“We suffered, but we won, and I am very happy,” concluded Eriksson.ENGLAND (4-4-2): Seaman (Arsenal); G Neville (Manchester United), Campbell (Tottenham), Ferdinand (Leeds), Powell (Charlton); Beckham (Manchester United), Gerrard (Liverpool), Scholes (Manchester United), McManaman (Real Madrid); Owen (Liverpool), Cole (Manchester United). Substitutes: Heskey (Liverpool) for McManaman, 72; Fowler (Liverpool) for Cole, 82; Butt (Manchester United) for Owen, 90.FINLAND (4-2-3-1): Niemi (Hearts); Pasanen (Ajax), Hyypia (Liverpool), Tihinen (Viking Stavanger), Ylonen (Brann Bergen); Wiss (Stockport), Riihilahti (Crystal Palace); Nurmela (Heerenveen), Litmanen (Liverpool), Kolkka (PSV Eindhoven); Johansson (Charlton). Substitutes: Forssell (Chelsea) for Nurmela, 63; Kuqi (Stockport) for Kolkka, 63; Helin (Luton) for Ylonen, 89.Referee: V Ivanov (Russia).Bookings: England: McManaman, Scholes. Finland: Nurmela, Pasaren, Ylonen, Hyypia.Man-of-the-match: Beckham.. The good news to emerge from Saturday’s World Cup qualifier here for the England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, is that Wednesday’s Balkan opponents will be without two of their key players The bad news is that Albania can play a bit. Indeed, they gave Germany a better game than England managed at Wembley last autumn.

The good news to emerge from Saturday’s World Cup qualifier here for the England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, is that Wednesday’s Balkan opponents will be without two of their key players The bad news is that Albania can play a bit. Indeed, they gave Germany a better game than England managed at Wembley last autumn.
None the less, Albania’s captain and all-round defensive organiser Rudi Vata and Edvin Murati, a tricky left-sided winger, both received yellow cards from the Italian referee, Graciano Cesari. Earlier bookings mean the two men are now automatically suspended for the game against England in Tirana.Germany’s blushes were saved by a debutant, Miroslav Klose, of Kaiserslautern, who came off the bench two minutes from the end to head home Marco Rehmer’s cross from the right. Replays showed that at least three Germany players were in offside positions when Rehmer received the ball.England might have had the rough end of the stick against Germany over the years but so have Albania. Four years ago during the previous World Cup qualifying campaign they lost 4-3 to Germany in Hanover, once again conceding the decisive goal in the closing minutes.The win leaves Germany in pole position in Group Nine with a maximum of nine points from three games, five points clear of England. Unless Rudi Völler’s side implode – unlikely but not impossible considering the sluggishness of their performance – the best England can now probably hope for is a play-off place.Vata, once of Celtic, said, when Albania had the ball at their feet, they played like Brazilians.

His remarks were not wide of the mark as his side dominated for long periods.Albania’s goal midway through the second half amply demonstrated that technical excellence. Igli Tare’s cushioned header was controlled instantaneously by Bledar Kola, who then lashed a left-foot volley past Oliver Kahn.When Vata invoked images of Brazil, he neglected to mention that the Albanian goalkeeper Foto Strakosha also appeared to have also learnt his trade in the best South American traditions. He was at fault for Germany’s opening goal, getting his gloves to Sebastien Diesler’s powerful shot but then somehow allowing the ball to squeeze past him into the top corner. Had Strakosha been more sure-handed, Albania might have been celebrating their first ever away win in a World Cup qualifier.GERMANY (3-4-3): Kahn (Bayern Munich), Ramelow (Bayer Leverkusen), Nowotny (Bayer Leverkusen), Wörns (Borussia Dortmund), Deisler (Hertha Berlin), Hamann (Liverpool), Jeremies (Bayern Munich), Bode (Werder Bremen), Scholl (Bayern Munich), Neuville (Bayer Leverkusen), Bierhoff (Milan). Substitutes: Rehmer (Hertha Berlin) for Hamann, h-t; Jancker (Bayern Munich) for Bierhoff, h-t; Klose (Kaiserslautern) for Neuville, 73.ALBANIA (4-4-2): Strakosha (Ionikos), R Vata (Energie Cottbus), Xhumba (PAS Ioannina), Cipi (Ghent), Lala (Hanover), Hasi (Anderlecht), Kola (AEK Athens), Murati (Lille), F Vata (Waldhof Mannheim), Bushi (Istanbulspor), Tare (Brescia). Substitutes: Rraklli (Unterhaching) for Bushi, 67; Skela (Waldhof Mannheim) for F Vata, 79; Fakaj (Enosis Paralimni) for Hasi, 86.Bookings: Germany Hamann, Scholl, Klose. Albania R Vata, Murati.Referee: G Cesari (Italy).Man of the match: Kola..

First, rewind the grainy, black-and-white videotape to May 1956 and to the inaugural European Cup final at Colombes in the western suburbs of Paris. First, rewind the grainy, black-and-white videotape to May 1956 and to the inaugural European Cup final at Colombes in the western suburbs of Paris.
One team wore an all-white strip, which was destined to become famous. The other team wore red, with white sleeves, copied from the all-conquering Arsenal of the 1930s. The red shirts took a 2-0 lead within 20 minutes, playing raging, attacking football. They were pegged back to 2-2 before taking a 3-2 lead in front of 15,000 of their raucous, joyous fans.Finally, they went down, rather unlucky losers, by 4-3. The first winners of the European Cup were, of course, Real Madrid, who went on to win four more European Cups in a row, and eight in all, including two in the last three years. They remain – despite Manchester United’s plausible counter-claim; despite their £170m of debt and their constant bail-outs from the Spanish government – the greatest football club in the world.Who were the first losers of a European Cup final? It makes a tough question for the pub quiz but many older, football fans in England will know the answer.

The unlucky team that night was Stade de Reims, from northern France. They went on to win three more French championships in the next six years. They reached the European Cup final again in 1959, losing to Real Madrid once again (easily, on this occasion, 2-0).The France team which reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 1958 included eight Stade de Reims players. Two of the Remois from that era – Raymond Kopa and Juste Fontaine – remain all-time greats of the international game.After that? After that, calamity, serial relegation, near oblivion, bankruptcy and, in the early 1990s, official-winding up (for debts a fraction of those carried with insouciance by Real Madrid).Now after nearly forty years of hurt, Le Stade de Reims – the club which was French football in the late 1950s – may be on the point of resurrection.On Saturday night, Reims, from the French Third Division – having once slumped to the equivalent of the seventh division – will play in the quarter-finals of the French Cup. If they beat Amiens – also from the National, or Third, Division – they will have reached the semi-finals for the first time since their glory years.For their young, ambitious but realistic president, Christophe Chenut, 38, even the “quarters” are an important down-payment to the fans on his promise to re-establish Reims as a force in French football within the next six years.”History is a wonderful thing for a club It can also be a terrible burden,” Chenut said.