What Karim Benzema Thinks of Jose Mourinho and Ronaldo

As Real Madrid prepares for the Champions League second round tie with Lyon, its ace striker Karim Benzema opened up about his time at Lyon, Real Madrid, Zidane, rising French stars, Jose Mourinho and Ronaldo as his inspiration.

On Mourinho:

For me Mourinho is a really great coach. He has won lots of titles and made grow lots of players. He changed my attitude on the pitch, now I am more aggressive.

Hmm.. Karim Benzema is smart to get into the good books of Jose Mourinho. Check out full interview below.

Roberto Carlos Scores Fantastic Goal from Corner Kick

Wow, what a fantastic goal... scored from a corner kick! Kudos to Roberto Carlos.

He has many brilliant goals to his name and he keeps adding them. In a recent match between Corinthians and Portuguesa, the Brazilian veteran stunned the goalkeeper with a sweetly taken kick from the corner.

We don't often see such goals so let's thank the defender and goalie for failing so terribly.

Villarreal's Cani Scores Bizarre Goal from Half way Line

Villarreal's Cani has gained notoriety for throwing water bottles at Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho. Now he adds another feather to his cap by by scoring from the halfway line against Osasuna.

Only a few minutes after Osasuna equalized to make it 1-1 just after halftime, Cani launched this perfectly placed ball over the head of backtracking goalkeeper Ricardo to put Villarreal back on top on their way to a 4-2 win on Saturday.

Great awareness and ability, Cani! But the lad wouldn't even have been on the pitch had the red card for throwing a bottle at the celebrating Mourinho from the Villrreal bench last Sunday not been reduced to a yellow card on appeal.

World Cup Qualifier: England 5-1 Croatia

England thrashed Croatia comprehensively in a 5-1 victory at Wembley to book their place at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

The hosts took the lead after eight minutes when Josip Šimunić hopelessly clobbered Aaron Lennon inside the area and Frank Lampard expertly despatched the spot-kick into the corner.

Steven Gerrard then doubled the lead 10 minutes later as he rose at the back post to head home Lennon's deep cross.

England added a third in the 59th minute when Lampard headed home a Glen Johnson cross. Six minutes later Gerrard headed a fourth after Wayne Rooney did really well to hook the ball back from the by-line.

Eduardo replied for the Croats in the 73rd minute, but Rooney scored a fifth after goalkeeper Vedran Runje passed straight to him.

The qualifying campaign has been an astounding success for England. Actually, they have the players to be world-beaters all along. It is just that they are short of confidence and underachieve their potential.

With Fabio Capello at the helm and humiliating Croatia in this manner, I think England fans can finally dream of World Cup glory next summer.

World Cup Qualifier: Brazil 3-1 Argentina

No smiles for Diego Maradona who is coming under increasing pressure as coach of Argentina.

The prospect of not qualifying for the World Cup is very real and the problem is Diego Maradona doesn't seem able to put the situation right, even with so many talents at his disposal.

For this national idol, the unimaginable sacking may come very soon.

England 2-1 Slovenia Friendly Highlights

England continue their winning form as they warmed up for the crucial World Cup qualifier against Croatia on Wednesday with a 2-1 victory over Slovenia at Wembley.

Frank Lampard's disputed first-half penalty, thanks to Wayne Rooney who tumbled too easily (Arsene Wenger will have something to say about such "dishonesty" again), put England on course for the win.

Jermain Defoe then scored the winner by adding a clinical finish to the double he scored against the Netherlands in Amsterdam last month.

However, Zlatan Ljubijankic created panic for England when he took advantage of slack marking to steal in a header after 85 minutes. Fortunately, England held on to record a victory.

Fabio Capello can be comforted by Spurs striker Jermaine Defoe's second-half display, where he maintained his scintillating Premier League and international form by scoring another goal.

Emile Heskey's bustling, unselfish style may still be Capello's preferred option, but Defoe demonstrated that he deserves to be in the starting line-up against Croatia and is currently the best partner for Wayne Rooney.

As for Robert Green, he did himself no favors as England's first-choice goalkeeper in the absence of David James.

He had an eventful start as Slovenia dominated the opening exchanges and surged forward in the dying minutes. Green will need to improve further, else England will suffer at the hands of Croatia.

Overall, Slovenia more than held their own in the early exchanges at Wembley. Fabio Capello will not be entirely satisfied by his team's showing, with too many moments of defensive carelessness.

Being careless against old nemesis Croatia, which shattered England's hopes at Euro 2008, could be disastrous. But I have faith that Capello will put the defensive problems right soon enough.

Check out the highlights of the friendly below.