France received chilling notice that the road to post-World Cup redemption will be long and hard when they lost 1-0 to Belarus in Paris on Friday, while Portugal threw away two points in a frantic 4-4 draw at home to Cyprus.

England and Italy were able to start repairing their reputations with contrasting wins in their first Euro 2012 qualifiers and Spain swatted away Liechtenstein 4-0 with an ease befitting their status as world and European champions.

England played with the quick passing and invention that eluded them in South Africa as they beat Bulgaria 4-0 at Wembley, Jermain Defoe netting a smartly taken hat-trick and Adam Johnson getting the fourth in the Group G clash.

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Germany thrashed England 4-1 to leave Fabio Capello pondering his future as national coach while Diego Maradona’s Argentina saw off Mexico 3-1 as the former champions paved the way for a last eight showdown in Cape Town on July 3. Both matches were marred by bad refereeing decisions.

But both last 16 games were mired in controversy.

Capello slammed the Uruguayan referee as his team crashed out in a Bloemfontein humiliation.

Frank Lampard had a legitimate goal disallowed by referee Jorge Larrionda when England were trailing 2-1 just before half-time.

With England surging forward, the midfielder unleashed a drive that beat goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, came off the underside of the crossbar and landed over the goal-line before bouncing out.

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England and Germany just made it into the knock-out stages of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday together with the United States but Australia went out despite a victory that paradoxically saved Africa’s chances.

Ghana, the continent’s last real hope, lost 1-0 to Germany after a thundering 60th minute strike by Mesut Ozil, but finished second in Group D thanks to the Socceroos convincing 2-1 victory over Serbia.

Two half brothers faced each other for the first time at a World Cup when Kevin-Prince Boateng played for Ghana and Jerome Boateng for Germany.

England finally found some of their form to beat a feisty Slovenia, who saw their chance of qualification from Group C agonisingly stolen at the last moment by a USA goal by Landon Donovan in injury time against Algeria.

The last gasp USA victory sparked scenes of joy in Pretoria among American fans and gave them first place in the group over England.

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The UK press had no mercy on England goalkeeper Robert Green for his blunder that cost England their win against the USA in their World cup encounter.
The weekly press printed frame-by-frame images of Green’s error, with the front pages of the News of the World and the Sunday Mirror both reading “Hand of Clod”, accompanied by a giant picture of Green.

Any England goalkeeper guilty of a clanger is given merciless treatment by the national newspapers, with international careers usually then brought to a shuddering halt.

David Seaman, David James, Paul Robinson and Scott Carson can all testify to that.

“Cock-up keeper Green wrecks dream start,” said the News of the World, adding: “Stars and tripe”.

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The Springbok under-20 team were knocked out of the IRB Junior World Championship in Tokyo Japan by going down 40 – 21 to England on Wednesday.

England will take on the reigning champions New Zealand in Sunday’s final after the Kiwis outclassed Australia 31-7. The Baby Boks will play Australia in Sunday’s third-place playoff fixture in Tokyo at 15h00* (RSA time — 08h00).

“The guys are really disappointed with the result, but I believe we were defeated by the better team on the day,” said SA under-20 coach Eric Sauls after the match.

“We lost too many line-outs, made some silly mistakes and lost momentum during important stages in the match. Also losing a player like Rynhardt Elstadt, who was red-carded, was a huge blow to us. It was always going to be difficult defending and attacking against a side like England with one man down for 15 minutes.

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