"He has not been as light since he was four years old," a delighted Terry Venables, the England coach, said."He looks tremendous. He has retained his strength through a combination of hard work and diet. He tells me he has been through excruciating pain, but he has done remarkably well.''Gascoigne believes he is ready to play now but the comeback date set by his surgeon is 6 April and Lazio, his Italian club, are not prepared to allow him to participate in a full England training session yet.Some more members of England's injury and sickness-hit squad were able to join in but there is still doubt over Steve McManaman's calf injury.On the plus side, Rob Jones has emerged from hospital after tests on his stomach upset; Darren Anderton is getting over his tonsillitis; Gary Pallister and John Barnes (hip and thigh respectively) are improving, along with Teddy Sheringham (calf).England's Wednesday opponents, Uruguay, had their match with the United States abandoned yesterday due to a storm with seven minutes remaining. Davor Suker, the Seville striker, scored twice, with Milan's Zvonimir Boban and Robert Prosinecki, from the penalty spot, also on target for the former Yugoslav republic, who face Lithuania in Vilnius on Wednesday.
"Croatia are the European team who have made the biggest leap in the Fifa rankings and they have a lot of very good players," Sacchi said.n The midfielder Paul Le Guen, of Paris St-Germain, will take over from the suspended Eric Cantona as the captain of France for their European Championship qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.. "I don't think I would have read the same things if an Italian club had won 4-1 in a European match."Croatia, who beat the Italians 2-1 in Palermo last November, could have doubled their tally against Ukraine. The Milan midfielder, Demetrio Albertini, Zola, and the debutant striker Fabrizio Ravanelli, from Juventus, added further strikes for Italy in the second half before Estonia scored their first goal of the qualifying campaign through their substitute, Martin Reim."Clearly some journalists are used to seeing such great league matches that the national team pales by comparison," Sacchi, who promised to make changes in Kiev, said. The Italians struggled and were booed by the crowd until Parma's Gianfranco Zola put them ahead just before half-time with his first international goal. The formidable Croatian side, who beat Ukraine 4-0 in Zagreb on Saturday, head the group with maximum points from four games.
Italy are five points adrift in second place - and Lithuania are one point behind with a game in hand. "Italy wake up after the jeers," read the headline in La Repubblica yesterday. Second place in the section will almost certainly guarantee participation in next year's finals in England - but the Italians cannot take even that for granted. The 4- 1 win over Estonia in Salerno on Saturday did little to silence the critics of the national coach, Arrigo Sacchi, and his team. With some trepidation, Italy head for Kiev and a crucial European Championship Group Four qualifier against Ukraine on Wednesday.
Lightweight men: Cambridge bt Oxford by 1/3 length in 5:29 (record) Women's reserves: Cambridge bt Oxford by 1 length.. However, the umpire, and the Swiss president of the International Rowing Federation, Deni Oswald, brought some criticism from the Cambridge coach, Rooer Silk, for warning Oxford about their steering on three occasions "for the last time" but not disqualifying them.Cambridge retain their dominance of this event which has swelled to become the biggest private match in the calendar after the men's race from Putney to Mortlake on Saturday at 2.30pm.WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE (Henley): Cambridge bt Oxford by 11/3 lengths in 6min 02sec (record) Lightweight women: Oxford bt Cambridge by 2 lengths. Cambridge yesterday won the 50th Women's Boat Race after grasping an early lead and holding on over the blustery grey water of the Henley Regatta course, rowed in reverse and downstream, to finish one and a third lengths up in a record time of 6min 02sec. On known form, the Oxford crew had the edge after finishing 2.5sec ahead at the Women's Head of the River, but at Henley they looked less drilled and for the middle 1,000 metres were out of the stream. Cambridge also took the men's lightweight race after a fierce struggle over the last 500m when the Dark Blues came back from a one and a quarter length deficit to lose by a third of length.The lightweight women's race did go Oxford's way, by two lengths, after 10 defeats in 11 years. But Peter Scantlebury inspired a 10-0 burst which turned the game for Thames Valley.London are certain to maintain the pressure tonight with victory over Sunderland Scorpions.. Sheffield could yet need to win their final game, against Doncaster Panthers next Sunday, to be sure of the championship.Tigers' challenge hung in the balance as they trailed Chester Jets 89- 88 with three minutes to go.
Sheffield Sharks, Thames Valley Tigers and London Towers must wait until this week's final round of games in the Budweiser League to learn who becomes champions. Sheffield, who have led the League since early November, lost the chance to claim the championship this weekend with Saturday night's 96-82 defeat against Manchester Giants. The Sharks' 93-75 victory against Thames Valley last night still left the title race open, at least until Sheffield and the Tigers meet again on Wednesday, at Bracknell. Standings: 1 TNZ, 5 pts; 2 Tag Heuer, 3; 3 oneAustralia, 2; 4 Nippon Challenge, 0.. The champagne goes back on ice.