Well, in the end none of them will win the title. And I won't talk about "who might look good before going home". It's about a tourney, and interesting discussions will start next May.
I think the qualifying talk simply took place in national fora. In any case, I don't consider qualifying in the least boring. Even if there were relatively few surprises this time over. For one, these games give you a sense where the various contenders stand. In respect to my own team, going into the Belgium game I was anxious to see whether Germany would come out of qualifying with a 10-out-of-10 record. And whether they'd keep a clean sheet. And Belgium's an interesting and promising side to watch.
Another surprise was that Armenia had a decent chance of qualifying for the play-offs until the very last game. had they defeated Ireland, they would be in the play-offs. not bad for Armenia! A lot of other usually weak teams had gotten many more points. There were a lot of surprising results but the weight of class still told.
Forgot about Armenia considering I was watching the Ireland-Armenia game last night, yes good campaign from them. But in general, all the teams that were expected to win their groups did, apart from Portugal, and the teams that came second in the groups were expected to come 2nd apart Estonia and of course Portugal who were expected to win the group.
I think Croatia was favoured to finish first. And Swisse, Romania and Slovakia 2nd in their groups. Montenegro was a #5 seed so that is surely surprising. The main reason this qualifying wasn't too exciting IMO is because there was at most 1 regional powerhouse in each group. So no big head on head clashes like what we will see in WC 2014 qualifying when Spain meet France. Not saying they should change the format, just telling why it's dull.
Just play less groups, the lower half of the UEFA rankings should play in 2 or 3 KO rounds to eliminate eachother. Then a few groups with no 1-3 going through. They you'll get your France-Spain Germany-Holland games. San Marino - Holland is useless anyway, especially with today's busy calendar.
Sure San Marino v Holland is uesless. But Estonia or Montenegro v Holland isn't. There are only about 4 to 6 really weak nations that would be worth getting rid of in a prelim round. So that is why i think having prelim rounds is a dumb/pointless exercise.
yeah when the ko rounds are finished, you get groups like holland, germany, england, montenegro, belgium and another one or two. First 3 will go through. imo a lot nicer.
Well the excitement might not stretch as far as Brooklyn but it's a big deal on this continent. What a magical night at Råsunda (Sweden's national stadium) it was yesterday. The whole arena was going bananas when Toivonen scored the 3-2 goal. I had a small hope that Sweden would be able to win this match when there was so much at stake. Although it seemed unlikely when you consider Hollands record, 17 qualifying games = 17 straight wins . Only Holland or Germany can pull that off. It was fun to see so many all dressed-up Dutch supporters walking around the streets of Stockholm, none of the violence that sometimes plagues Stockholm (swedish league). I think the dutch team tried hard and wanted to keep that unblemished record over 2 QF campaigns intact but of course it would still have been a different game if it was both teams playing for their life and not just Sweden. Estonia go to play-off instead of Serbia, now that was a surprise.
It seems Platini still scores for France, we should not forget he will be the big boss very soon. Like mentioned above twice in a row refrees saves france's azs.
Right, forgot about Spain also. So Hollands group was easy and Spains group was tough, how do you figure that. Sweden is in no way inferior to Czech and Finlands record in the recent campaigns hold up well to Scotlands. Both teams have been close but no cigar. This time around they were very underwhelming. Hungary is a better team than Lithuania. I am sure that you will disagree with everything I am saying since it seems to be your M.O. but to call one tough and at the same time blowing off the other is just hogwash.
I was there too, norra nedre, you? Yes, magical is the word, have a scarf with Sweden V Holland half/half on my desk at work, one to be remembered
I believe Spain is on a 22 games winning streak in qualifying at the moment. The last game they draw was against Iceland. A country that knows how to trouble them as they have lost of Iceland in qualifying back on 25 September 1991 with 2-0. They have equaled Hollands and Frances record of 14 straight wins in competitive matches and so only need one more to get past it. Well they can get into a group with Germany and other tough opponents, so that is not a given.
Same here , Norra nedre as well, sångsektionen! DRB300, ah ok. I will have to give the generic excuse, lack of sleep which really is true in my case. Sat up the entire night and was cramming for a test that I just took. Well I hope Bocafan can just disregard that post.
Play-off draw Turkey v Croatia Estonia v Republic of Ireland Czech Republic v Montenegro Bosnia and Herzegovina v Portugal First legs: 11/12 November Second legs: 15 November
I'm rooting for Bosnia, Turkey and - most of all - Ireland. Kicking out Portugal would give me a sweet moment of Schadenfreude. Some sponsors would then have to cancel their wall-to-wall Ronaldo marketing offensive.
Turkey vs Croatia. Croatia has so much top players. Turkey has the fighting spirit that will make them always get far at a tournament. Don't have a real preference. But if Turkey fails, Hiddink will come to Ajax, and we don't have to hear the Turks with their cars driving honking the claxon next summer. Plus that Turkey doesn't deserve Hiddink, with their unrespectful behaviour to him. Like he's a magician or so. Czech is always nice to see. Believe they are growing towards the level from around 10 years ago. Don't know the playing style of the Montenegrons. I hope Ireland will make it, they deserve it, under Trap they can make it every A-team difficult. But nothing against Estonia. Hoping for Bosnia, too bad they again have one of the hardest draws. But although the name isn't big outside of Europe, I scale them sort of at the same level as Portugal today. Not going to bet on that one.
Maybe if things don't look good for Portugal, they suddenly get a penalty in the 91st minute of the 2nd leg. You'll never know, football is spoiled by money, so I'm not surprised if something like this will happen.
