GOALFLASHES AND MAJOR INCIDENTS (all times BST)
606: DEBATE
Your thoughts on the action
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By Jonathan Stevenson
From Sakaria2 on 606:](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A56920502)"Capello always plays one big man with a technical player behind him. Personally, I think Rooney should be the main striker up front and let Defoe play beside him. But let us not question the Great Capello One, he always knows best."From Graham, Hampden, via text on 81111: “Atmosphere is already building up. Lots of friendly banter outside the ground and the Dutch are here in force. Scotland to win, 2-1. Come on Scotland!!”**1830: Scotland **suffered a blow ahead of kick-off against the Netherlands with goalkeeper Craig Gordon failing a late fitness test, so David Marshall comes into the starting line-up. Rangers forward Steven Naismith surprisingly wins his first start playing wide on the right in place of Steven Fletcher, while Paul Hartley wins the holding midfielder role ahead of Graham Alexander and Shaun Maloney starts in place of suspended talisman James McFadden. Meanwhile, Steven Whittaker starts at left-back after impressing against Macedonia as a replacement for the injured Callum Davidson.1828: Definitely worth mentioning that Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky made his first competitive appearance in 20 months when he played 56 minutes of the Czech’s 7-0 win against San Marino. It’s great to have the gifted midfield schemer back.1825: Danny tells me that it’s currently 0-0 at half-time in the Malta v Sweden match. That is a potential hammer blow for the Scandinavians’ World Cup hopes after they were rescued on Saturday by Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s fortuitous last-gasp winner.1823: So, who will start for England tonight Effectively, Fabio Capello is decidingbetween Emile Heskey and Jermain Defoe to partner Wayne Rooney up front.It’s a no-brainer for me - on Saturday Heskey kept falling over, while Defoe smashed one in from 20 yards. Go figure.1819: He’s here all night, is World Cup Danny: "The Czech Republic’s 7-0 win over San Marino was as vital as it was expected and it keeps them in the mix in Group Three - which is shaping up to be the tensest of the European groups. We’ll know more about the lie of the land after tonight’s other matches, including the vital Northern Ireland v Slovakia tie."From Luke, Moira, Northern Ireland, via text on 81111: "I’m heading to the Northern Ireland match in an hour and I’ve never seen this country so excited. Grown men’s nerves are frayed to the point that I’ve heard rumours of sleepless nights. It’ll be tight, but I reckon a 2-0 win and the ticket to South Africa.“1811: As always, the amateur psychologists have been out in force, haven’t they Slaven “They are missing some Englishness, some of the things that have always made England teams difficult to play against,” said Croatia coach Bilic on Monday, only 363 days after his teamhad been ruthlessly demolished in their own backyardby this same England team.Fabio Capello’s response"Thank you Mr Bilic. There is no need to motivate my players now.” Paid £6m-a-year and he doesn’t even need to do his job. Sweet.1806: Fans of games kicking off might like to know that Belarus v Ukraine has started in Minsk. Anything other than a victory for the visitors would mean England only have to draw tonight to qualify for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.From Chip it like Vela on 606:](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/F14704529thread=6914737&show=50)“A cursory look at some of your predos for the key games tells me you’ve gone for a mix of pragmatism (France to draw and England to eke out a scratchy win) and fantasy (Portugal winning and Italy scoring twice… haha).”**1800: World Cup Danny **has been casting his eye over the host continent, and my what a story is unfolding: "Vital, vital win for **Cameroon **today, beating Gabon 2-1 in Africa Group A qualifying. Jean Makoun and Samuel Eto’o put Cameroon 2-0 before Daniel Cousin’s late goal set up a nervy finish. That win puts Cameroon one point above Gabon, but with two matches to go, any one of the four teams (Togo and Morocco are also in there) could still grab top spot to qualify."1754: And as always, you have your part to play on such a potentially monumental evening. You can do this by texting us on 81111, and byjoining in with the fun on 606.Whether you’re from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales or Outer Mongolia, your country needs you.1752: It really is permutation o’clock. For your sake and mine, be thankful that **Danny the Stat **- football’s very own Vorderman, numerically speaking (he’s not wearing a dress and he hasn’t got an ill-advised fringe) - will be here all night to hit us with updates from around Europe, and what those updates mean. If anyone even gets close to qualifying/not qualifying, World Cup Danny will be all over it like a rash.1748: Here’s what we’re playing for in a Danny the Stat-shaped nutshell: **"England **will qualify if they beat Croatia, or if they draw and Ukraine fail to beat Belarus. **Scotland **need a draw at home to Holland to ensure they finish second in their group, though they might need to win to make sure of a play-off place. That, we may not find out tonight. If Northern Ireland beat Slovakia, they go top of Group Three, but there’s still a bit to go in that one."1745: For England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, today is a pivotal day in their respective bids to reach the finals of the greatest sporting tournament on earth in South Africa next summer. For Wales, I’m afraid, once again it’s a case of gazing into the crystal ball…1742: You can win all the Premier League titles, FA Cups and Champions League trophies you want - but true greatness in football always has been, and always will be measured by World Cup success. You just have to make sure you get there, first.From Jamie, via text on 81111: "Czech Republic already 4-0 up Is this the earliest your predos have gone south"1735: Disclaimer alert:
“I can confirm that Stevo made all of these ‘predos’ before any of the matches kicked off.”
Yours in sport, World Cup Danny.
That’s better. Now, on with the show…1733: Stevo’s inordinately long Predos (in order of chronology, in case you were wondering at the apparent haphazardness):
Czech Rep 3-0 San Marino
Armenia 1-2 Belgium
Faroe Islands 0-1 Lithuania
Belarus 1-1 Ukraine
Malta 0-3 Sweden
Liechtenstein 0-2 Finland
Israel 2-1 Luxembourg
Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-2 Turkey
Andorra 0-1 Kazakhstan
Albania 0-2 Denmark
Moldova 0-2 Greece
Latvia 1-1 Switzerland
SCOTLAND 1-2 Netherlands
Norway 1-1 Macedonia
Hungary 1-3 Portugal
N IRELAND 2-1 Slovakia
Slovenia 1-1 Poland
WALES 0-2 Russia
Romania 2-1 Austria
Italy 2-1 Bulgaria
ENGLAND 2-1 Croatia
Serbia 1-1 France
Montenegro 2-2 Cyprus
Germany 5-0 Azerbaijan
Spain 6-1 Estonia1730: Um, just bear with me a second, would you…This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.