Ukraine are struggling with a lack of quality players

Blokhin was always a moaner. Konstantin Beskov almost sent him home from the 1982 World Cup in Spain because he was such a pain in the arse, whinging and complaining about everything. It must be murder to have him as your manager.

Can't see anything other than a nice, comfortable win for Hodgson tonight. Ukraine showed at Euro 2012 that, while they are better on the ball than England, they have no real killer instinct as a team.

Am I alone in finding the two-yearly cycle of World Cup and European qualifiers a repetitive bore? Because England are always among the top seeds, they rarely get to play attractive opponents. What's more, the same names, e.g. Poland, seem to crop up time and again.

Is it totally fanciful to suggest that FIFA should consider global qualifiers, based on their own rankings, for the World Cup? Just imagine the excitement if Messi turned up to play in Bhutan!

If you want a WORLD Cup, it is. Assuming a proper seeded draw, how many teams from outside Europe and South America would qualify? You might get a couple from Mexico, USA, Australia, Korea and Japan. You may well get no-one at all from Africa, Asia or Oceania.
Yes, England's qualifiers are rather dull to watch. That may be because England are rather dull to watch. Getting continually drawn against eyewateringly dull mediocrities like Ukraine and Poland probably doesn't help either. Just think yourself lucky you don't have to watch them play Ireland any time soon.

A Wembley friendly next May, according to the BBC.

Ukraine looked a bit better tonight than I expected. Fabulous goal by Konoplyanka, who also turned the woeful Glen Johnson inside out a number of times.

Next May? Ok, I'm about as accurate as Tom Cleverley.

Yeah, i've got your "eyewateringly dull" right here.

And you still owe us a goal; how can it be handball when his back was turned?

Yarmolenko and Konoplyanka '...tend to struggle against the bigger sides.' Do you not regard England as one of the 'bigger' sides?

"You might get a couple from Mexico, USA, Australia, Korea and Japan. You may well get no-one at all from Africa, Asia or Oceania."

Unlikely I think, it's not 1974 anymore. I suspect you'd get roughly the continental proportions that qualify already, maybe with a slightly bigger representation for South america and a slightly smaller one for Europe.

Good to see that someone doesn't think the idea of global World Cup qualifiers is totally crazy! It's certainly no dafter than playing the finals in Qatar in June.

In the spring I actually did a mock draw based on FIFA's rankings, and two African Countries, Ghana and Ivory Coast, were top seeds, with ten others second seeds.

England's 'group' was Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Bermuda, Aruba and the Solomon Islands!