Eurosport - Thu, 20 Nov 14:04:00 2008
Managerial reaction from the home nations and Republic of Ireland after their friendly matches, with England boss Fabio Capello delighted at his side's performance against Germany.
Germany 1-2 England
Fabio Capello: "The result is important but the performance was very, very good. We created a lot of chances, we played with confidence and personality. To play here, like this, is not easy. I don't like to speak about one player, but all the players played well and it the spirit they showed is very important. I am very happy to have this selection problem! We have time to decide when we pick the next squad: we have two months to wait but I am very happy because I saw some players play very, very well."
Joachim Loew: "We had a bad day and deserved to lose. Only in the second half did we get into the game a bit, but we have huge problems with positioning, in our organisation and in the build-up play. You can see clearly that England were stronger. We did not have the maturity today to beat these opponents."
Scotland 0-1 Argentina
George Burley: "It was definitely a worthwhile exercise and a great workout for our players. We were playing against one of the best teams in the world and Holland are also a top-10 team. It was good for our players to play against Carlos Tevez and other top names just as it was good for me when I played against Diego here in 1979."
Diego Maradona: "Who is he? Who is (Terry) Butcher? I greeted the Scotland manager after the game. Who is Butcher? Since the bad news I've had about my daughter [who suffered a pregnancy scare], it's the first time I've managed to laugh."
Denmark 0-1 Wales
John Toshack: "If you are not going to go out and play friendlies with the right attitude there is no point in having them. We have come here without important players who would normally be first choices, and it was really pleasing to see how the team worked."
Northern Ireland 0-2 Hungary
Nigel Worthington: "It was hugely disappointing, very poor - there was a lack of energy, a lack of imagination from my team. It was 40 minutes before we put four passes together. It was simply not good enough and highlighted where a lot of our players are in terms of not playing for their clubs. They looked awful and that comes from their personal situations. If you are not fit, then you are going to be second best."
Republic of Ireland 2-3 Poland
Giovanni Trapattoni: "Normally after a defeat, I am sad and not happy, but this evening, I am not sad because I saw from some players that we can believe in the future. I said this team (Poland) are strong and have played together for a long time. But we had some great chances with Damien Duff and we kept believing we could score and for me, that's positive. I said to the players in the dressing room afterwards that it is better to lose a friendly that a World Cup qualifier."
Comment 1 - 3 of 23
Maradona was a cheat for the first goal...everyone knows that. Thats why Butcher said what he said
Thats right: Who is Terry Butcher? A half-assed defender who could not stop Maradona at his best. Now he is still whining? Shut up, Mr. Butcher!
excellent fabio keep it up.
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