| After last Wednesday home defeat against Croatia; | | | | confidential utterances. |
| it is now a fact the European Championship 2008 in | | | | For only a short period of 15 months there hasn't |
| Switzerland and Austria will be carried out without the | | | | been anyone else coaching the national team for |
| English football motherland. Croatia won by 2:3; goals | | | | such a short time. Throughout the qualification rounds |
| by Niko Krancjar (9th minute) as well as by the | | | | and by making big mistakes such missing penalties |
| national league professionals Ivica Olic (14th) and | | | | England achieved the image of the EURO-2008-Loser. |
| Mladen Petric (77th). The fans who shared the thrill | | | | With this image the players Beckham, Gerrard and |
| with England in the Wembley Stadium were visibly | | | | Co. will probably have to deal with for a long time. |
| disappointed about the lousy performance of the | | | | "This was the worst evening for the national team. It |
| English national team and Coach Steve McClaren. | | | | will keep hurting for quite a while", complained Steven |
| Superstar David Beckham as well could barely believe | | | | Gerrard. |
| the practically unimaginable happening. "This was | | | | The last games of the qualification round have |
| disastrous for the whole country", was his comment | | | | already taken place so all 16 participants for the 13th |
| in regards to the loss. | | | | European Championship 2008 already stand firm. |
| The team won a total of twelve games, lost three | | | | Already qualified are: Germany, France, Greece, Italy, |
| and tied two games. The team accumulated 23 | | | | Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, |
| points, just one point less than the surprising second | | | | Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Spain and |
| place Russia. Since only the first two in each group | | | | Turkey. Since Austria and Switzerland are the event |
| can qualify for the European Championship; England | | | | hosts these two teams are automatically qualified. |
| will have to stay home next year. Due to Croatia's | | | | In group D the Czech Republic could achieve the first |
| victory it was possible for Russia, that also achieved | | | | place. The German team which finished their last |
| a victory against Andorra to reach the second place. | | | | group match against Wales with an unsatisfied 0:0 |
| If England would have won they would be in | | | | kept the second place. Thereby; they also have an |
| advantage by the points. | | | | advantage, they will not end up in the feared lottery |
| After the unexpected disappointing; England's Coach | | | | pot of the raffle for the preliminaries. There are |
| McClaren will be dismissed immediately. He took the | | | | always the hosts, the title holder, "Greece", and the |
| place of the national coach after the World Cup 2006 | | | | team with the year's best coefficient, the |
| when the former coach Sven-Göran Eriksson | | | | Netherlands. |
| from Sweden left the team after the publication of | | | | |