Here’s Jacob Steinberg’s report on the trouble in Athens.
Key events
Craig Bellamy believes Wales’ Nations League test in Turkey presents the perfect rehearsal for their World Cup qualification campaign next year. Wales enter the Kadir Has Stadium in Kayseri on Saturday evening expecting an intimidating atmosphere, with their travelling 1,000-strong support tucked away in the corner of a 33,000-capacity arena that is right on top of the players.
Nations League promotion is on the line for Wales – winning in Kayseri and beating Iceland at home on Tuesday will guarantee their place in the top tier of the competition’s next edition.
But Bellamy knows the main objective is reaching the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States, qualification for which starts next year.
Coming to a country as passionate about football as Turkey is, that’s always an honour. You have to relish this, it’s so good. Will we be able to play how we want to play? That’s going to be the test.
It is (Nations League) six games to prepare for the World Cup and what scenario that’s going to be. What can we do in these six games to take us close to giving us a realistic and good opportunity of qualifying for the World Cup? So far, so good, but that’s what makes this so good is because it will allow us to shorten that gap.
Bellamy is the first Wales manager to be unbeaten in his opening four games after two wins and two draws.
And in Asia, qualifiers to the 2026 World Cup continued. Iran and South Korea – who had the captain Son Heung-min scoring his 50th international goal – tightened their grips on automatic spots to the tournament with wins over North Korea and Kuwait respectively.
Uzbekistan and Bahrain suffered late defeats while Australia and Saudi Arabia settled for a goalless draw in their Group C encounter.
Japan, who meet Indonesia in Jakarta on Friday, will move seven points clear at the top of Group C with a win against the Southeast Asian side.
Outside of Uefa’s Nations League, Caf’s Afcon qualifiers continued during this international break.
Thursday’s results on saw six more nations – Nigeria, Tunisia, South Africa, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon – clinch their spots at the tournament to be played in Morocco next December.
Equatorial Guinea managed a goalless draw against the group leaders Algeria after the Desert Foxes aimed to extend their advantage. Riyad Mahrez led their attack, and the visitors saw good chances through Mohammed Amoura and Ramiz Zerrouki. However, Nzalang Nacional’s defense, marshaled by Basilio Ndong and Marvin Anieboh, held firm.
Nigeria battled to a 1-1 draw with Benin to confirm their qualification. Benin opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Mohamed Tijani capitalized on a corner delivery from Junior Olaïtan. In the second half, Nigeria were rewarded with their efforts in the 81st minute when Victor Osimhen met Moses Simon’s cross with a precise header to level the score.
Hello all. Let’s keep the trend going with some more Manchester United news.
The former United midfielder Irene Guerrero has opened up on her time with the club, saying there were days where she “had to go into the bathroom to cry” during training.
The 27-year-old joined the club in September 2023, having been part of the Spain squad that won that summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The season that followed, disrupted early on by a knee injury, saw the ex-Atlético Madrid player make only seven appearances in all competitions for Marc Skinner’s side, starting just once, and she subsequently left to sign for the Mexican team America in July.
Guerrero told Marca:
I did everything in my power to get a chance, but when the weeks go by and you don’t get it, you see how small you are. When I returned to training in January (after the injury), I had minutes in some games between January and March, but then there is a period where I don’t play at all. I fully understand that a coach may like one profile of player more than another and that’s absolutely fine, but being denied the opportunity to show your level or potential and then see if it fits into your game model or not…
It was difficult for me to accept at that time. I asked myself. ‘Why are you coming to sign me, pay a transfer fee and give a player in exchange if you don’t count on me later?’ Mentally reconciling that was not easy. The support I had from my family and my partner helped me to see the positive side and get down to work. When I hit rock bottom I started to approach it in a different way.
I remember days when, halfway through training, I had to go into the bathroom to cry, wash my face and come out as if nothing had happened. I tried not to let anyone notice and not to affect the team, but I had a very important, very hard mental limit.
I also went through moments of sending everything to hell, especially when I got home and said to my partner, ‘I want to go home, I don’t want to be here. I’m not enjoying myself, I’m not happy and I feel like everything I’ve sacrificed to come to another country is not worth it. The reward for the effort and work I’m doing on a day-to-day basis is zero.’
United declined to comment when contacted by the PA news agency. PA Media
Yara El-Shaboury will be taking the reins for the next tranche of red-hot news and views,
Man Utd to cut funding for disabled fans?
Per PA Media
Manchester United are looking at the funding they provide to their disabled supporters’ association as part of a wider analysis into costs at the club.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has targeted savings since become minority owner at the start of a year that saw the Premier League club post net losses of £113.2million for the 12 months ending June 30, 2024.
Around 250 members of staff have left Old Trafford as part of those cost-cutting measures and club great Sir Alex Ferguson will leave his ambassadorial position at the end of the season.
PA understands United are continuing to analyse the club’s outgoings in a bid to stem losses, including looking at what they give their disabled supporters’ association.
The Daily Mail has reported that the £40,000-a-year given to MUDSA is among the spending lines being looked at and could be halved. United did not comment on the matter when contacted by PA and MUDSA have yet to respond to a request for comment.
An England fan writes from Athens
Philip Cornwall
Ever the newshound, I missed all the trouble in Athens on Thursday night. Gregg Bakowski had reminded me of Liverpool fans’ problems in 2007 so I made sure I arrived with more than an hour to spare. It would have been more, but trains were so heaving I had to go back four stops from the centre to get on one, two and a half hours before kickoff.
At the ground I found a short, good-natured queue, with an English female steward in a “Uefa away fans” bib laughing apologetically when Greek fans asked her where they needed to go. No sign of what was to come.
Once inside, the area filled up gradually – but after kick-off seemed to overfill. As far as I could tell, I had a ticket for a nonexistent seat, block 29 row 4 stopping just short of 81. In truth no one pays much attention to seat numbers at England away games and no one came to evict me from seat 80, but there were people standing in all the gangways and no visibly empty seats.
I was with some people I met in Estonia before the Finland game, who needed to leave early here because one had done his back in and would have struggled standing through the lock-in. But by the 70-minute mark, by when you had to leave to avoid the lock-in, the England end was a third less full. I never quite get the early leavers for non-medical reasons*, but given what had apparently happened before kick-off I don’t blame people for wanting to avoid a repeat.
Afterwards, I made sure I was near but not at the front as we waited for the riot police to let us out, which they did after about 25 minutes. But there was an example of the pettiness of some policing at the metro station. There were Greek stragglers around, and the police suddenly formed up in front of the England fans, while letting the Greeks through. However, once the Greeks were in the station, the shield wall opened up – and we all travelled back on the same (peaceful) train, just with the Greeks sitting down and the English standing.
*Full disclosure: Oslo 1993 I couldn’t get a hotel because Springsteen was in town too, so left early to sleep on an overnight train; Guimaraes 2019 we had tickets to the Nations League final so had to miss beating the Swiss on penalties for third place to make it back to Porto in time. Trent and co made up for that in Dusseldorf in July.
** Philip is our production editor and attendee at just about every England game possible.
And the ratings from last night in Athens, too.
Harry Kane was left out last night by Lee Carsley, and here’s the explanation.
It’s important that I think if we are going to put these players in a position where we are going to go and win the World Cup then they need to have as many experiences as they can. So, it was no slight on Harry. He’ll start the next game.
Ruud van Nistelrooy has waved his goodbyes to Manchester United – for now?
“To everyone at Manchester United Football Club, in particular the backroom staff, the players and the fans. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your incredible efforts and support. It has been a privilege and honour to represent the club as a player, coach and… pic.twitter.com/G9Z2Ad249u
— Ruud van Nistelrooij (@RvN1776) November 15, 2024
England v Ireland at Wembley on Sunday.
Lying in wait for Lee Carsley’s swansong will be Caoimhin Kelleher, who had another fine game as Ireland beat Finland. He’s been a Wembley wizard before with Liverpool. He saved a penalty last night in Dublin.
“Yeah, I’ve two Cup wins there so hopefully another happy one on Sunday. We know what to expect. They’ll be quality. There’s a lot of players missing, but they’ve a lot of strength in depth and a lot of strength in depth in their squad as well. We need to recover because we’ve to go again in three days. But we’ll be ready for them.”
“We know we can improve on things and it’s big opposition in England. Any England versus Ireland game is big and we’ll definitely be up for it. We’ll look at the game to see what we could have done better, what we need to improve on and get ready.”
“It’s looking good at the moment. That run of games is very important, keeping that rhythm is good. I’m happy to be getting a chance to show everyone the levels I can play at. It’s common sense. If I’m playing week in, week out, I’m going to be coming in more match-sharp and ready. There’s confidence from playing week in, week out.”
Here’s Jacob Steinberg’s report on the trouble in Athens.
Football Weekly has landed, including well, me, actually. A fun edition, even with no Barry.
And here’s Lee Carsley himself.
Lee Carsley – turns out his reign could be a success, after all. So says Barney Ronay.
Lewis Hall, a half-time sub, was one of the most eye-catching performers as England won in Greece. Seems he entered the mixed zone in Athens.
Per PA Media
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really expecting to come on just because of the position that Ezri plays. I think it was (performance coach) Chris Jones who told me and I couldn’t quite believe him at first.
“Luckily, I had another 10 minutes as well then to get myself ready and prepared to come on. It’s amazing. I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet, really. I’m sure I’ll lie down tonight and realise what’s happened. It’s an amazing feeling for me and really happy to get the win as well.”
“I did feel a bit nervous before coming on. But I think when you’re out there and you sort of get your first pass away and you’re in the game, you just treat it as any other game, really. There’s so many talented players around me that I knew anytime I get the ball that there’s always going to be options. There’s so much quality in the team, so it’s amazing to play with them players as well.”
Loan ranger Will Unwin has been running the rule.
The excellent Nick Ames makes the wholly valid point: why are Belarus playing Uefa fixtures?
Its complicity with Russia’s abuses is appalling enough before the domestic picture, and an atrocious human rights record in which football and footballers have not been spared, is accounted for. There are believed to be more than 1,300 political prisoners, the same individuals referenced by those fans in Warsaw, in Belarus. These incarcerations have often been the result of the slightest opposition to Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime.
The other big story of the week is the imminent change in the Match of the Day studio.
“I bowed out in my football career when I felt it was the right time. I feel this is now the right time. I think the next contract they’re looking to do Match of the Day slightly differently, so I think it makes sense for someone else to take the helm.”
Slightly differently? Alarm bells will be ringing.
Liverpool fans and journalists who were there, will recognise that stadium from 2007’s Champions League final, a mess of organisation from my experience and from Gregg Bakowski, neé Roughley, my colleague, here’s a reminder of what happened back then.
The problem then was getting in, not getting out.
That call for witnesses for the Athens from Football Supporters’ Association.
Unfortunately, once again, we are having to ask England supporters to send in their witness accounts to ourselves regarding the situation outside of the Athens Olympic Stadium.
Despite being told how things would operate in advance, to see the exact opposite occur in some…
— Free Lions (@WeAreFreeLions) November 14, 2024
England fans crushed exiting Athens Stadium
(PA Media) – The Football Association and Football Supporters’ Association are investigating after England fans faced heavy-handed policing and tear gas before the Nations League match in Greece.
Lee Carsley’s side was backed by 3,500 travelling supporters in Thursday’s key Group B2 encounter at the sold-out Olympic Stadium in Athens. England secured a 3-0 victory against Greece on an evening that started with some fans dealing with overzealous policing on their way into the ground.
An FA spokesperson told the PA news agency: “We are aware that some of our fans had a difficult experience outside the ground and are obtaining more information on exactly what happened”.
The FSA’s Free Lions Fans’ Embassy posted on X: “Unfortunately, once again, we are having to ask England supporters to send in their witness accounts to ourselves regarding the situation outside of the Athens Olympic Stadium.
“Despite being told how things would operate in advance, to see the exact opposite occur in some cases, and to see the treatment of our fans by local police using shields and tear gas to do something as simple as rearrange a queue, is so incredibly frustrating.
“We’ll say more over the next 24 hours, but in the meantime, if fans can email infothefsa.org.uk with your experiences, we will work with the FA and we will raise with Fans Europe and in turn UEFA, who have already been made aware.
“On a night where we had a great result on the pitch, there is still clearly so much needed to do off it to ensure our supporters aren’t put in unjustifiably dangerous situations.”
England fans complained of being “pushed” and receiving “heavy handed” treatment from Greek police outside the Olympic Stadium.
Preamble
Good morning to our Friday blog, amid an international week that’s started with a bang for Lee Carsley’s final days in the England job. There’s also some tabloid tales about in regard to The David Coote Affair, as it must be known. How many people last week knew who David Coote was?
Plus, after that England match in Greece, some ugly scenes followed fans’ exit from the Olympic Stadium.
All that and all the news and features of the day. Join me.
