The last time Luiz Felipe Scolari coached Brazil against England, both teams were in very different circumstances. In their 2002 World Cup quarter-final, they lined up against each other as two of the best teams in the world. Scolari had rescued a trainwreck of a qualifying campaign and was on his way to guiding Brazil…
With all the drama before the game, it was pretty typical that the match turned out to be a dull, non-eventful evening. Paul Gascoigne turned up to give fans something to cheer about, but there wasn’t exactly many of them, with attacks prior to the game suggesting the locals had a bigger influence outside of…
Having finished above Liverpool last season and started the season superbly, Everton may have gone into the game feeling confident they could come away with a win, particularly with two of their rival’s defence out injured, but then things are never that simple in the Merseyside derby. The cliché of form going out of the…
Serie A reverted back to the nineties last night, with champions Juventus and Vincenzo Montella’s Fiorentina lining up in 3-5-2s to play out a pretty dull game despite the quality of some of the players on show. That the game was fairly uneventful wasn’t much of a surprise: the 3-5-2 doesn’t really lend itself to…
It was against Everton at home last season that Manchester United threw away their title, conceding two late goals to draw 4-4. Five months later, this time at Goodison Park, they weren’t able to put the ghosts of last season to rest. Both teams set out in a 4-2-3-1 shape but had different ideas on…
In a tense match bereft of quality, the result was decided by Poland’s main flank: the right one. With Poland needing a win it was odd Smuda selected the same team that set out to stop a highly efficient Russia side playing on the counter, starting the match in a 4-1-4-1 with Robert Lewandowski up…
As the battles between fans outside the stadium threatened to steal the headlines, Franciszek Smuda and Dick Advocaat prepared their sides for what looked, and proved to be (so far), the most interesting match of Group A. Russia were unchaged in their 4-3-3 but Smuda looked to solidify his midfield by bringing in Dariusz Dudka…
After an impressive performance in a loss to Italy in their first World Cup appearance, Ghana would realistically need a win if they were to keep qualification to the round of 16 in their own hands. The Czechs were coming into this game on a high after a comfortable 3-0 win over the USA where,…
With Northampton rooted to the bottom of the league and Cheltenham encountering something of a hiccup recently, these were important points for boths teams. The arrival of the tricksy right winger Jermaine McGlashan from Aldershot has seen Cheltenham change to a more wing-based style, breaking up the midfield trio to make way for an extra…
