World Cup Qualifiers Schedule
The race towards South Africa starts in August
Fabio Capello has his work cut out for him. England start their qualifying campaign for the next World Cup on September 6th away to Andorra four days before meeting their recent nemesis Croatia in Zagreb.
Present at the negotiations in the Sheraton Hotel in the Croatian capital were David Rodrigo of Andorra, Arno Pijpers of Kazakhstan, Bernd Dominoqq Tange of Belarus, Aleksei Mikhailichenko of Ukraine plus Capello and the host Slaven Bilic.
It took six and a half hours in Zagreb for the six coaches from the teams in the England’s group to reach an agreement on the calendar and in the end both Capello and Bilic claimed they were very happy with the outcome. The Ukrainians were reportedly the least satisfied as they didn’t want to play in June of 2009 and ended up having to visit Croatia and entertain the same team in the space of four days.
“I thank Belarus and Andorra for accepting some compromises, as without them it would have been difficult to reach the agreement,” said the Croatian coach, who was only unhappy with the trip to Belarus on August 19th next year.
“It’s FIFA’s date for friendlies so we’ll be able to count on our internationals just three days before the trip,” moaned Bilic.
Capello on the other hand stated he got exactly what he wanted – an easy opener with Andorra, a relatively lightweight rival in Belarus for the closure and both Croatian games in September.
Group 6 – qualifying calendar
2008
20th August
Kazakhstan vs. Andorra
6th September
Croatia vs. Kazakhstan
Andorra vs. England
Ukraine vs. Belarus
10th September
Croatia vs. England
Andorra vs. Belarus
Kazakhstan – Ukraine
11th October
Ukraine vs. Croatia
England vs. Kazakhstan
15th October
Croatia vs. Andorra
Belarus vs. England
2009
1st April
Andorra vs. Croatia
England vs. Ukraine
Kazakhstan vs. Belarus
6th June
Croatia vs. Ukraine
Kazakhstan vs. England
Belarus vs. Andorra
10th June
Ukraine vs. Kazakhstan
England vs. Andorra
19th August
Belarus vs. Croatia
5th September
Croatia vs. Belarus
Ukraine vs. Andorra
9th September
England vs. Croatia
Belarus vs. Ukraine
Andorra – Kazakhstan
10th October
Ukraine vs. England
Belarus vs. Kazakhstan
14th October
Kazakhstan vs. Croatia
Andorra vs. Ukraine
England vs. Belarus
Note: Only the group champions qualify for the World Cup directly, and the second placed team enter an additional qualification round against another of the eight best runners’ up out of the total of nine European zone groups.
England games
2008.
Andorra vs England (Sep 6th)
Croatia vs England (Sep 10th)
England vs Kazakhstan (Oct 11th)
Belarus vs England (Oct 15th)
2009.
England vs Ukraine (Apr 1st)
Kazakhstan vs England (June 6th)
England vs Kazakhstan (June 10th)
England vs Croatia (Sep 9th)
Ukraine vs England (Oct 10th)
England vs Belarus (Oct 14th)
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