Liverpool Draws Standard Liège, Arsenal Draws FC Twente in Champions League Third Qualifying Round

Just as its junior brother, the UEFA Cup, conducted a qualifying round draw this morning, the Champions League did as well with its Third Qualifying Round. We won't know the full slate of matchups until August 6, when the Second Qualifying Round finishes up, but the opponents for Liverpool and Arsenal have already been determined. While the two Premiership heavyweights should get through to the Group Stage, it's not going to be easy.

The road to another deep run in Europe's top club competition for Liverpool starts in Belgium, where they'll meet the defending Jupiler League champions, Standard Liège. We saw earlier that American defender Danny Califf and his club, FC Midtjylland, will be playing Manchester City in the next couple weeks, and Standard Liège has another American defender on their roster. Oguchi Onyewu, whose tenure at Newcastle in 2007 was uninspiring to say the least, is now back at Standard Liège, where he's appeared in 135 games since 2004 and been named to the Belgian First Division's Best XI twice and been Foreign Player of the Year once.

Standard Liège's captain is Steven Defour, a 20-year-old future star whose playmaking skills have earned him a starting role in the center of Belgium's midfield. He is probably his club's best player, but his teammate Milan Jovanović has scored 36 goals in 73 league games and is the domestic league's reigning Player of the Year. Alongside Defour in the midfield is Axel Witsel, the reigning Young Player of the Year in Belgium at the age of 19, who scored in his first senior international appearance for Belgium on March 26. You'll also find three Brazilians on Standard Liège's roster, including both starting full-backs and the vice-captain, who can play as a striker or on a wing.

Rafa Benitez has added some pieces to his team in an effort to seriously contend for the Premiership title this season. He'll be without Ryan Babel, Javier Mascherano, and Lucas for this tie as they are all taking part in the upcoming Olympics, but there is more than enough depth in the squad to adequately replace them for a short-term period. Benitez is well-known for tinkering with his lineup anyway, so it's no guarantee that those three would've played in both legs even if they were available.

Arsenal's opponent is also from a Benelux country; FC Twente finished second in the Dutch Eredivisie last year and is now managed by a familiar face to English soccer fans, Steve McLaren. The former Middlesbrough manager and England head coach had been rumored to take over at Twente since early May but was only formally hired on June 20. After the disgrace at Wembley against Croatia, confirming England's non-participation in Euro 2008, McLaren was fired. You can bet he has something to prove to the English media and to the country's fans, but his squad simply isn't good enough to beat Arsenal over two legs.

McLaren has a young Serbian center back, Slobodan Rajković, on loan from Chelsea, and Nikolay Mihaylov on loan from Liverpool. The former will likely start in this tie and have a large role for Twente this year, the latter sits behind 37-year-old club stalwart Sander Boschker on the goalkeeping depth chart but could compete for some playing time. Australian international Luke Wilkshire plays as a center midfielder for Twente, and former Everton youngster Bjarni Viðarsson will factor into the mix in that area as well.

Arsenal should overpower McLaren's team in this tie but because young players typically don't play their best on the road, you could see the Gunners struggle in the first leg. I have no doubt they'll win back at the Emirates, so it's just a matter of what the scoreline reads after the first game.

The following is the complete draw for this round. First legs will be played August 12 and 13, with second legs 14 days later on the 26th and 27th. As always, home teams are listed first, and the score in parentheses is the aggregate heading into the second leg of the Second Qualifying Round:

Anorthosis Famagusta/Rapid Wien (3-0) vs. Olympiacos
Vitória Guimarães vs. IFK Göteborg/Basel (1-1)
Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Domžale/Dinamo Zagreb (0-3)
Schalke 04 vs. Atlético Madrid
Aalborg BK/Modriča (5-0) vs. Rangers/FBK Kaunas (0-0)
Barcelona vs. Beitar Jerusalem/Wisła Kraków (2-1)
Levski Sofia vs. Anderlecht/BATE (1-2)
Standard Liège vs. Liverpool
Inter Baku/Partizan (1-1) vs. Fenerbahçe/MTK Hungária (2-0)
FC Twente vs. Arsenal
Spartak Moscow vs. Drogheda United/Dynamo Kyiv (1-2)
Juventus vs. Tampere United/Artmedia Petržalka (1-3)
SK Brann/Ventspils (1-0) vs. Marseille
Fiorentina vs. Slavia Prague
Galatasaray vs. Steaua Bucureşti
Panathinaikos/Dinamo Tbilisi (3-0) vs. Sheriff Tiraspol/Sparta Prague (0-1)

Winners in this round move on to the Group Stage, in which 16 teams have already booked places through their final league positions last season, including champions Manchester United, Lyon, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Zenit St. Petersburg, Celtic, and CFR Cluj. The draw for the Group Stage will take place on August 28, and once again, you can find full coverage and increased analysis here. Once the draw is made, I'll post my predictions to advance to the knockout stages.

Hilarious Steve McLaren Tribute Song

Steve McLaren Out as England Manager; Happy Thanksgiving

As I'm sure you all know, Steve McLaren was sacked today (effective immediately) and will no longer roam the sideline as the England national team manager. Enough said.

I'll have the last five season summaries out tomorrow as the Premiership (and other leagues across Europe) get going again on Saturday. Not an exceptionally electrifying slate of games this weekend, but what can you do??

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there; I hope you were able to spend it with those you love and care about.

Goodbye, England; Goodbye, Steve McLaren

England's 3-2 loss today at Wembley was a tough one to stomach for obvious reasons. Scott Carson's horrible misplay of a Niko Kranjčar right-footed drive put Croatia ahead after just eight minutes, and then England's defense hung Carson out to dry just six minutes later as Ivica Olic walked in alone and rounded him to make it 2-0.

To be fair, England deserve full credit for fighting back from two goals down and in the 65th minute, Peter Crouch's spectacular volley (from a beautiful service by second-half sub David Beckham) levelled the game. At this point, England and their fans visibly heaved a sigh of relief and the Three Lions seemingly took their foot off the gas, content to escape with the draw that would've advanced them to Euro 2008.

Croatia, however, would have none of it and Mladen Petric's 77th minute goal was a dagger into England's heart. The hosts really didn't get much going after that aside from a decent effort by Darren Bent just five minutes from time, and as a result, won't be headed to Austria and Switzerland next summer.

Croatia deserves full credit as well for their professionalism and they way they competed. They had already qualified fur Euro 2008 regardless of what happened today and had nothing to play for other than pride. The Croats could've sat back and played not to lose but instead they came out and attacked and made the game theirs.

Russia's 1-0 victory against Andorra today eliminated England from Euro 2008 contention as a Russian draw or loss still would've seen England through despite their defeat. Guus Hiddink's team earned the right to go to this tournament and they are the worthy runners-up to Croatia in Group E.

Steve McLaren's job is obviously now in serious threat and if he's not fired tomorrow morning, I would be shocked. There is no excuse for England, a self-proclaimed world power, to not qualify for this tournament or any tournament for that matter, but they've regressed as a team from where they were under Sven-Goran Eriksson and that's simply not good enough. England's players will get a nice break next summer; hey, maybe they can do a little sightseeing in Geneva or Vienna!

Steve McLaren Has Hope Yet

Israel's 2-1 home victory today over Russia, capped by a spectacular few minutes of second half injury time, puts qualifying for Euro 2008 squarely back in England's hands. The Three Lions now need only a draw against Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday to book their trip to Austria-Switzerland next June, which is truly amazing given how poorly they've played and been managed over the entire qualification process.

I'll have a full preview of the England-Croatia game on Tuesday, a match that is pretty much meaningless for the latter as Russia's loss today clinched Croatia's spot in Euro 2008 but is hugely important for both England and Steve McLaren.

England vs. Estonia Recap

The result of this game never seriously looked to be in doubt as England traveled into Estonia's capital city and beat the hosts 3-0 behind a goal apiece from Joe Cole, Peter Crouch, and Michael Owen. For the second time in the same number of games, however, David Beckham was the real difference-maker and provided two brilliant crosses that led directly to goals. Beckham was clearly the most dangerous player on the field and he didn't even look to be at full strength after injuring his ankle just a quarter of an hour into the game.

With all this being said, and though it was the kind of game that may ease criticism of Steve McLaren temporarily simply because England won, in reality England's performance was not nearly as inspiring as could have been hoped for. The Three Lions did just enough to win the game and not much more. Fans should keep their optimism tempered until England host Israel in 3 months' time as that will be more of an indicator towards England's Euro 2008 future. Peter Crouch will not be available (yellow card accumulation) for that match and Israel has allowed only 7 goals in 8 games (even that is misleading because 3 of them were in the same game against Croatia).

That is in the future though; for now fans will take a bit of comfort in a 3-0 win and a favorable result in the Croatia-Russia game (0-0) which has pulled England to within 3 points of the top two teams in Group E for Euro 2008 qualification.

Updated Group E Standings:
1. Croatia (17 points, +12 Goal Differential, 7 Games Played)
2. Israel (17 pts, +10 GD, 8 GP)
3. Russia (15 pts, +10 GD, 7 GP)
4. England (14 pts, +10 GD, 7 GP)
5. Macedonia (7 pts, -1 GD, 7 GP)
6. Estonia (0 pts, -14 GD, 7 GP)
7. Andorra (0 pts, -27 GD, 7 GP)

Note: Top two teams qualify for Euro 2008 (cohosted by Austria and Switzerland)

England-Brazil Recap, England-Estonia Preview (Edition 2)

The international friendly played at the new Wembley in London ended 1-1, with Brazilian substitute Diego snatching the draw for his side with a header in 2nd half injury time. Center back John Terry scored his third goal for England via a header from a well-placed David Beckham free kick in the 68th minute to give England the short-lived 1-0 lead. Seems a bit ironic that the embattled former England captain set up the current England captain for a goal, does it not?

In truth, Brazil certainly deserved the equalizer and probably should have won the game outright. England's performance was uninspired, to say the least, and with the critical Estonia match to be played in 4 days' time they did not bring much relief or hope for their supporters. One would've thought that England definitely would have brought their A-game to their first international game at the new Wembley, especially in an attempt to tune up for their important clash with Estonia next week. Steven Gerrard won the official Man of the Match honors though I personally believed David Beckham was the best player on the field before he was substituted in the 77th minute in favor of Tottenham's Jermaine Jenas. Gerrard and Beckham were easily England's two top players and Gerrard came up with a brilliant, potentially goal-saving tackle to deny Brazil but on the scoresheet he was blanked. Beckham had the go-ahead assist and played very well on the flank during the run of play. He came up painfully empty on a couple of other free kicks, either shooting and just missing or serving balls in that his teammates just couldn't get a body on. If you say that Beckham and Gerrard played a pretty even game, Beckham should've gotten Man of the Match honors because he factored in on the scoresheet.

Anything short of a victory in Estonia on June 6 will probably result in the firing of England coach Steve McLaren. The English fans are restless with consistent disappointing performances on the international level and quite justifiably so. England has some of the best players in the world and simply are being mismanaged. McLaren's squad selection leaves many questions and his positioning of players on the field also is often baffling. Some may even go so far as to think it's in England's best interest to not win against Estonia and cause a change in management. Steve McLaren isn't the man for the job and when the World Cup, which is still 3 years away, is your country's main goal, you want to have the right person in charge. Euro 2008 qualification wouldn't be impossible without a win but it would be considerably more difficult, especially with Russia's 4-0 victory over Andorra today.

England simply cannot afford to underestimate Estonia. Their performances lately have been nothing to draw much praise or approval from and Estonia is coming off a narrow 1-0 loss to Group E leader Croatia today, which can be looked at is a positive step forward for the Eastern European team. England themselves lost 2-0 to Croatia the first time around, and while I'm not saying that scores can be compared through some transitive property, I don't think England will have as easy of a time dispatching Estonia as they believe. As far as Steve McLaren's future goes however, this is a must win game.

Updated Group E Standings:
1. Croatia (16 points, +12 Goal Differential, 6 Games Played)
2. Russia (14 pts, +10 GD, 6 GP)
3. Israel (14 pts, +8 GD, 7 GP)
4. England (11 pts, +7 GD, 6 GP)
5. Macedonia (7 pts, -1 GD, 7 GP)
6. Estonia (0 pts, -11 GD, 6 GP)
7. Andorra (0 pts, -25 GD, 6 GP)

Note: Top 2 teams qualify for Euro 2008 (cohosted by Austria and Switzerland)