Our own brave lads might be about to do battle with the mighty French in Paris (insert inappropriate Agincourt reference here), but even though there's nothing on at Wembley this time around that's no reason to miss out on some excellent live international footy this Wednesday evening. Indeed, our new national stadium will be hoping that the continuing prestige of London as a second footballing home for other countries rubs off when venues are selected on Friday for the next round of European club finals.
The Emirates is certainly fast becoming the European base for the phenomenon that is the Brazilian national squad and on Wednesday night they play host to Sweden in a friendly being billed as a rematch, half a century on, of the 1958 world cup final which Brazil wrested from the hosts in Stockholm by five goals to two. That day they were inspired by Pele, but sadly his modern successor, Ronaldinho of Barcelona, will not be gracing Arsenal's turf and neither will Kaka of Milan nor Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Juventus. Spectators will have to make do instead with promising youngsters such as Robinho of Real Madrid and Anderson of Manchester United. Fans of London-based clubs will be able to look out for Gilberto Silva (Arsenal), Alex (Chelsea) and Freddie Ljungberg (West Ham) while Arsenal old boy Sebastien Larsson will also be back, but, like Ljungberg, still turning out for the visitors. Some Club Level tickets are still available priced at £50 and £60.
Meanwhile, over at Craven Cottage, slightly more itinerant but no less frequent visitors to the capital Ghana will be entertaining Mexico. If anything this could provide the better entertainment as the Black Stars, like England, are always expected to give their all even in non-competitive matches and the central Americans are a handy side as they demonstrated at the last world cup when they took Argentina to extra time before being knocked out 2-1. Mexico feature no London based players (and, indeed, only one playing in England at all), but Ghana may field Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien and rarely sighted full back John Paintsil of West Ham. Tickets are available from Fulham from £20 to £35 with concessions at about half price.
Picture of a tower whose allegiance is in little doubt via General Wesc's Flickr stream.
