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Football
IDEAL MAN: England coach Fabio Capello believes Ukraine’s tendency to hit teams on the counter makes the match ideally suited for Peter Crouch. LONDON: Fabio Capello has confirmed that Peter Crouch will lead England’s attack in Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine after once again dashing Michael Owen’s hopes of an international recall. An injury to Darren Bent offered the Italian an opportunity to draft Owen into the squad as experienced back-up for Crouch and Wayne Rooney. But he opted instead to call up Gabriel Agbonlahor, despite the Aston Villa forward’s club performances having dipped of late. Late call-upTottenham forward Bent had himself been a late call-up to the squad after Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole suffered injuries in Saturday’s friendly win over Slovakia. That underlined how far Owen has fallen down the pecking order although Capello again insisted that the injury-plagued Newcastle forward’s England career could be revived once he starts playing regularly for his club. “In every interview I’ve said the door for all the England players is open,” Capello said. “I respect Owen but I chose Agbonlahor because he has played a lot of games.” Rio Ferdinand, who returned to training after missing the Slovakia match with a back strain, declared himself fit to start alongside John Terry in central defence. Strong positionWith four straight wins in group six, England will be in a very strong position to reach next year’s finals in South Africa if it can beat Ukraine, the only team it has yet to face. The impressive win over Slovakia augured well for England’s chances and Capello expects Ukraine to play a similar style. “It will be a very dangerous game, they play very well on the counter attack,” the Italian said. “It will be very tough. “I was very happy after the Slovakia match, our movement with and without the ball was very good and we created a lot of good chances. For me it was a good test.” Capello believes Ukraine’s tendency to lay back and try and hit teams on the counter makes the match ideally suited for Crouch. “I think the most important thing is the movement of Gerrard, Lennon or Beckham and Rooney,” he said. “The movement near Crouch is very important. “He can do the same movement and press like (Emile) Heskey. But the movement of the players around him will be very important. Former ‘World player of the year’ Kaka may come to the rescue for Brazil as the five-time champion seeks to galvanise its World Cup qualifying campaign against Peru. Although in no apparent danger of missing out on one of the four qualifying slots for next year’s finals in South Africa the ‘Auriverde’ have only won four of their 11 qualifiers to date and have not been firing on all cylinders — as witnessed by Sunday’s fortuitous draw in Ecuador. That result left Dunga’s side a point behind both Argentina and Chile and five adrift of group leader Paraguay. Dunga is clearly banking on AC Milan clubmate Kaka to raise the standard on Wednesday in Porto Alegre against group tailender Peru. Dunga said late on Monday that Kaka was “in a fit state to play” and that suggested that Ronaldinho could well be benched for the match in his home city. Kaka “is fit, though I don’t know how much of the game he will manage,” Dunga told reporters. The fixtures: Group One: At Budapest: Hungary v Malta. At Copenhagen: Denmark v Albania. Group Two: At Riga: Latvia v Luxembourg: At Geneva: Switzerland v Moldova. At Heraklion: Greece v Israel. Group Three: At Kielce: Poland v San Marino. At Prague: Czech Republic v Slovakia. At Belfast: Northern Ireland v Slovenia. Group Four: At Vaduz: Liechtenstein v Russia. At Cardiff: Wales v Germany. Group Five: At Tallinn: Estonia v Armenia. At Istanbul: Turkey v Spain. At Zenica: Bosnia v Belgium. Group Six: At Almaty: Kazakhstan v Belarus. At Andorra: Andorra v Croatia. At London: England v Ukraine. Group Seven: At Klagenfurt: Austria v Romania. At Paris: France v Lithuania; Group Eight: At Sofia: Bulgaria v Cyprus. At Tbilissi: Georgia v Montenegro. At Bari: Italy v Bari. Group Nine: At Amsterdam: Holland v Macedonia. At Glasgow: Scotland v Iceland. — Agencies
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