Free Kick: Get ready with the armour and helmets

Batten down all hatches: Put on body armour and steel helmets? Next Saturday it is happening. Turkey vs England in Istanbul. And of course it should not be happening at all. Not in Istanbul. If in Istanbul, then certainly behind closed doors, after the appalling crowd violence when Turkey played Macedonia there in the same Euro qualifying group.

But as we know UEFA typically funked the issue, mindful perhaps of the hooliganism that went on when Turkey played at Sunderland: a daft choice for a potentially explosive match, a venue totally unaccustomed to internationals.

Half baked attempts to spread sweetness and light over the coming match have predictably failed. Sven Goran Eriksson, England's manager, tactfully advised English fans to stay away unless they wanted to be killed; the Turkish official reaction was predictably out of outrage.

But haven't two utterly harmless middle aged Leeds fans been killed in Istanbul, before?

England fans are properly banned from the game and the local police say they'll kick them out if they try to enter the stadium, though quite a few are daft enough to try. And the match itself? A draw or a win would make England top of the group, a defeat reduce them to the play offs.

Little optimism

Dreary performance against Macedonia and Lichenstein breed little optimism for England's pros-pects. Under Eriksson they remain a dull, predictable team, alarmingly dependent on the sporadic inventions of Michael Owen and the prodigy Wayne Rooney, plus the occasional long right footed raking ball from David Beckham, who should be fit in time.

There can be scant confidence in the defence. Rio Ferdinand seems more and more an expensive £30 million mistake by Manchester United. He let them down badly last week in Stuttgart when his characteristic inattention, the old West Ham malaise, cost one of the two German goals. Ashley Cole has been horribly exposed as a defensive left back. John Terry, centre back still lacks experience at this level.

Plenty of talent

The Turks have plenty of talent. In midfield, the sturdy little Belozoglu Emre of Inter keeps things ticking. It does surprise me that the lively, incisive Besiktas attackers, Masziz Ilhan, who got sent off at Chelsea last Wednesday, and Sergen Ialcin, who got both his team's goals could not find international favour.

Especially as in the 2003 World cup, Ilhen quite outshone the bigger Hakan Sukur, who retains his place, despite a World Cup in which he floundered till the third place match. But now they are back.

I was at Stamford Bridge to see Busiktas deservedly win, and Chelsea, or should one say Claudio Ranieri, commit a form of suicide. They couldn't even exploit the fact that Ilhan so crazily got himself sent off, for those two yellow cards, incurred through merely playing on after the refree's whistle had blown.

His own fault, but still the kind of thing which has always made me dislike the two yellows and you're out system, when the offences can be as trivial as they were here.

I was pleased for my friend Mircea Besiktas, that wily coach, whom I've known since he captained Romania in the early 1970s. He was kind to Chelsea, saying afterwards that however good the new players, it always takes time for a team to bed down. If it is managed by Ranieri, it probably never will.