Croatia wary of revenge in rematch

CROATIAN coach Slaven Bilic has admitted he would rather have avoided facing an England squad bent on revenge in the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup.

Bilic's talented young squad beat England twice to ensure it missed out on Euro 2008, triggering the dismissal of Steve McClaren as manager.

But despite his confidence that he can inflict just as much pain on whoever succeeds McClaren, Bilic admitted he would have preferred to avoid a rematch. "Everyone in Croatia was saying, 'Give us England again', but I wanted to avoid them," he said.

"It is a very, very hard draw because they are by far the best team from the second pot. We are not afraid of them but they have got a terrific team and brilliant players. They should gel and they are going to gel."

The 1966 cup winner was handed a rapid chance to gain revenge on the 1998 semi-finalist, whose 3-2 win at Wembley last week ensured that England failed to qualify for a major finals for the first time in 14 years.

Managerless England also was drawn against last year's quarter-finalists Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra in group six, while defending champion Italy, beginning its quest for a fifth title, comes up against Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro in group eight.

"It is a very good draw," said Giancarlo Abete, the president of the Italian Football Federation. "We could not have asked for better. As world champions, we should win this group."

Scotland, which gave France and Italy a run for their money in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, found itself up against the Netherlands in group nine, which also includes Norway, Iceland and Macedonia.

Dutch coach Marco van Basten said Scotland deserved respect.

"I watched their match against Italy last week and they were very good and we know they will always fight to the last minute," he said.

The winners of the nine European groups qualify automatically with the eight best runners-up entering two-leg play-offs to decide the remaining four spots for the region.

The only team guaranteed to appear at the finals, which begin on June 11, 2010, is host South Africa. But it could affect the chance for qualification of African powerhouse Nigeria after being drawn in the same group, with the results also counting towards the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

With the focus for once on football, concerns about stop-start stadium construction, security and other logistical issues associated with hosting the finals in Africa for the first time were put aside.

At a glittering ceremony in Durban attended by about 3000 delegates and watched by a worldwide television audience of tens of millions, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and South African President Thabo Mbeki pledged that preparations were well on track.

"Now there's no doubt that the 2010 World Cup will be here, will be a big success," Blatter said.