Bilic Reveals Anti-England Formula

The Croatia coach is quickly gaining a reputation as something of a Balkan Mourinho and he is clearly revelling in the attention that comes with being the chief orchestrator of England's spectacular failure to qualify for Euro 2008.Never short of a memorable sound-byte, the former West Ham hard-man took glee in revealing that the crux of his tactical masterplan was far less complex than most people would have expected.

"I wanted to stop the ball getting to Barry so I told my strikers that one of them had to mark him," he says. "I said 'Let Lescott and Campbell have the ball as much as they want because they are defenders but not great passers. If Rio [Ferdinand] and Terry were playing I wouldn't have been able to do that. So I have big sympathy for McClaren."

Bilic went on to accuse the English press of having a heavy hand in their national team's demise as well. "You have to admit you all praised McClaren when he dropped Beckham. Then it became 'He's a great player, where's Beckham?''. "You created that media aura," he added alluding to the WAGs. "You give Alex Curran [Steven Gerrard's wife] a newspaper column, you made them stars!"

Bilic is being tipped as a future Premiership manager following Croatia's Euro 2008 adventure, and on this evidence he would certainly be a colourful addition to an already vibrant league.

Derek Wanner, Goal.com

Casiraghi must name 18 players for the games in Beijing, and 15 of these must have been born after January 1, 1985. However he is also allowed to include three over-aged players, and the ex-Juventus and Lazio star has his eyes on some big names.

"It'll depend on the choices Roberto Donadoni makes for the European Championships," said Casiraghi. "The priority will have to go to the 1984 players, like Alberto Aquilani and Giorgio Chiellini [who helped us qualify for the Olympics]. "But that's not excluding some national team heroes - Pippo Inzaghi and Alex Del Piero. I'd also like Gigi Buffon and Luca Toni."

Aquilani, Chiellini, Buffon and Toni seem virtual certainties to be called by Donadoni for June’s European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. However the places of Del Piero and Inzaghi, in particular the latter, are less certain, leading to the possibility of the veterans playing in Beijing this August. Other high-profile possibilities, although unlikely, are Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta, who will not play at Euro 2008, due to their international retirements.

Löw Has A Master Plan For Euro Glory

With 159 days to go until Germany start their Euro 2008 campaign against Poland, trainer Joachim Löw has revealed his preparations have already begun and that he has a ‘master plan’ for glory.

“There is already a master-plan for Euro 2008” he revealed. “With the Confederations Cup in 2005 and the World Cup in 2006 we have experience of how to prepare a team for D-Day.” “A tournament is for players and trainers the measure of all things. A European Championships or a World Cup is like nothing else” he explained.

Since the draw, which pitted Germany with Poland, Croatia, and co-hosts Austria, the 47 year old trainer has been busying himself along with his staff preparing for the competition.

“We want to prepare like European Champions” he said. “We hope that important players like Torsten Frings, Michael Ballack and Bernd Schneider will be able to get in some playing time.”

Germany has arranged four warm-up games before the finals against Austria (Feb 6), Switzerland (Mar 26), Belarus (Mai 27) and Serbia (May 31).