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Euro 2008 Qualifying
Topic Started: Mar 22 2007, 08:27 AM (2,001 Views)
Manzanares
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siralfred, thanks for the info on Sweden's coach. Like enganche I too had been thinking he'd been in the position for a long time. Like Spain and England, Sweden are one of thsoe national teams that seems to qualify for almost every major tournament only to find a new way to trip themselves up once it starts!

With Northern Ireland's new found success their home game today against Sweden has taken on importance. As a Spain fan i think I'd prefer a Swedish win, as with two teams qualifying from the group, let the Swedes win and pull farther away from everyone else which would allow the peleton (chasing pack) to draw closer to Northern Ireland. And who says cycling tactics don't come into effect in football?

Portugal's trip to Serbia is another interesting game today and I read Cristiano Ronaldo may not play. Serbia needs a win after last weekend's loss and it would be quite an achievement to get that against Portugal now.
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valenciano
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Northern Ireland are not the flower for one day. They are for real and beat Sweden today, again with goals by David Healy who was their goalscorer when they defeated Spain.

Cristiano Ronaldo did play and Portugal got a 1-1 tie in Belgrade against Serbia. That's a pretty good result as Serbia are always tough at home. It's been a good week for Portugal and not one for Serbia. Andorra gave up an early goal to England's Gerrard, then held on to late when England scored twice more for a 3-0 win in a game played in Barcelona.

So last weekend Turkey goes to Athens and beats Greece, today they were held 2-2 at home by Norway. Greece meanwhile got back on track with an easy win over Malta.
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Winslow
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Northern Ireland did Spain a favor by holding back Sweden, no? Spain managed to help itself with a 1-0 win in the rain over Iceland.

Other interesting winners include Italy, which is still fourth in its group despite beating Scotland 2-0, Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein. And Greece's win over Malta was 1-0 on a penalty; I'm not sure how easy that was.
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rosarino
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I'm with Winslow a 1-0 Greece win with a penalty doesn't sound easy to me either. Greece, Spain and England weren't the only teams who had trouble with supposedly lesser opponents, Holland only beat Slovenia 1-0, although it was on the road, Poland remained atop their group with a narrow 1-0 home win over Armenia while Czech Rep (vs CYprus) and Ukraine (vs Lithuania) also only won 1-0 at home. And Bulgaria lost ground with a scoreless tie at home against Albania.

I also wanted to point out in Israel's 4-0 win over Estonia, one of the goalscorers was Argentina born Roberto Colautti, who plays with a club team there, married an Israeli and now is on the national team. He has 4 goals in 5 games for Israel!
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Manzanares
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Unless you're playing Faroe Islands, Andorra, Liechtenstein or Estonia there really aren't many easy teams nowdays in European qualifying. A well organized defense and a good goalie can keep most teams in a game even against the best of opponents.

Right now Northern Ireland are the revelations of qualifying. Their results in beating both Spain and Sweden at home are notable. But what may come back to haunt them is their big loss at home earlier in qualifying to Iceland. The schedule has favored them so far as it was top heavy with home games in the first half of qualifying, now comes the hard part as they'll have to go on the road.
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siralfred
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Forza Zlatan!
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Manzanares,Mar 29 2007
02:37 PM
Unless you're playing Faroe Islands, Andorra, Liechtenstein or Estonia there really aren't many easy teams nowdays in European qualifying.  A well organized defense and a good goalie can keep most teams in a game even against the best of opponents.

And let's not forget San Marino. Have they ever even scored a goal?

The only thing that makes Sweden's loss last night bearable is that Spain lost there too, and hopefully Denmark will as well.
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Winslow
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siralfred,Mar 29 2007
03:19 PM
San Marino. Have they ever even scored a goal?

Hell yes. There was a famous game in WC'94 qualifying where England had to beat San Marino to have any shot at making it, but the Sammarinese took the lead in the first minute. It ended 7-1 IIRC, but that first minute sort of summed up England's Graham Taylor experience.
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Gunners
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Manzanares,Mar 29 2007
02:37 PM
Unless you're playing Faroe Islands, Andorra, Liechtenstein or Estonia there really aren't many easy teams nowdays in European qualifying.

Estonia is no pushover. They have a quality goalkeeper in EPL veteran Mart Poom and a number of solid, Western European-based pros, the best of which is probably Andres Oper, who is a veteran of the Belgian league. Estonia is tough to beat at home.

However, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Andorra, and Liechtenstein, I would certainly add San Marino and Malta.
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Manzanares
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Ok, you've convinced me, scratch Estonia and add San Marino to my list of minnows. But what of Latvia, who lost this week to Liechtenstein? Looking at Group 7 here are the standings at roughly the halfway point with games played in parentheses:

Northern Ireland (6) 13 pts.
Sweden (5) 12
Spain (5) 9
Denmark (4) 7
Latvia (4) 3
Liechtenstein (5) 3
Iceland (5) 3


As I commented on earlier, Northern Ireland still have to play at Iceland, who beat them already in Belfast, and at Sweden and Spain while they'll host Denmark. Sweden still has a home and away set with Denmark, are home to the Irish and are at Spain. Denmark has that home/away with Sweden, home to Spain and away to Northern Ireland while Spain are away to both Iceland and Denmark and home to Sweden and Northern Ireland. Iceland may not be a contender but they could determine the qualifiers since they are not a pushover at home and play Northern Ireland and Spain there while traveling to face their fellow Scandinavians. Should make for an interesting summer and fall of games in this group before it all concludes in late November.
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Simon
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Gunners,Mar 30 2007
06:15 AM
Estonia is no pushover.  They have a quality goalkeeper in EPL veteran Mart Poom and a number of solid, Western European-based pros, the best of which is probably Andres Oper, who is a veteran of the Belgian league.  Estonia is tough to beat at home.

Great :rolleyes:

This weekend's fixtures, the top two from each group join Austria and Switzerland at the finals:

GROUP A:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/stan...group=2630.html
Kazakhstan (Pld 6, 5 pts) 18:00 Armenia (Pld 5, 1 pt)
Finland (Pld 6, 11 pts) 19:15 Serbia (Pld 6, 11 pts)
Belgium (Pld 6, 7 pts) 20:45 Portugal (Pld 6, 11 pts)
Azerbaijan (Pld 6, 4 pts) 21:00 Poland (Pld 7, 16 pts)

Poland are 5 points clear despite a home defeat to Finland in their 1st game, and they'll surely still be at least 5 points clear after they play Azerbaijan. Serbia and Finland are locked on 11 points each, so their game is of huge importance. You must think Serbia can edge that one. Portugal are also on 11 points and should beat Belgium. But this is a tight group and the Portuguese will have some cause for concern despite reaching the semis of Euro 2004 and WC06.

GROUP B:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/stan...group=2631.html
Faroe Islands (Pld 6, 0 pts) 19:45 Italy (Pld 5, 10 pts)
France (Pld 5, 12 pts) 21:00 Ukraine (Pld 5, 12 pts)
Lithuania (Pld 5, 4 pts) 21:00 Georgia (Pld 6, 6 pts)

Italy are certain to beat the Faroes and move up to 13 points. Group leaders Ukraine and 3rd place France each have 12 points, so the match in Paris will have a big bearing on who qualifies for Euro 2008. Scotland have also been more competitive than expected and are 2nd, also on 12 points. However they are unlikely to be able to last the pace. I would think Italy and France remain the favourites.

GROUP C:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/stan...group=2632.html
Bosnia-Herzegovina (Pld 5, 7 pts) 20:00 Turkey (Pld 5, 13 pts)
Norway (Pld 5, 7 pts) 20:05 Malta (Pld 5, 4 pts)
Greece (Pld 5, 12 pts) 21:30 Hungary (Pld 5, 6 pts)

Turkey and reigning champions Greece are big favourites to qualify and both should further strengthen their positions with wins on Saturday.

GROUP D:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/stan...group=2633.html
Germany (Pld 5, 13 pts) 19:00 San Marino (Pld 5, 0 pts)
Wales (Pld 5, 6 pts) 15:00 Czech Republic (Pld 6, 13 pts)

A collective intake of breath! If San Marino lost 13-0 at home to Germany in September, what's the damage likely to be in Nuremberg? The Czechs' Slovak cousins have already visted Cardiff and won 5-1 so it's hard to envisage anything but a Czech win in Wales. The Republic of Ireland are hanging on by their fingertips in 3rd place but are not likely to dislodge either of the top two.

GROUP E:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/stan...group=2634.html
Russia (Pld 5, 11 pts) 19:00 Andorra (Pld 5, 0 pts)
F.Y.R. Macedonia (Pld 6, 7 pts) 19:30 Israel (Pld 6, 11 pts)
Estonia (Pld 5, 0 pts) 21:30 Croatia (Pld 5, 13 pts)

Estonia can be tough opponents at home, as Gunners said, but Croatia are still likely to win there, which means England must follow suit on Wednesday. The table should make ugly reading for England fans going into that game, as Russia, Israel and Croatia will all be favoured to win their weekend matches.

GROUP F:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/stan...group=2635.html
Iceland (Pld 5, 3 pts) 16:00 Liechtenstein (Pld 5, 3 pts)
Denmark (Pld 4, 7 pts) 20:00 Sweden (Pld 5, 12 pts)
Latvia (Pld 4, 3 pts) 21:30 Spain (Pld 5, 9 pts)

Group leaders Northern Ireland take Saturday off while the other 6 nations do battle. Spain have won their last couple of matches but remain in a precarious position and cannot really afford any slip ups in Latvia. A win for Sweden in Copenhagen would put them top of the group while a Danish victory against their great rivals would put them right back in contention. This group seems too tight to call and the further subplot is the suspicion that Northern Ireland will fall away, especially now Lawrie Sanchez has left them to take up the manager's position at Fulham.

GROUP G:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/stan...group=2636.html
Albania (Pld 5, 3 pts) 20:30 Luxembourg (Pld 5, 0 pts)
Slovenia (Pld 5, 4 pts) 20:45 Romania (Pld 5, 11 pts)
Belarus (Pld 5, 7 pts) 21:00 Bulgaria (Pld 5, 9 pts)

No game for Holland, who are 3 points clear, so the race is on for 2nd place. It'll be a close one between Romania and Bulgaria, who both have tricky away fixtures. Romania haven't made an international tournament since 2000 but are two points ahead of the Bulgars. They must still be kicking themselves for blowing a 2-0 lead over Bulgaria in the last ten minutes of their game in September and drawing 2-2.
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Martin
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Great preview Simon, thanks for providing it. Looks like the game of the weekend then is in Paris between France and Ukraine. And not just because that is a matchup of the World Cup runnerup and a quarterfinalist from last summer. That is, as Simon noted, a vital game in that group especially with Italy refinding it's form. With Henry unavailable, it'll be up to Trezeguet and perhaps the wayward Anelka or Cisse to provide France's goals.

Anybody know whom Bulgaria named as Stoitchkov's successor when he left for Celta Vigo?
Club Sportivo Desamparados
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valenciano
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I enjoyed the preview as well. Much thanks for putting it together. France-Ukraine, Belgium-Portugal and Finland-Serbia look like the three most vital qualifiers this weekend for the reasons Simon has described. I'm still surprised by how much Belgium have dropped recently. They had always been regulars at the World and Euro Cups but that seems the distant past now. The same applies with Romania. Neither country has been able to put together a good generation of players recently.

Spain usually plays lacklusterly in June because it's league hasn't finished yet and most of the players have their minds focused on the culmination of the league championship. But fortunately for Spain, it's opponents this week, Latvia and Liechtenstein, shouldn't be able to cause too much trouble even if the team are distracted with their league matters. If Spain were playing tougher opponents, I'd be more concerned.
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Pepe
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Don't forget Denmark hosting Sweden as one of the better games this weekend. And as a Spain fan I'm very interested in the outcome of this one. I'm a bit undetermined who I want to win from a Spain perspective as Sweden is ahead of us in the table but Denmark have played a game less so that makes me think a tie may be in our best interest. Such a result won't hurt Sweden's chances either but I think the Danes need a win. Simon makes a good point about Northern Ireland's coaching change not coming at a good time for them and it may be difficult for them to maintain their surprising momentum in the group.
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rosarino
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I'm interested in the Portugal at Belgium match. I was so impressed with the way Portugal beat Brazil earlier in the year and they easily defeated Belgium in Portugal previously in these qualifiers but this won't be an easy game at Belgium. And with Poland so far ahead in the group and Portugal in a tight battle with Serbia and Finland for 2nd place this weekend's game at Belgium will be vital for Portugal. Time for Ronaldo, Quaresma and Deco to really pick it up.
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valenciano
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I'd forgotten about the Denmark-Sweden game. Yes that is a pretty important game to we Spain supporters, not to mention to Danes and Swedes. I think since Spain has already beaten Denmark and lost to Sweden and trails Sweden but are ahead of Denmark in the table, I'd prefer Denmark to win the game. Playing at home I think you'd have to rate them slight favorites but that is a regional rivalry and the unexpected is always possible.

About Portugal I think they are getting their team back in order after a brief post World Cup letdown (much like what happened with Italy too) and now I see Portugal being very difficult to beat. All Portugal needs is a legitimate center forward and they will be almost unstoppable.
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