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After years of success, Spain were brought back to earth after being knocked out of the World Cup 2014 at the group stages. It has been reflected as an end of an era for the Spanish national team with several stars like Xabi Alonso and Iker Casillas towards the end of year careers. Alonso may have recently extended his stay at Real Madrid with a new contract, but at 33 years of age, he is unlikely to carry on playing international football for long. This is almost certainly the last time he has played at the World Cup.

It is being increasingly suggestions that Alonso will announce his retirement from international football after the final match against Australia, but the former Liverpool midfielder says that his future has still not been decided yet. Alonso has been one of the players to reflect on the end of the era. Spain were defeated 2-0 by Chile in the second group match. However, this performance was a massive improvement over the 5-1 humiliation this suffered in the opening match against Netherlands.

The two defeats have rendered the final match against Australia as a meaningless encounter, but Spain will be going out to play for pride. The Euro 2016 qualifying campaign begins in a few months and it is expected that manager Vicente del Bosque will leave out a number of star names. “I’m still not at that moment, I want all this to end as soon as possible, go on holiday, disconnect a little and then decide things with time. Right now is not the time. I’m not going to say what’s happening in the dressing room, for me that should stay there,” said Alonso ahead of the Australia match.

Alonso has also stated that the exit proves how big an achievement they did in the last six years.

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Italy star Claudio Marchisio has claimed that the Italian team feels fully prepared for the match against England. This will be their first match in the World Cup 2014, but there have been concerns about the form of the national team in the last few weeks. They have failed to win any of the warmup friendly matches, while several injury concerns are threatening to hamper the preparations. During the former friendly matches, Italy manager Cesare Prandelli saw players like Ricardo Montolivo withdraw from national team action due to injuries.

Despite this, Marchisio says that Italy feel confident that Italy will be able to achieve a positive result in their first match of the tournament. This will be a tough World Cup for the Italians, who won the tournament in the 2006 edition, since they will be coming up against former world champions like Uruguay and England in the group stages. After the first match against England, they will be taking on Costa Rica followed by the final group match against Uruguay. Marchisio has claimed that the meetings with England have always been passionate affairs. He has accepted that the national team is not experienced as it once was, but the players are confident of a positive result.

“I think we’ll meet a different England to Euro 2012. It will be a very difficult match, but just as they have changed since the Euros, so have we.  For many of us it was our first major tournament, so we now have more experience and have done important things over the last two years. There is a very positive air here, as we worked well at Coverciano and in Brazil. We were glad to be given permission to have our families by our sides, as we already did at Euro 2012,” said Marchisio

Bayern Munich manager Guardiola has stated that he wants his team to complete the double this season by winning the DFB Pokal final. Bayern will be coming up against archrivals Borussia Dortmund in this match. Having already lost to Jurgen Klopp’s team a few weeks ago, pressure will be high on Bayern Munich. This pressure has only increased after the 5-0 aggregate defeat at the hands of Real Madrid in the Champions League. Many have suggested that the season will be considered a disappointing one if they failed to win the DFB cup.

Guardiola has also suggested the same by saying that it seems a long time ago that they won the league title. Bayern have already lifted three major trophies this campaign – FIFA club World Cup, Super Cup and the league title. However, the latest string of poor results in the league and in the Champions League have raised questions about Guardiola’s ability to lead the team to more success in the future. The former Barcelona manager says that the upcoming final against Dortmund needs to go in favour of Bayern in order to classify this season a success.

During his time at Barcelona, Guardiola managed to win an incredible 14 titles in just five years. He has already lifted three with Bayern this year.

“If we lose, then it ruins our season. Every trophy is pretty. He would be able to play, but he is not with us and that’s my decision,” said Guardiola about the upcoming final and also the fitness situation of striker Mario Mandzukic. Opposition manager Jurgen Klopp was also wary of the threat posed by Bayern, who are now a wounded animal. “We have had four fantastic years with him. Everybody saw last weekend how strong we are when he plays. I’ve never had the feeling that we could seek an advantage from the fact that Bayern have a player out,” said Klopp.

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Fabio Capello was appointed as the manager of England in December of 2007 until resigning in 2012. The Italian tactician has experience being in charge of top clubs around the world and he has always been known as an outspoken character that is not afraid to voice his opinion.

The 67 years old manager revealed his point of view regarding England and their chances of winning the 2014 World Cup. Continue reading »

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho recently questioned the quality of the French league, as he believes that the teams like PSG and Monaco have it very easy to win the title. This is not the case in England where Mourinho has found himself in a precarious position after his team lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace during the weekend. He admitted after the match that it was almost impossible for Chelsea to win the title this season after this defeat since it left them a couple of points behind Liverpool, who are not the only team in the title race. Manchester City and Arsenal are also involved as well and it is not the case in France.

PSG lead the table by a whopping 10 points with still several matches left in the campaign. This is primarily due to the spending of the French outfit compared to their domestic rivals. The Qatari owners have spent vast sums of money in bringing in star names like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani. Dismissing suggestions that winning the French league has become easy, Laurent Blanc said that his team will prove in the Champions League quarter-final match against Chelsea that they are quality team nonetheless. He has also said that Mourinho already has the experience of playing in a league dominated by two teams.

“If I remember correctly, I think it was the same for him in Spain, with Barcelona and Madrid. The only answer we want to give is to show a great performance. We would like to show that Ligue 1 has some very good teams and some very good players,” said Blanc. The first leg will be in Paris followed by the second leg at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho has also dismissed suggestions that this gives Chelsea a slight edge over their French counterparts.