October 18, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 5, 1428

BELGRADE, Oct 17: Scotland, France and England will be weakened through injuries and suspensions ahead of their vital Euro 2008 qualifiers on Wednesday.

Group B leaders Scotland will miss the injured Scott Brown and Alan Hutton as well as suspended Lee McCulloch and Gary O’Connor for their match in Georgia as they aim to reach their first major tournament since the 1998 World Cup finals.

Brown strained a hamstring and Hutton hurt his calf in Saturday’s 3-1 home win over Ukraine that left the Scots needing four points from their visit to Tbilisi and the clash with World Cup winners Italy in Glasgow next month.

They have been boosted by the return of Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher, who was out for a month with a broken foot sustained in the 1-0 win over France in Paris.

France, lying third in Group B two points behind Scotland and one adrift of Italy, will be without Bolton Wanderers striker Nicolas Anelka and Sevilla defender Julien Escude for their home match against Lithuania in Nantes.

After thumping the Faroe Islands 6-0 away, France need another convincing performance ahead of their final match against Ukraine in Kiev on Nov 21 and have called up Monaco striker Frederic Piquionne as a replacement for Anelka.

England are also reeling from injuries with captain John terry almost certainly out of the trip to Moscow following the recurrence of a knee problem in training on Tuesday while left back Ashley Cole was already sidelined with an ankle injury.

Terry missed Saturday’s 3-0 win against Estonia and put on hold minor surgery required to remove a floating bone but is unlikely to feature in the potentially decisive Group E clash at the Luzhniki Stadium. Sol Campbell is set to replace him again.

A win would see England through to the finals in Austria and Switzerland with a match to spare, a draw would leave them needing a result against leaders Croatia at Wembley Stadium next month while defeat would take their fate out of their own hands.Portugal, chasing one of the top two spots in a tight Group A, the only one with eight instead of seven teams, will be without striker Nuno Gomes for the visit to Kazakhstan.

Portugal are four points behind group leaders Poland and level with third-placed Finland but have a game in hand over their rivals in the battle to reach next year’s tournament.

Fourth-placed Serbia, still with a slim chance of qualifying even though they are seven points behind Poland, will be without suspended captain Dejan Stankovic for the match in Azerbaijan that they must win to keep alive any hope of progressing.—Reuters