer will not rule out Villa
19 May 2012 at 3:47pm
Villa target not ruling out job but happy to stay at Molde.
Pedrosa seals French MotoGP pole
19 May 2012 at 3:05pm
Dani Pedrosa clinches pole position after topping the qualifying session for Sunday's French MotoGP.
Idowu beats world champion Taylor
19 May 2012 at 9:26pm
Great Britain's Phillips Idowu beats world champion Christian Taylor in an impressive start to 2012 in the Diamond League at Shanghai.
Sharapova lines up final with Li
19 May 2012 at 3:31pm
Russian Maria Sharapova's straight-sets victory over Angelique Kerber lines up a final showdown with Li Na after Serena Williams withdraws.
Updated every minute of every day
Schedule/results 2012
14 Mar 2012 at 9:23am
All the results from around the world as well as the latest schedule.
