Tough test for U-21s:The Republic of Ireland under-21s face a serious test tonight against the Netherlands in Venlo (7pm).
The Dutch are preparing for the Uefa Championships finals this summer and their squad will be made up of players born after January 1st, 1984. The Irish are generally two years younger than the Dutch but manager Don Givens has been allowed to call upon two overage player: Drogheda United's Paul Keegan and Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Stephen Ward will provide the experience.
Manchester United youngster Darron Gibson, currently on loan at Royal Antwerp, will captain the side on his first under-21 appearance.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:Quigley (UCD), Kane (Blackburn), O'Halloran (Aston Villa), O'Cearuill (Arsenal), O'Dea (Celtic), Gibson (Manchester Utd), Keegan (Drogheda Utd), Quinn (Sheffield Utd), Clarke (Ipswich), Ward (Wolves), O'Brien (Celtic).
Ibrahimovic returns
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has settled his differences with Sweden's coach Lars Lagerback and is ready to put a dent in Northern Ireland's attempt to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals.
Lagerback dropped the Internazionale striker for the games against Iceland and Spain after he broke a curfew with team-mates Olof Mellberg and Christian Wilhelmsson on the eve of the game against Liechtenstein in September.
Ibrahimovic is adamant he did nothing wrong but he has put his differences with Lagerback to one side and is focused on helping the leaders maintain their 100 per cent record in Group F when they meet Northern Ireland, two points behind in second place, in Belfast tomorrow.
"We have seen videos of Northern Ireland and they look a very good team," he said. "They have already beaten Spain and we know it is going to be a tough game. We will need to look at the whole team but we know David Healy, who scored a hat-trick at the weekend, is in good shape at the moment."
Welsh support wanes
With just 15,000 supporters expected at the Millenium Stadium for Wales' Euro 2008 qualifier against San Marino tomorrow, the West Bromwich Albion midfielder Jason Koumas has called on the Welsh FA to move some matches to smaller grounds.
"I'm disappointed the game isn't at Cardiff City," he said. "There'll be 12 or 15,000 there and the place is going to be empty. It would be better to play at Ninian Park with a better atmosphere. I don't know why it isn't happening."
With a 72,500 capacity the Millennium Stadium will certainly appear somewhat deserted tomorrow evening.
"We're under contract to play at the Millennium," said the manager, John Toshack. "We did have a spell (under Mark Hughes) when we beat Italy and there was the novelty of being at the Millennium and people used to go. Then it was five games without a win there and it went slowly down."
Despite the poor recent results, Toshack has been given a vote of confidence by the FAW .
Craig Bellamy missed training yesterday after picking up a knock in a collision on Saturday with Shay Given.
Scots to make changes
Scotland boss Alex McLeish is likely to make changes to the team that beat Georgia 2-1 at Hampden Park for tomorrow's Euro 2008 qualifier against the Italians in Bari.
He is expected to field just one striker, with the hard-working Kenny Miller widely tipped to get the nod, and pack the midfield.
A draw or victory would leave the Scots well placed to go on and qualify for next year's finals. The former Rangers manager said Scotland would certainly not throw as many men forward as they did against Georgia on Saturday, when home advantage against a relatively weak footballing nation made victory a necessity.
McLeish said: "We defended quite high up the pitch in the Hampden game against Georgia because we wanted to show the intent to get the game won, and to press, and we can't leave ourselves too open against Italy."
Uefa fine Celtic
Celtic have been fined £420 by Uefa following bottle-throwing incidents involving supporters during the Champions League match against Milan at the San Siro earlier this month. The club had fought the Uefa action, insisting they should not be held liable as the two empty bottles came from a part of the stadium which was not officially allocated to Celtic supporters.
However, after being notified of the fine, the club claimed the small penalty "says it all" about the nature of the offences.
In brief
The Republic of Irelandmissed out on qualification for the Uefa Under-17 finals following a 3-0 defeat to Germany in Nordon yesterday.
Ireland needed three points to secure qualification but a 48th-minute penalty from Sascha Bigalke and two late strikes from Marvin Knoll sent the Germans through.
The American company Kroenke Sports Enterprise says it has "no interest or intention" of buying into Arsenal. The billionaire Stan Kroenke has been reported to be interested in acquiring shares in the club, whose parent company has been valued at around £404 million.
Steve Coppellhas departed from his usual policy of only agreeing to extend his contract on an annual basis by committing himself to Reading until 2009.
