Road to UEFA Euro

Remove all ads!

2 games already and there's no topic about it?
Yeah, maybe it's too early, but...
Here are the results.
France did got their 'revenge' against Italy.
People in Spain still believe the team is in a great form when they score 4 goals to teams like Liechtenstein, but they seem to fail to see that against some real teams they do nothing.
England did... one goal to Macedonia while Germany scored 13 to... San Marino.

I still wonder what teams like San Marino are for, to see which team scores more goals to them?

 

N.Ireland beaten Spain. That was surprising.

 

Results of the latest round N.Ireland coming back frombehind twice to beat Spain, Scotland winning in Lithuania, and Andorra scoring a goal.

 

England lose to NI it's 'omgwtf haha' from everyone.

Spain lose to NI it's 'oh, that's quite surprising'.

As for our game we played a bit wank against Macedonia, but fair play it's a hard place to go and a win is a win at the end of the day.

I think small teams like Andorra, San Marino, Faroe Islands etc. should all play in their little own qualifying-to-qualifying group, so big teams don't have to **** about wasting their time playing games against them. They should be whittled down in their own little qualifying group before they cna qualify with everyone else

 

Ah, come on. For San Marino and the like those qualifying games are the only opportunity ever to play against a big side.

The UEFA is right to keep them in, otherwise the exotic touch would go completely amiss, and then the qualifying rounds would be nothing more than a stretched out version of the end round.

 

Congrats, Cúchulainnn. Your countrymen deserved to win the match.

 

Trouble is, these small countries lives for beating a bigger country (in football). One could add that great football nations should be able to win a group even if it contains Luxembourg or such.

 

We only won 0-1 in Luxemburg, they even had a few good chances to score. Holland look awful at the moment, and i'm starting to doubt v. Basten's common sense after kicking v.Bommel and v.Nistelrooy from the team. True, they didn't perform as expected in the WC, but then again...everyone failed miserably against Portugal, except they get the blame for the whole team's screwup. looks like they're not coming back while v.Basten's in charge, which seems to me that his ego is bigger than his brain. I already had my doubts after he completely ignored veterans like Seedorf and Davids, but this is just insane. Our team is younger and more inexperienced like they have ever been before, and isn't going anywhere if changes aren't made very soon. Our 3-0 win over Belarus doesn't blind me for that.

So we are now 6 out of 2, 100% score, but i fear for the near future.

 

I don't like how stuff are starting to look in Italy, but I do not doubt they'll qualify for the EC. They'll take points in pretty much every single game and then they'll take revenge at France in Rome.

And BA, if it's of any concidilation(sp?), I DID laugh at Spain. The way Sweden is playing, I really hope Spain play as bad as or even worse against Sweden as they did against Northern Ireland.

 

Spain lose wasn't too much of a surprise; with the same old coach with the same old style and the same old 'friendships', it was just a matter of little time until a lose like this.

 

Do you know how many games San Marino has won in their ENTIRE history?
One (out of 80).
Count it (v Liechtenstein - who themselves have an "impressive" 7 wins out of 92).
In those 80 games, they have only scored 14 goals. What use is that to the players, the manager and the country where there are low expectations of scoring, let alone winning?
I agree with Barmy Army - they should have their own pre-qualification league for 2 reasons:
1) These teams may actaully start winning games, which increase confidence and expectation that an upset may actually occur (if they reach the "Big" League),
2) It would reduce the number of fixtures in the already over-congested season.

 

But more important than how many games they've won in 80, how much revenue have they made by playing the big teams, and if you are going to stop them playing for that money, how are you suggesting it's replaced? That's why they play the games not because of trying to make the little teams better, but because the TV deals UEFA and others make to show the games live, Money talks.

 

Too bad for them then, how much money do you think our stadiums generate when low flying teams like San Marino or Luxemburg are visiting ? Noone really cares for matchups like that, they are the only games for which you can get tickets without going through a lot of hassle. They should make groups of countries that have an A status, B status, etc... just like in icehockey.

 

You're missing the point pac man it's not filling your stadiums that matter, it's the TV rights, that's the money that talks that goes into millions.

 

Another crapy game for Spain and a great match by Sweden guys.
When Spain got kicked out of the world championship, everybody blame Raul, journalist and people wanted him out of the team; now he scored 3 goals with Real Madrid and everybody want him in... Now people blame the coach for not taking him, while 2 weeks ago everybody wanted Raul out.

How about Macedonia? They survive England!

Here are the results:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/qualifying/index.html

 

I thought Sweden were down and out and we do something like this. Most of our "stars" decided not to show up and we picked out good old fashioned teamwork and guts. Not two usually very average football players who apparently for some reason decided to be of world class all of a sudden (Hansson and Elmander).

 

Survive, Sydax? I'd say they did enough to deserve the victory.

England we very poor. We had no ideas. No invention. The game was boring, like watching paint dry. That's the most depressing thing. McClaren's era is going to be just the same as Erikssons. It's so frustrating being an England supporter...!

 

Well, how about you start blaming the players instead of the coaches. English footballers just dont seem to care enough to actually deliver in the national squad. The guy who is a world star in his club is mediocre in the national squad.

For Sweden it is often he other way around, we got guys who are quite mediocre for their clubs and then stand up and play like giants for the national team.

 

You have to have a team that works well together though. A lot of our players get picked on their name, rather than their form and usefulness to the team.

 

Okay. Italy won, Spain lost, North Ireland drawed, France lost, and Poland won. Couldn't get much better than that.

Actually, it could. Ireland's loss was a complete failure.