France striker Thierry Henry believes Scotland have nothing to fear as they bid to reach the next World Cup.

The Scots beat France twice in the qualifying race for Euro 2008 but narrowly missed out on the finals.

And Henry said: “I think Scotland fans can get excited about World Cup qualifying because I don’t see why you should be scared of any team.

“If you guys hadn’t lost in Georgia it would have been really difficult for us to qualify.”

Scotland finished two points behind France in the bid to reach this year’s European Championship and a further five points adrift of group winners Italy.

A goal from Gary Caldwell was enough to stun the French at Hampden, while a wonderful long-range strike from James McFadden in Paris secured a fantastic double.

Henry, who is in Scotland with Barcelona for pre-season, featured in the first of those matches and was impressed by what he saw.

“Scotland has a good squad,” he added. “I can tell you that because we lost twice to you guys.”

Scotland begin their 2010 World Cup campaign with a trip to Macedonia in September and will also face Iceland, Norway and Holland, who thrashed France 4-1 at Euro 2008.

Barcelona play friendlies with Hibernian and Dundee United this week and Henry expects to see more evidence of blossoming talent.

The Catalan club prepared for last season with a similar trip and on that occasion Henry’s eye was caught by Barry Robson.

The former Dundee United skipper has since moved on to Celtic and scored in Barcelona’s 3-2 Champions League triumph in Glasgow.

“We played against Dundee United and he had a good game,” said the former Arsenal hero. “He kept the ball well and was dangerous in attack, so I was not surprised when he got a move to Celtic.

“This time I’m sure I’m going to see some other players who I think are good.”

Barcelona, who are based in St Andrews, take on Hibs at Murrayfield on Thursday and travel to Tannadice on Saturday.

Ref From BBC

This season it looked like UEFA was going crazy, banning teams from the Champions League, left right and centre. First Porto, then CSKA Sofia and then Steaua Bucharest. Porto have been let back into the Champions League in strange circumstance, and now Steaua will make it too, after a court cleared them of any wrongdoing.

All of it is just a lesson in jumping the gun. Basically after Steaua were accused of bribary, they were docked six points and fined, and kicked out the Champions League. But all those involved denied any wrongdoing, and now are proved innocent.

Steaua’s owner Gigi Becali had previously had a two year ban from entering a football stadium, which has now been scrapped, as has his player Petre Marin’s six month ban.

Steaua will enter the Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League. CSKA Sofia must now be sat wondering if they might be let back in as well - although they were kicked out for debt problems, which are a bit harder to prove wrong really.

Gianluigi Buffon is confident Juventus will challenge all the way for the Champions League and Scudetto.

A full two years after the Calciopoli scandal and their demotion to Serie B, the Bianconeri are back in the thick of the action.

“I am convinced we’ll battle for the Champions League and the Serie A title, as these are objectives Juventus have always gone for,” said the goalkeeper.

“It is going to be a long and very intense year, so we have to start preparing for it as best we can right from now, with the Champions League preliminary round.”

The fans have protested against what they see as a substandard transfer campaign, as Christian Poulsen, Olof Mellberg, Dario Knezevic and Amauri have not convinced everyone.

“The grit and willingness to fight for ambitious objectives have always been present, even if in the last few months we weren’t quite on a par with some of our opponents,” mused Buffon.

“Now we have reinforced the squad and because of that have absolutely no excuse to be anything less than 100 per cent convinced of our potential.

“That is a quality that has always stood by Juventus and we should always hold it dear.”

General manager Jean-Claude Blanc confirmed that Juve will only be signing one more player this season, a second choice goalkeeper to act as Buffon’s understudy.

The latest names circulating are Antonio Chimenti and Siena’s Alex Manninger.

Ref From channel4.com