England Secure Spot in Brazil with 2-0 Win Over Poland

There are very few nations which pile the pressure upon their own team the way England does. There was undoubtedly an immense amount of anxiety within Wembley at the start of this final match of World Cup qualifying between England and Poland. Both sides started with a high and frantic tempo, charging at each other constantly trying to establish dominance.

England's start was fairly shaky with poor marking forcing the defenders to correct their mistakes with last-second dramatic tackles, perhaps a secret tactic by Roy Hodgson to fire up the Wembley crowd with some good old fashioned English physicality. If it was a secret tactic it was a risky one, as Lewandowski put one of the best chances of the match wide, almost giving the lead to Poland. Lewandowski and Błaszczykowski were the primary sources of danger for Poland, both of them using their speed to counter-attack whenever England got too comfortable.

As for England, it was Andros Townsend providing England with its biggest opportunities. His incessant running on the right side provided the forwards some great chances from his crosses. After earning England a multitude of corners, Towsnsend curled a swooping shot onto the crossbar with Szczęsny stopping Sturridge's shot which followed. The other England player playing with the same hunger and vivacity as Townsend was on the other flank, Baines was constantly slipping in behind the Polish right side eventually providing Rooney a perfectly placed cross to head in for the lead.

England reached their apex of their performance in the second part of the first half, steadying their defence by maintaining better possession and then bursting forward with incredible vigour. Hodgson's team had created a multitude of chances in the first half, only to be thwarted by poor finishing or Szczęsny's gloves. With Baines constantly surging forward on the left hand side, this allowed Welbeck to drift into the box, forcing Poland to keep track of the two Manchester United forwards along with Daniel Sturridge. While the Polish central defenders gave Rooney acres of space to score at the end of the first half, it was a deserved lead for an impressive England side.

As the second half commenced England never managed to find the intensity they had in the first half. Roy Hodgson tried to solve this problem by replacing the fairly inert Carrick with Frank Lampard, yet his side still couldn't quite achieve a smooth attacking flow. Sturridge was taken off with about ten minutes left, giving Jack Wilshere a chance to knit together the midfield alongside the final substitute of James Milner who replaced a tired Townsend a few minutes later. As the minutes ticked away to the end of the game, in the 88th minute Steven Gerrard secured England's place in the 2014 World Cup with a direct run through the heart of the polish defence, poking the ball into the back of the net for the final result of 2-0.

There was a lot of nervous negativity before these two crucial matches for England, but Hodgson has shown that his England side can play with a surprising amount of attacking fluidity. While there are some possible worries regarding some of the defending, there's still plenty of time until England have to travel to Brazil.

What did you think of England's performance against Poland? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Manchester United's Weighty Hopes for Young Adnan Januzaj

The sound that's being sneezed out of just about everyone's mouths these days is that of "Adnan Januzaj". What before was just a blending of vowels and soft sounding consonants has now become the prodigal son which Manchester United have already hurled their hopes and dreams upon for the season. While Januzaj's second goal could be considered "one-of-a-kind", I can't help but feel some mystical sense of déjà vu as this Manchester United youngster has burst into the side with a fantastic performance. That feeling was present throughout the match, during his gliding runs, winning goals, along with his now forgotten dive. Moyes will be glad that now he too has a speedy, diving, goal-scoring phenomenon to take care of, just like the many his predecessor Ferguson had.

And speaking of the red-nosed retired manager, the young Belgian/Kosovan/Albanian was basically a parting gift from Old Saint Ferguson, and now it's up to Moyes to use him properly. There's been a fair share of Fergie-bred players which have left their mark on the world of football, the notable ones being: David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Yet it's all too easy to remember the youngsters which had the weighty label of superstar flung on a bit too hastily and ended up tripping on it: Federico Macheda, Bebe, and Obertan being a few of the recent cases. Right now, Januzaj is profiting due to the fact that he's the latest Manchester United winger who's able to score right now. While he's shown some definite talent in his goal-scoring, it's remarkable how good Januzaj's been playing when compared to the dismal performances Ashley Young has been putting in.

So while the desperate outcries of an England future are already being contemplated by Roy Hodgson (with Jack Wilshere sparking up his own thoughts on the matter), perhaps the most important thing to remember about Januzaj is that he's earned David Moyes three important points. For now he'll be training, eyeing how England (and Wilshere) face the international break's final two tests of hosting Montenegro and Poland. Januzaj will have his chance to show his consistency when the Premier League returns and United host Southampton, and there will be plenty of time to judge how well the 18 year-old deals with the high expectations being pencilled into his future.

What are your thoughts on Januzaj's performance? What do you expect from the upcoming international break? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Three Lessons from the Midweek's Champions League Action

As the Champions League group stage continues to unravel, so do plenty of the teams in the competition. It has been a rough awakening for a few sides as they begin to understand that this year's group stage is no joke. Every team is prepared to make their statement, and as the "underdogs" continue to pull out big results, some age-old titans aren't quite yet ready to concede their positions as the top dogs of Europe (although there are some which begin to quaver). There's an incredible amount of things to cover, so we might as well begin with these three lessons from the Champions League:

1. Italian clubs continue to struggle 

After Napoli's dreamy victory over Borussia Dortmund, everyone had practically forgotten about Italy's inefficiency when it comes to European competition these past few years. Well fear not, all three Italian sides in the Champions League managed to underachieve in one way or another. Perhaps most at fault are Juventus who hosted Galatasaraay at home, the match finishing a 2-2 draw. After Bonucci gifted Drogba the opener, Juve clawed their way back to a 2-1 lead thanks to Quagliarella's 87th minute header. Only one minute later Juventus's atrocious defending allowed unmarked Bulut to equalize, nabbing an important point for the Turkish side.

AC Milan and Napoli didn't do too well either. The rossoneri could only manage a 1-1 draw at Ajax thanks to a late and non-existent penalty by Balotelli, and Napoli crumbled against the fantastic display that Arsenal put on at the Emirates. Of course there will be plenty of excuses (No Higuain for Napoli, Milan's extensive injury list, and who knows what else), Italian sides are staying consistent with their inability to put on a proper display in Europe. 

2. Bayern Munich (current European champions) are only getting stronger.

There was a lot of uncertainty at the start of the season with Pep Guardiola's appointment as Bayern Munich coach, and after their mere 1-0 victory in the weekend over Wolfsburg there were grumblings about whether the new coach was actually improving the side. It's fair to say that after their latest display, Guardiola will get a bit more breathing room (only for a while though). A dominant 3-1 away victory over Manchester City showed that combining last year's Champions League winning squad with Guardiola's tactics and philosophy of play was undoubtedly the right move for Bayern. 

While Joe Hart gave the Germans a helping hand with a poor display, nothing can be taken away from Bayern as they out-pressured, out-passed, and out-played Manuel Pellegrini's Manchester City. While City was looking to perhaps insert itself amongst the highest-echelon of European clubs, Bayern and Pep showed them that they've still got a long way to go. Now we can only wonder what heights this Bayern Munich side can reach, and whether they'll be the first team to retain the Champions League trophy.

3. Atletico Madrid show no signs of slowing down.

La Liga has always been an extremely difficult league for clubs (that aren't Real Madrid and Barcelona) to properly establish themselves within, and if you have dreams of aiming for the top, then tough luck. Yet if there's a team that is looking to make a dent in the big two's perfect record of domination, it's Atletico Madrid. After having defeated Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu over the weekend, the midweek trip to Portugal to face Porto seemed a daunting task. Yet Diego Simeone's men maintained their undefeated start to the season in another impressive away victory.

While this time Diego Costa wasn't amongst the goalscorers, after having conceded early in the first half Atleti fought to come back with two second half goals, Arda Turan scoring the 86th minute winner from a sneaky free kick. It's been quite the season thus far for Atletico Madrid fans, their team currently undefeated, top of their Champions League group, and second in La Liga only by goal difference to Barcelona. If Diego Simeone can keep his side concentrated, then perhaps a new contender for La Liga's title (and perhaps even the European title) will emerge. 

Lastly, I want to leave you with an interesting infographic about the Champions League. Take a look below and share your thoughts and predictions regarding the Champions League in the comments!

You can find out more about the infographic and spread betting at Spreadex.

BBC's Match of the Day Consistently Delivers What is Needed

BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker

I was never very familiar with BBC's well-known soccer/football show. You see, I grew up with the Serie A and its intensely passionate highlight shows which consistently feature an immense variety of journalists, ex-players, coaches, tacticians, and even comedians all together with a live-studio audience.

The well known Italian show "La Domenica Sportiva" (which literally translates to, "The Sunday of Sport") was host to a variety of strange methods which, because it had been the only soccer/football television program which accompanied my upbringing, all seemed incredibly normal to me. Chaotic live post-game interviews with the studio's voices overlapping each other as the player hurriedly fumbles with the microphone and earpiece flung towards him, as he attempts to decipher the barrage of questions, often with wet hair still steaming from the post-game shower.

In the past I'd never really bothered with Match of the Day, I watched Premier League matches live, or found stuttering, eight-pixel highlights on some eastern-european website. But now, every since my first watching, Match of the Day has become a regular part of my soccer/football watching life. In my eyes (especially in the early days when I had just discovered it), MotD was practically a work of art. Fantastic clarity in its presentation, thorough match highlights, snazzy music... what more could I ask for?

Everything is prepared, timed, and professional. While I'm not getting the tactical analysis/breakdown by Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola, when MotD offers any humble insights they're always accompanied by dynamic graphics with slowed down replays, making sure I see any sometimes simple but fundamentally important tactical observations I might have missed in my viewing of the highlights.

While I still watch "La Domenica Sportiva" frequently, MotD in comparison is free of extended verbal debates between an ex-player and a journalist as they argue incessantly over the weekend's most recent penalty decision (along with any other managerial, tactical, and refeering decisions which can be scrutinized from a full weekend of league action). MotD is where ultimately the core programming of soccer/football lies. It provides a professional and often insightful review of the Premier League's action to those who aren't able to watch the matches live. If I want deeper tactical analysis I'll go read up on Michael Cox's fantastic tactics blog, or if I want in-depth discussion and reflection I'll listen to The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast (and I can't forget The Football Ramble), but before I can truly appreciate any of these others, I need to have at least seen the goals of the weekend, and MotD delivers exactly that.

As I laud all this praise upon MotD, it's important to keep one key point in mind, these merits do not extend to MotD 2 in my eyes. MotD 2 provides the bare necessity of programming, goals I've yet to see, and then I'm out of there. On the most recent MotD I had the great pleasure of hearing analysis by Everton's incredibly charming and astute manager Roberto Martinez (along Danny Murphy), discussing situations arising from the variety of the weekend's interesting scores with Gary Lineker.

Now while I've mentioned Gary Lineker; compared to the many different lifeless and vapid Italian program conductors, the former player steers the show with definite timing often raising excellent points and questions upon which his guests can easily muse or build upon. I say all this because after watching the latest MotD 2, it just didn't manage to quite reach the levels of Lineker and Martinez's discussions regarding this weekend's matches which begin to put some definite pressures on certain managers of the Premier League (Martin Jol, perhaps even David Moyes...?).

While there are definitely those who will make the case that perhaps MotD lacks consistent "top quality" opinion and analysis (like that of BT Sport's Gary Neville), the overall presentation in the well-timed and well-led BBC show still definitely satisfies. And of course, while I always enjoy the window "La Domenica Sportiva" offers looking into the passionately chaotic world of Italian programming, there's an extremely pleasing sense of polish and professionalism with which BBC's Match of the Day consistently delivers.

What are your thoughts on BBC's Match of the Day? What is your program of choice for your football highlights and analysis? Share your thoughts in the comments below!