The only thing better than a round of pointless international fixtures...

...Is a round of some pointless international fixtures (with a few meaningful ones thrown into the equation) with some tasty lower-league ation thrown in as well. Here's me rundown of the weekend's fixtures:

• Denmark to beat Sweden. The Danes won the reverse fixture 1-0 (although in reality it was more comfortable than that), and a win at home to an underwhelming Sweden side will secure their place (and therefore that of many, many, many cases of Carlsberg) in South Africa next summer
• Republic of Ireland and Italy to draw. Italy have been somewhat unconvicing in this qualifying campaign, with many of their household names now the wrong side of 30. They were very poor in the Confederations Cup this summer, and could only manage a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture against Giovanni Trappattoni's improving yet functional side
• Germany to beat Russia. You can never rule out those Germans, even against Arshavin and co. They're also worth seriously considering to win the thing outright.

For my final tip, I'm going to dip into the Scottish Second Division and advise y'all to back Stirling Albion to beat Arbroath

'Mon Don Cowie for Scotland