World Cup

After battling through qualifying, Jorge Sampaoli's men are not considered among the strong favourites for Russia 2018.

However, Riquelme – who was capped 51 times by the national team – believes Argentina could contend if Messi performs, having been drawn in Group D alongside Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria.

"We hope that we do well, that the players get well and above all Messi," the Argentinian told El Trece.

"If the latter happens, Argentina will have many chances to win. If Messi is good, nothing is complicated.

The suspension imposed by the Fifa disciplinary committee covers "all types of matches" and was backdated to start on November 3, football's governing body said on Friday (Saturday NZ Time).

The 33-year-old Guerrero tested positive for "cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine," a banned stimulant, after a World Cup qualifying game in Argentina on October 5.

He can appeal to Fifa to overturn the ban. If that fails, Guerrero and the Peruvian football federation have a further legal route at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

Not since the 1958 tournament, coincidentally held in Sweden, have the Azzurri not been at football's showpiece event, but defeat in Solna in the first leg proved their undoing and surely signals the end of Gian Piero Ventura's disappointing reign as coach.

It was a far more industrious effort from the four-time world champions at San Siro than the drab effort produced in the first leg, and visiting goalkeeper Robin Olsen was at his best to keep Italy at bay at the end of a busy first half.

Italy host Sweden in the second leg on Monday at San Siro, looking to overturn the narrow defeat in Solna in attempt to reach a 15th consecutive finals.

Coach Ventura is under immense pressure and will almost certainly lose his job should Italy fail, while some are even expecting him to be sacked regardless of Monday's result, with Carlo Ancelotti waiting in the wings.

Les Chanticleers needed to beat their traditional rivals to have a chance of playing in the quarter-finals, yet England snuffed out any chance of that happening with four tries inside the first 20 minutes.

Gareth Widdop opened England's scoring in the second minute after ghosting through on the right side, and Stefan Ratchford crossed two minutes later on the same edge.

James Graham made it three tries in 10 minutes, before Mark Percival scored in the 18th minute after some quick passing.

The All Whites suffered a big blow just before kick off when star striker Chris Wood was forced to the bench with a hamstring injury.

He was replaced in the starting team by Kosta Barbourouses.

However, the All Whites responded well to the setback holding their own against a classy Peruvian team which dominated much of the early possession and territory.

A record eight women's teams are competing this year and for hosts Fiji the goal is straight forward - trying to regain the title they won two years ago.

The Fijiana play Samoa and Tonga in their first two pool matches but captain Ana Maria Rociqa said they already have an eye on their final match of the day against the defending women's champions.

"We have Australia in our pool game. We played against them at Central Coast (two weeks ago) in the quarter finals and we lost," she said.

Keeping the momentum going from its inspiring run to the 2016 European Championship quarterfinals, Iceland topped Europe Group I and advanced automatically to the finals in Russia next year at the expense of favourite Croatia.

Iceland is the smallest nation in terms of population - 330,000 - to make the World Cup. The previous smallest country to have reached the finals was Trinidad & Tobago in 2006, with 1.3 million people.

Gylfi Sigurdsson put the hosts ahead in in the first half and Johann Gudmundsson made it 2-0 in the second.

The Six Nations champions headed to Dublin in search of a record-breaking 19th Test victory only to barely fire a shot as they fell 13-9 to an Ireland side that could have won by much more.

England are attempting to arrange an additional fixture with the All Blacks at Twickenham in November, but media reacted with scorn to their failure to claim a place in history.

Among the words used to describe the display at the Aviva Stadium were "thuggish", "brain dead", "arrogant", "wrecking balls in chains" and "back to square one".

Now Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston can etch their names into the history books as they close in on the magical mark of 2,000 points in the NRL.

Only four players – Hazem El Masri (2,418 points), Andrew Johns (2,176), Jason Taylor (2,107) and Daryl Halligan (2,034) – have achieved the feat, and it would be fitting if these two modern-day superstars joined the illustrious list.