The World Cup 2014 qualifiers get underway this weekend with all four home nations hoping to get their campaigns off to a positive start.
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England have been hit by injuries to key members of their team, specifically ruling out Ashley Cole for the first game, Andy Carroll is out with a hamstring injury and Wayne Rooney also out with an unspecified injury.
Rooney and Carroll’s absence in particular have encouraged the Moldovan side which faces them on their home turf in Chisinau on the 7th September. Their assistant manager Ion Testemitanu has said that the two strikers being out of contention is very lucky for them, saying that anyone can win on the day.
Despite this England fans will be hoping that unbeaten manager Roy Hodgson will have chosen a squad with enough depth to overcome their adversaries, who are placed 138 places below them in the FIFA world rankings. If the three lions can’t put enough world class players in their football kit because of a couple of injuries then they will be in big trouble indeed.
This could be a new start for England and Hodgson could guide them to football medals to end the drought, although whatever happens in Moldova tonight there is still a long way to go.
The Welsh team has had similar problems with injuries, losing many key members of their squad including Craig Bellamy, Andrew Crofts and Neil Taylor who fractured his ankle in last weekend’s clash with Sunderland.
Wales host Belgium in their first qualifier at the Cardiff City Stadium on Friday and the Belgians are the favourites to win. Belgium have a massively talented squad and although they have never won any major football trophies their ranks include rising star Eden Hazard who has already stuck footballs in the back of football nets for Chelsea this season, as well as Manchester City’s Premier League winning Vincent Kompany.
Wales will have their work cut out as manager Chris Coleman has had to call up a plethora of youngsters including Swansea’s Jazz Richards and Ben Davies. Both have little to no experience in a Wales football kit, although Richards has captained the U21 squad but only made his senior debut against Mexico in May, Davies remains uncapped.
It’s not an easy road for the Welsh as after Belgium comes a difficult trip to Serbia on 11 September.
Northern Ireland have suffered the loss of an essential trio in Paddy McCourt, Shane Ferguson and Martin Petterson to injury. They will definitely miss the first game against Russia on 7 September but may return for their second game against Luxembourg.
Scotland’s forward Robert Snodgrass has come out behind the Scots, saying they are full of belief that they can make it to this World Cup despite not qualifying for the last Euros or World Cup. Their first game is against Serbia on the 8th September at home followed by an away game to Macedonia on 11th September, Scotland should have a decent chance at qualification with no serious injury threats to their squad which includes Stoke’s Charlie Adam.
The Republic of Ireland face Kazakhstan in their opener in Astana on Friday. The main change to their squad is newcomer is Sunderland’s goalie Kieren Westwood replacing the retired Shay Given.
