England will kick off their Euro 2012 qualification campaign at home to Bulgaria on Friday September 3. The draw, conducted today in Tel Aviv, suits England as they have avoided June matches in Bulgaria and Montenegro where the heat could have proved a problem.
South Africa began their fourth and final training camp ahead of the World Cup. They'll get plenty of practice to fine tune their goalscoring skills. South Africa will play five friendlies before their June 11 tournament opener, all at World Cup match or training venues. They face China (Nelspruit, May 16), Bulgaria (Soccer City, Johannesburg, May 24), Columbia (Pretoria, May 27) Thailand (Cape Town, May 31) and Denmark (Orlando Stadium, Johannesburg, June 5). There is also talk that SAFA officials are trying to organise a friendly match against Brazil at the Orlando Stadium on either June 2 or June 7.
Following South Africa's 1-1 draw with Bulgaria in Monday's World Cup warm-up match in Johannesburg, Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira believes his side will be up to the challenge of qualifying from Group A. South Africa play Colombia on Thursday night at Soccer City before they play a further two friendlies against Guetemala and Denmark.
South Africa have looked solid in the past week, drawing 1-1 against Bulgaria on Monday before beating Colombia 2-1 on Thursday. They are expected to beat Guatemala.
England will kick off the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with a home game against Bulgaria on the 3rd of September. What do you think, will England get off to a good start?
Theo Walcott got off to an impressive start this season with Arsenal, he netted a hat-trick against Blackpool and got on the score sheet again at Blackburn. Will he hit the target for England too?
