"ENGLAND play on their home field of Wembley this weekend in 2010 World Cup qualifying against a team they have never met before ¿ Kazakhstan. Playing at home is an obvious advantage but strangely enough many England players, and even their Italian manager Fabio Capello, have said that they play better away from home. That really should not be the case. You have to take advantage of that big home support but England fans can be very demanding and have in the past given the players a lot of stick for not playing well and winning. In fact the last time England played at Wembley was in a friendly against the Czech Republic and the players took a lot of abuse from their own fans ¿ luckily Joe Cole managed a last-minute goal to make it 2-2.

England fans don't have a lot of patience ¿ especially since England didn't qualify for Euro 2008. But with England's excellent 4-1 victory over Croatia in the last qualifying World Cup match in Zagreb, the team will hopefully keep strong and keep winning. They can't let all that good work go to waste at Wembley on Saturday and should pick up three points. But sometimes winning is not enough for some fans and that includes English fans ¿ and Brazilian fans for that matter. England fans tend to get a bit agitated if the team hasn't scored in the first 20 minutes but it is the three points at the end that is important.

England should win given that Kazakhstan are ranked around 120 in the world. But that is on paper and anything can happen but I really do expect England to get through fairly easily. They just have to do the things they did against Croatia who are one of the world's best teams.

Next week England travel to Belarus for another World Cup qualifying match and like Kazakhstan, the two have never met before.

Some England fans wonder why Michael Owen has not been picked but Defoe and Crouch have been playing well and knocking in the goals so fair play to them. You can't get picked all the time just because you are a big name. Crouch has done himself a world of good by leaving Liverpool and going to Portsmouth. He is getting games at Portsmouth whereas at Liverpool he was on the bench a lot of the time and that does your national ambitions no good at all. The same goes for Shaun Wright-Phillips who has seen a resurgence to his career after moving back to Manchester City from Chelsea where he was on the bench a lot.

I also hope to see Arsenal's Theo Walcott play with the same passion and skill as he did against Croatia where he got a hat-trick. He is so fast and that scares defenders.

Three of the better World Cup qualifying matches this weekend will be Germany against Russia, Italy taking on Bulgaria and Portugal travelling to Sweden.

Italy will be struggling with a lot of injuries but I feel they have to start using a lot more younger players. We all saw that they were getting old at Euro 2008 this past summer and they were fortunate to advance out of the group stages. The Italian team which won the 2006 World Cup is getting old but they are fortunate that they do have a lot of promising youngsters. Their great goalkeeper Buffon is out along with Andrea Pirlo, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Grosso, Marco Materazzi and Vincenzo Iaquinta.

Hopefully we will start to see younger players like Giuseppe Rossi of Spanish club Villarreal.

Portugal are currently fourth in their group and will be hoping to rise up. Personally I want to see them in South Africa in two year's time. They are an attractive team to watch but Sweden will be tough at home and Portugal have to get something out of the game. They will also have Ronaldo back ¿ he has not played for his country since Euro 2008 on account of his ankle injury.

Germany and Russia both did well at the Euros this summer and that promises to be a good match.

Holland are also suffering injuries ahead of their match against Iceland. They will have a patched up defense and three forwards are missing along with goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg. However luckily for Holland they have managed to persuade Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar to come out of retirement.

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LIVERPOOL

If it was a few years ago I would say that Liverpool would not have been able to come back from 2-0 against Manchester City and win. But that is what they did last weekend in a very enjoyable and lively game.

City looked excellent in the first half and went ahead with goals from Stephen Ireland and a great free kick by Javier Garrido. But who else but Spain's Fernando Torres came to the rescue with a couple of goals. In fact he should have had a hat-trick when he put one over the bar from close in. I felt that City relaxed a bit in the second half and then when Pablo Zabaleta was sent off they were definitely on the back foot.

In the stoppage-time Dirk Kuyt managed the winner.

Liverpool seem to be a lot tougher this year ¿ they have a lot more resilience and I notice that the manager is not chopping and changing as much as he has been in the past.

Hull City just keep getting better and better. After beating Newcastle and Arsenal they travelled to Spurs and came away 1-0 winners. You have to hand it to them ¿ they work hard and for each other and it is great to see. And then of course they have Geovanni who won the match with a great free kick. Geovanni didn't get much playing time last season when he was with Manchester City but he is putting on a show this season with Hull. But I am not that surprised ¿ after all he is a Brazilian.

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WONDER GOAL

If you haven't seen it then you surely missed a wonder goal from Inter Milan's Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic against Bologna last Saturday. The big striker who has scored his fair share of superb strikes, made a stunning mid-air backheel to set champions Inter on their way before Adriano's penalty just after the break.

The game ended 2-1 to Inter but that backheel was something special!

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CONDOLENCES

I was sad to see that Dennis Lister from Somerset died. I have known him for a long time and he was a good man and did a lot for the community. My condolences and thoughts go out to his family.