Eduardo has described his goalscoring return for Arsenal in the FA Cup on Monday as “the best day of my life”.
Eduardo, who had been out since breaking his leg in February 2008, scored twice in his side’s 4-0 win over Cardiff in their fourth-round replay.
“It was the best day of my life – it was a special moment to score, very emotional,” said the 25-year-old.
Wasps have confirmed that the England trio of James Haskell, Riki Flutey and Tom Palmer will leave the club at the end of the season to play in France.
Flanker Haskell and lock Palmer are moving to Paris with Stade Francais, while centre Flutey is to join Brive.
Wasps have expressed concern at the financial clout of French clubs, who do not have salary cap restrictions.
“In financial terms we are no longer on a level playing field,” said Wasps executive chairman Mark Rigby.
“It does raise great concern that French clubs can now blow the English clubs away when it comes to salaries.
“There is a wider concern that the development of English rugby players will only be hampered as they move away from the Premiership, which stands as the best domestic league in the northern hemisphere, and regular head-to-head competition.”
Reports have suggested that Flutey and Haskell may enjoy as much as a three-fold increase in their respective salaries.
The departures will also concern the Rugby Football Union as from next season, the trio will fall outside the eight-year access agreement between England and the Premiership clubs.
The French clubs have an obligation to release the players for Tests but not for additional training weeks.
The agreement allows England manager Martin Johnson to name a 32-man squad at the start of every season.
He can then call them up for an August training camp, a fortnight of preparation before both the November Tests and the Six Nations, and an end-of-season tour.
Haskell, 23, who made his England debut in the 2007 Six Nations, has played in the opening two games in this year’s tournament – winning his 14th cap in the defeat by Wales last Saturday.
Flutey will join England team-mate Andy Goode at Brive after signing a two-year deal.
The 29-year-old New Zealand-born back has won six caps for England and scored his first international try in the Six Nations opener against Italy.
Flutey was last season’s Professional Rugby Players’ Association player of the year.
Prior to signing for Wasps, Flutey enjoyed a spell at London Irish having previously played for Hurricanes in New Zealand.
England World Cup winners Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson are also at the club, who are sixth in the French league.
Palmer, who joined Wasps from Leeds in the summer of 2006, has won 13 caps for England since making his debut as a replacement against the United States in 2001.
He started the autumn Tests against Australia and South Africa but was ruled out of the Six Nations after shoulder surgery.
Other English exiles currently plying their trade in France include former Sale flanker Magnus Lund (Biarritz) and former Leicester prop Perry Freshwater (Perpignan).
A controversial Adriano goal helped Inter claim the derby honours with a 2-1 victory over Milan. Replays showed the Brazil striker had used his arm. It was a sorry night for 40-year-old Paolo Maldini in his last derby before retiring while on-loan David Beckham, who still hopes to stay at Milan despite Los Angeles Galaxy demanding he return, was substituted after aggravating a hamstring injury.
Inter now have an 11-point advantage over third-placed Milan, while second-placed Juventus trail the Serie A leaders by nine points after a 1-1 draw with Sampdoria. Thanks to Adrian Mutu’s hat-trick and a 3-3 draw at Genoa, Fiorentina stayed fourth, a place ahead of their hosts. League top scorer Marco Di Vaio netted his 16th goal in Bologna’s 1-1 draw at Napoli, while Roma’s good run ended with a 3-0 defeat at Atalanta.
England captain Kevin Pietersen insists none of his players will be forced to return to India for the two-Test series after the terror attacks in Mumbai.
On Friday, Indian officials insisted the series would go ahead and moved the second Test from Mumbai to Chennai.
But Pietersen told the BBC: “We will make every effort to come back for the Tests, but at the end of the day if it’s not safe we won’t be coming back.
“I’ll never force anybody. A man is a man and he can make his own decisions.”
The England squad began flying home on Friday but are due to return in early December.
We could have been there in one of those hotels when they were attacked
Former England captain Michael Vaughan, in India with England’s performance squad
The first Test is set to start on 11 December in Ahmedabad and the second, scheduled for Mumbai from 19 December, was switched by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday to the southern city of Chennai.
The Test series will still be preceded by a three-day practice match in Baroda from 5-7 December, said the BCCI in a statement. It did not say, however, whether England had accepted the itinerary.
Pietersen had earlier said that plans were being made to stage a practice match in an alternative venue, possibly not even in India.
BBC Sport understands that a warm-up match could be played in Abu Dhabi or Dubai.
“We’ll get some training in, for sure,” said Pietersen. “There are definitely talks going on, I’ll be speaking to the coach and we’ll be making plans.
“There are definitely places we have looked into in the last 24 hours.”
England were trailing 5-0 in the one-day series before the final two matches were postponed but Pietersen is eager to return to India for the Test series.
“Playing cricket in India is incredible, it’s amazing,” he said. “There is no better place in the world to play cricket because you get looked after and the grounds are full before you even wake up in the morning.
“I always look forward to playing in India and if the security is right and things are OK, we will play.”
One of the hotels attacked was the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, where the England squad stayed a fortnight ago and were due to return to on 16 December.
Former captain Michael Vaughan revealed he and the rest of the performance squad would have been in the hotel when it came under siege but for a late change of plans.
“All our white Test kit is in one of the rooms at the Taj Mahal,” said Vaughan in his Daily Telegraph column.
“All the stuff was deposited there after England’s two practice games in Mumbai at the start of this tour. That’s how close the danger is.
“This week I was due to be in Mumbai with the rest of England’s high performance squad. It was only at the last minute that our training camp was switched to Bangalore.
“I don’t know why it was switched but we could have been there in one of those hotels when they were attacked.”
Pietersen admitted the players had been taken aback by events and that the decision to fly home was correct.
“It’s always a difficult decision, especially when it’s unexpected,” he added. “But I think it’s the right decision right now to get the boys out of here, to get them to their families, even if it’s only going to be for a couple of days.
“It has been really, really hard. It’s something that we weren’t expecting and when unexpected things happen you deal with them in certain ways.
“The way for us to deal with it was by having a few team meetings [on Thursday], get everybody in a room and find out exactly how people are feeling, and the team’s decision with the board was to go home.”
The England left the eastern city of Bhubaneswar for Bangalore on the first leg of its journey home on Friday.
Security forces cordoned off the arrival lounge at the Bangalore airport, and the team were escorted to a city hotel to await their homeward flights.
Liverpool striker Fernando Torres will be out of action for two to three weeks after sustaining a hamstring strain in Wednesday’s 1-0 win against Marseille.
The Spaniard completed 90 minutes but a scan revealed he needs another spell on the sidelines having just returned from five weeks out with a similar problem.
Defender Fabio Aurelio will also be out for a fortnight with a calf injury.
The victory over Marseille at Anfield earned Rafa Benitez’s side a place in the last 16 of the Champions League.
A club spokesman told www.liverpoolfc.tv: “Fernando has a strain in his right hamstring and will be out of action for between two and three weeks.
“Fabio has a calf strain in his left leg and will be out for two weeks.”
Steven Gerrard scored the winner against Group D rivals Marseill, heading in at the far post from Xabi Alonso’s cross on 23 minutes.
Sky Bet cut the Paul Nicholls-trained Pasco to 25s from 40/1 for the Arkle at the Cheltenham Festival following his easy win in the Rooney/Hall Beginners’ Chase at Newbury on Thursday.
The dashing grey jumped well throughout but wasn’t hard pressed for the win as he eased home 13 lengths ahead of Isn’t That Lucky.
Straw Bear disappointed once again over fences and he is now 50/1 for the Arkle with Sky Bet, but has been removed from many a bookmakers’ list for the Festival showpiece.
Nicholls said of the 8/11 winning favourite afterwards: “This was always his target, he just needed the run at Exeter but he was sharper today.”
However, the champion trainer h
ad a warning for punters who might fancy Pasco for the Arkle.
He continued: “I don’t think an up and down track like Cheltenham will suit him, he needs a galloping track.
“He’ll definitely get further as he gets older and we might step him up in trip next time.”
“He might come back here for a two-mile-two-furlong race over Christmas as a flat track suits him.”
Deep Purple was introduced into the Arkle betting at 25/1 by the Harrogate firm after winning the Audrey Chudleigh Memorial Beginners’ Chase chase at Taunton.
Evan Williams’ charge went through the top of a couple of fences but in the main jumped soundly and boldly under Paul Moloney to record a three and a quarter length success from Laredo Sound.
It was the seven-year-old’s second start over fences following his fourth on chasing debut at Wetherby earlier in the month.
Filippo Inzaghi struck a late equaliser to break Portsmouth’s hearts and send AC Milan into the Uefa Cup’s last 32.
Inzaghi hit the post and the bar early on, while Peter Crouch was guilty of missing three excellent chances.
Younes Kaboul headed in Glen Johnson’s pin-point cross to put Pompey ahead and Kanu doubled the lead from close range.
Inzaghi hit the woodwork again with a diving header, before Ronaldinho scored with a superb free-kick and Inzaghi’s injury time toe-poke snatched a draw.
Talk before the game had been that Milan were not relishing the prospect of a wintry evening at Fratton Park.
And it looked like Portsmouth were going to pull off a famous victory until Inzaghi’s late, late intervention.
Not that anyone could really begrudge the striker his reward for a performance of real menace.
The former Italy international almost opened the scoring when he latched on to Andriy Shevchenko’s free-kick, sending a left-footed shot against the foot of the post.Inzaghi hit the woodwork again when he raced on to Gennaro Gattuso’s pass and lofted the ball over David James and against the top of the bar.
In between those chances for Milan, Crouch should have done better when volleying horribly off target after being picked out by Kanu’s cross into the box.
It was to be the story of the night for Crouch, who later headed back into the box with the goal gaping, sent a diving header wide and mistimed an overhead kick.
Pompey, though, were at least creating chances and certainly did not look overawed.
Following a slick passing move, they fashioned another opening, but the angle proved too tight for Glen Little to get his volley on target.
Aside from a couple of long-range efforts from world player of the year Kaka, Milan were unable to threaten.
And it was no great surprise when Pompey broke the deadlock though Kaboul, who rose between two Milan defenders to thump home a header.
Nine minutes later, the home side doubled their lead – and again it was Johnson who was the provider, this time sending in a cross for Kanu to convert.
But rather than folding, Milan came back strongly, with Inzaghi denied once again by the frame of the goal from a diving header.
On came Ronaldinho, who quickly made an impression when he curled in an exquisite 25-yard free-kick to give Milan a lifeline.
Luca Antonini went close with a low, skidding shot as the visitors searched for an equaliser, which they got when Inzaghi struck after his sublime first touch set him up to earn his side a vital point.
It was a hugely disappointing end for Pompey and their fans, but the club still has hopes of making the last 32.
They need to pick up points from their remaining games against Germany’s Wolfsburg – away next Thursday – and Holland’s Heerenveen to join Milan in the group’s top three.
West Ham are set to present Gianfranco Zola as their new manager this afternoon after calling a press conference for 4.30pm.
The Italian has agreed a three-year contract to take charge at Upton Park as successor to Alan Curbishley.
He will become West Ham’s 12th manager and will start work on Monday, with caretaker boss Kevin Keen leading the team at West Brom on Saturday.
Fabio Capello has stressed the need for new England hero Theo Walcott to “keep his feet on the ground” after his stunning hat-trick against Croatia in the crucial World Cup qualifier on Wednesday night.
Walcott has been regarded as one of the nation’s brightest young talents ever since he was controversially named in Sven-Goran Eriksson’s squad for the 2006 World Cup at the tender age of 17.
But the hullabaloo that surrounded the former Southampton player just over two years ago will be nothing compared to the present media circus around the Arsenal player after his treble in Zagreb during England’s 4-1 win.
Walcott will now be catapulted into the limelight after becoming the first player to score a hat-trick for England in a competitive match since Michael Owen in the 5-1 triumph over Germany in Munich seven years ago.
It would be easy for any teenager who is less than level-headed to be carried away with events as Walcott’s treble put England in prime position already to qualify for the 2010 finals in South Africa.
But Capello will be grateful Walcott will be returning to club manager Arsene Wenger, who the Italian is sure will keep him focused solely on improving his game.
The Italian said: “I know Walcott will get a lot of publicity. I know that. It will be a problem for Arsenal, not for me! Theo is young with a big future but you have to help him.
“At this moment all the newspapers and the TV programmes will speak about Theo. He has to stay with his feet on the ground. This is very important.”
Liverpool and Espanyol have agreed a fee for winger Albert Riera in excess of £8million, according to reports on Tuesday afternoon.
The Liverpool Echo claims the two clubs have agreed a compromise fee – reported elsewhere to be £8.2m – after the Spaniard made it clear that he was only interested in moving to the red half of Merseyside.
Everton have also apparently bid for Riera but despite a higher offer, they have seemingly failed in their move for the left-sided player.
Riera will now need to agree terms with Liverpool and pass a medical but he could be a Reds player in time for Sunday’s clash with Aston Villa.