London, Mar. 29 : England football coach Fabio Capello has hailed forward Wayne Rooney as the ''crazy joker in the pack''.

Rooney banished all memories of his red card last Saturday with a stunning two-goal show, reports news of the world.

The England boss called Roo a ''crazy man'' in the build-up to yesterday''s 4-0 trouncing of Slovakia following the Manchester United star''s sending off at Fulham.

London, Mar. 29 : Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has revealed that to cheer themselves up after recent defeats, the players have made their own lookalike hall of fame in the dressing room of the Carrington training ground.

Standing tall in goal for the Reds is Rodney Trotter (Van der Sar) from Only Fools And Horses. In front of him, Star Wars freak Jar Jar Binx (Ferdinand), Rocky IV slugger Ivan Drago (Vidic), and the Gingerbread Man (Brown). Holding steady in the middle is Corrie''s Chesney (Scholes), George Michael (Ronaldo) and a Trekkie Klingon
(Nani).

Madrid - The Spanish media was full of praise on Sunday for the country's national football team after the previous day's hard-fought 1-0 defeat of Turkey.

There was agreement across Spain that not only is Vicente del Bosque's side one of the strongest on Planet Football at the moment - but also that it is the best ever national side in the 100-year history of the Spanish federation.

The statistics surrounding "La Seleccion" speak for themselves:

Buenos Aires  - Argentina coach Diego Maradona on Saturday praised Lionel Messi for his performance in the 4-0 win over Venezuela in Buenos Aires.

"Seeing Messi like this everyday is a pleasure. We should all leave the stadium, pay for another ticket and go in again," Maradona said.

Messi - who for the first time wore the number 10 Argentina jersey that was once worn by Maradona himself - was the man of the match in the resounding win. The Barcelona striker scored a goal and was decisively involved in two others.

Buenos Aires  - Lionel Messi rose to the challenge of wearing the historic number 10 Argentina jersey by leading his side to a comfortable 4-0 win over Venezuela Saturday in Buenos Aires, in Diego Maradona's official debut as Argentine national team coach.

Argentina thus redressed its course in the South American qualifiers towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and now stand second on 19 points from 11 games, four points ahead of leader Paraguay.