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Euro 2008 Qualifying
Topic Started: Mar 22 2007, 08:27 AM (1,992 Views)
Merengue
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There's an exhaustive list of Euro 2008 qualifiers this weekend and next Wednesday. In some of our specialized forums (Spain, England and Italy) there is discussion about their upcoming games from those national team's perspective but I thought we'd also create another thread for more general discussion of all the qualifying matches going around Europe.

For me one of the more intriguing games is Czech Republic hosting Germany in a battle for first place in their qualifying group. Two giants going head to head. Sounds like the Czechs are pretty much near full strength while Germany are missing the suspended Klose and the injured Gomez and Friedrich. Thus there's a chance right footed left back Philip Lahm will get to play on his natural side as a replacement right fullback for Arne Friedrich. And with Klose and Gomez out, Kevin Kurnayi gets a return at center forward.

Holland hosting Romania is another good matchup, doesn't it seem like these two countries are always playing one another in Euro and World Cup qualifying? Holland are first in the group, resurgent Bulgaria 2nd and Romania 3rd. No Christian Chivu for Romania and Van Basten still isn't calling up Van Nistelrooy so Huntelaar of Ajax likely will be the Dutch forward. Interestingly Seedorf has returned to the Dutch team and should start in midfield.

Spain hosts Denmark in a game Spain must win in order to have any chance of qualifying. As we discuss in more detail in the Spanish national team thread in the Spain forum, Luis Aragones' team will be without the suspended Carles Puyol and Sergio Ramos so suddenly Spain's defense is looking a little makeshift. Spain has a good record historically against Denmark but I say ignore that and look to the team's present form. Denmark's is better and in Tomasson and Poulsen they have a pair of players very familiar with Spain. With Spain's on again, off again attack, I am quite concerned about this match.

England travels to Tel Aviv to play Israel in agame between two teams even on points. England are another team with many absences, notably Ashley Cole and Peter Crouch. From what I hear Andy Johnson of Everton may start at forward. Like Denmark against Spain, Israel has several players who know quite well their opposition as they play in their opponents domestic league. Remember Israel although it failed to qualify for Germany 2006, also didn't lose a match in their group but were done in by an excessive amount of ties.

Wherever you may be around the world there should be some good international matches on store this saturday.
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Manzanares
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And don't forget the fierce rivalry that is Greece & Turkey battling for first place in their qualifying group.

Czech Republic-Germany should be a very good game. I recall the Czechs beating Germany in Euro 2004 with their second stringers after already clinching a spot in the quarterfinals. But that was a much poorer Germany than the current team.
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Pique
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Holland-Romania should be a good matchup of styles as is the Czech-Germany game. And there also is Portugal-Belgium. If Portugal can reproduce how they played against Brazil then they will be a team worth seeing.
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enganche
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While England and Israel play one another, Croatia (vs Macedonia) and Russia (vs Estonia) have the opportunity to move even further ahead of the English and Israelis in the group.

I wish the Czech Republic vs Germany game was available on TV, that looks like a good one. With Koller healthy, the Czechs are a different team than the one who lost their last two group games in the World Cup. But Germany's coach Low seems to be picking up where Klinsmann left off. Even with Klose, the Germans still have the offense to trouble the Czechs. Should be an intriguing game.
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futbol4
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Enganche, the Germany game is on Setanta live, FYI.
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siralfred
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Northern Ireland - Sweden on Wednesday should be good, too, especially if Spain beat Denmark on Saturday. NI will be set to move ahead of Denmark and keep their distance to Spain. And Sweden will want to stay unbeaten with some buffer points for upcoming ties with Denmark and Spain. Ibrahimovic, in blistering form for Inter, is back for Sweden, though Ljungberg and Linderoth are injured.
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rosarino
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So siralfred, is Sweden off on Saturday? I guess from their perspective a draw between Spain and Denmark is probably their preferred outcome.

I see where France, who plays Lituania, have called up Arsenal's young defensive midfielder Diaby and Marseille's even younger playmaker Nasri. I doubt if they'll see action but it is about time France bring in some younger players (other than Scarface Ribery) to the team.
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enganche
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Thanks for the info futbol4 but I don't get that Setanta channel. I have DirecTV Para Todos and I'm happy they're now adding ESPN Deportes to my package but I get GolTV, FSE and TyC Sports so I am satisified.

rosarino, you are right France needs to start getting younger and look for replacements for players like Thuram, Sagnol, Makelele and Vieira. Not to mention that bald guy they had in midfield.
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siralfred
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rosarino,Mar 23 2007
09:59 PM
So siralfred, is Sweden off on Saturday?  I guess from their perspective a draw between Spain and Denmark is probably their preferred outcome.

Yeah, the schedule has been staggered a bit due to an odd number of teams in the group. Someone will always have a game in hand until the last match day is completed. There are a lot of games left - I'm not counting Spain out yet. So if they and the Danes take points off each other that's fine with me. :D It ain't over 'til it's over, but we're off to a good start in a group that Spain were expected to walk through with a fight between us and Denmark for second.

Much has been made of Henrik Larsson's retirement from internationals leaving Sweden lacking in top competition. However I think we have a good crop of strikers coming along, not least Johan Elmander who plays for Toulouse in France. If anything, I wish the Swedish FA would have the cojones to replace Lagerbäck with a mercenary type manager like Guus Hiddink or even Leo Beenhakker, instead of giving him a five(!) year contract extension. Apparently, they're satisfied with just qualifying for big tournaments even if once there, we can't even beat Trinidad&Tobago.
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enganche
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It seems like Lagerbeck has been coaching Sweden for years. I remember when he was the co-coach, a bizarre situation that I don't ever recall happening previously, then when that ended he has been Sweden's sole coach for a long time. As the US found with Bruce Arena, a national team gets stale after awhile with the same coach even if he does change some of the players around.

Borat scored as Kazakhstan upset Serbia today for their first ever win since becoming a member of UEFA!
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Merengue
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Don't let futbol4 see that Kazakhstan score, he's our resident Borat fan here!

Here is a article reviewing the games played today in Euro 2008 qualifying,

Euro 2008 Qualifying Wrapup

Some of the more interesting scores to me were Germany goes to Prague and beats the Czechs 2-1 with 2 headed goals by Kevin Kuranyi. Turkey falls behind early at Greece then goes on to pummel their rivals 4-1! That has to be the shock result of the day. Say what you want about Greece's performances post Euro 2004 but one thing they do know how to do is defend. That makes Turkey's win even more impressive. With Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma running the show from the wings Portugal ran circles around Belgium 4-0. Kazakhastan's win over Serbia was a shock and not only the Kazakhs first win as a member of UEFA but I also believe Javier Clemente's first loss as coach of Serbia.

France defeated Lithuania 1-0 on a Nicolas Anelka goal. I didn't see the game but a friend of mine did and told me it was a boring game. Scotland scored an 89th minute goal at home to beat Georgia 2-1 to stay in first place in their group over France, Ukraine and Italy. Croatia beat Macedonia and Russia defeated Estonia which enabled them to stretch their lead over England and Israel as they drew 0-0 in Tel Aviv. I didn't see this one either but heard from a friend who watched this one that it was a pretty mediocre game.

I discuss Spain's 2-1 win over Denmark in more detail in the Spain forum but Spain were helped by Denmark playing 70 minutes down a man. Good first half from Spain, lousy second one and while Denmark didn't come close to tying it up they will cause Spain plenty of problems in the return game unless Spain can play more dynamically.
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Manzanares
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That's a wonderful win for Germany against the Czechs. We were discussing about Germany possibly missing Klose and Gomez at striker so Kuranyi steps up and scores twice. The Czech's goal came off a deflected shot late in the game which wrong footed Lehmann. This victory puts Germany in the driver's seat in this group.

If there is one team in Europe playing as well as Germany now it is Portugal and their easy win over Belgium really shouldn't surprise anyone. This is a very good Portuguese team and with Jorge Andrade returned from injury and playing well in defense and Quaresma and Ronaldo continuing to develop I think Portugal are a better team now than last year when they were World Cup semifinalists.

One team which isn't as good as they were last summer are France and without Zidane, Trezeguet and Henry they needed someone to score goals for them and Anelka came through with their sole goal against Lituania.

England are another team who aren't as good as they were last summer and their tie in Israel does complicate matters for them. But the way Israel plays they're hard to beat but at the same time don't threaten much in attack. They've become the kings of the 0-0 tie (remember their World Cup qualifying results too).

I'm sure there was plenty of celebrating in Turkey after their big win over Greece. I'm with Merengue that is the shock of the day.
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valenciano
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Romania also held Holland to a 0-0 tie in Holland in a game where the Romanians had the better of the play. I saw some highlights from the Greece-Turkey game and Greece's gray haired goalie who played well at Euro 2004, was chiefly responsible for 3 of the Turks' goals.
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enganche
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Germany's win was a big one. valenciano talked about Greece's goalie making some errors, and I too saw the highlights and agree with him, but I also thought Peter Cech was a little slow in getting over to stop Kuranyi's first headed goal. Cech may not be 100% yet after his head injury but he has always struck me as being a little slow, although his other skills are excellent and he is one of the better goalies around but isn't yet at the very top in my opinion.

Engalnd are in big trouble. They lack ideas and miss Michael Owen more than they may have thought.
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siralfred
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enganche,Mar 24 2007
08:18 AM
It seems like Lagerbeck has been coaching Sweden for years. I remember when he was the co-coach, a bizarre situation that I don't ever recall happening previously, then when that ended he has been Sweden's sole coach for a long time. As the US found with Bruce Arena, a national team gets stale after awhile with the same coach even if he does change some of the players around.

He's actually only been the sole coach since just after EURO 04 where we famously beat out Italy on goal difference in a very close group, only to lose to Netherlands on penalties in the QF. The co-coaching started in 2001, so he's been there for 6 years now, which I guess is longer than most. I'm afraid there's a serious lack of vision within the Swedish FA, though, in deciding that a Swedish coach in general or Lagerbäck in particular is good enough. It's not being said out loud, but I get the impression that hiring a foreign coach with new and different approaches is out of the question. Though you can't argue with his accomplishments in qualifying for and getting through the group stage of three major tournaments back to back, during the qualifying for Germany 06 there were signs that he was past his sell by date. Like Arena, he had no plan B in the tough matches, and his tactical shortcomings finally squandered the potential of one of, if not the most talented squad Sweden has ever had.
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