UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifications | Play-offs | 13 November 2015: Republic of Ireland

Why is the pressure on us to finish first? You are the ones who came out of pot 1!

 

You guys have 2x the talent , you're superior at literally every position besides maybe striker and left back

 

I'm Greek.

All good points. Of all the places I've seen Greece play, our most recent trip to Bosnia, Albania in '04, and Turkey in '07 were the most hostile crowds in front of which I've seen my NT play in the past 10 years. Amazingly, we won in Turkey playing good soccer while the Turks underwhelmed. We've been to Bosnia before and those past meetings were less intense; however, in our most recent trip to Bosnia, the atmosphere, for me at least, brought back a lot memories of when Greece qualified for WC 1994 in our win against Russia in '93.



Very intense atmosphere and lot of hostility towards the referee and opposition. I don't know about the crowds in the Belgium-Croatia game, but I saw the game with Serbia-Belgium and we Greece have played in Croatia during qualification for Euro 2012, in both those games the crowds was intimidating, but not as intense and hostile.

No doubt in my mind that both Belgium and Bosnia finish in the top two. But like I said, with a bit of luck and hostile home support, Bosnia can take first, even if Belgium are expected to take the group (hence, the pressure is on them).

 

Is there really much pressure on either side to be first in the group? I think that Bosnia would be OK with second place. As long as Bosnia qualifies directly and avoids the play offs it would be considered a great success. There will be no shame for us if Belgium dominates this time around.

The recent games that Bosnia played at home were played in the city of Zenica and not Sarajevo. The stadium in Sarajevo is much larger with a capacity of about 37,500. However, it is an Olympic stadium that has a stupid tack. Also, the fans that attend the games at Sarajevo are usually a bit different and slightly more mellow.

The stadium in Zenica is much smaller with a capacity of about 15,600. This stadium does not have a track. The fans are much closer to the pitch. For international matches they usually put up tall fences and nets, which creates an atmosphere that resembles some kind of fighting ring or cage. Despite being a much smaller stadium, it creates a more intimate and intimidating atmosphere. On top of that, the fans that end up finding tickets to the matches at Zenica are much more intense and vocal as well.

(For your info: Zenica is pronounced Zenitza. Not Zenika. In Bosnian the letter C is pronounced as TZ as in Tsunami or Pizza.)

I just wanted to inform some of the non-Bosnian fans here about the two different stadiums and cities that Bosnia usually plays at. From my knowledge, all Euro qualifying home matches will be played in Zenica:

 

The other teams will feel the pressure too ... as they finally have a decent shot at competing in the final event of a major tournament ... in the end there's no excuse if our teams don't qualify in this format ... best 3th or play-offs is the least you'd expect and of course pot 1 & 2 teams should be aiming for the first 2 spots.

PS how do you pronounce cevapcici? I used to visit Croatia a lot but was too lazy to drive all the way to Bosnia and it was hot enough already ... in Croatia I had to use German from time to time ... can I get by speaking English in Bosnia?

 

Belgium is the favorite, no question about it. It's true when you say that people don't respect Bosnia. The majority of people that are football-illiterate feel that way. But that applies to Belgium and many other strong teams as well.

Belgium is stacked with talented players. Regular ignorant fans don't recognize this and only look at prior success and old track records between countries. Neither Bosnia or Belgium have accomplished anything big in their recent football history. However, lot's of their individual players have! This is something that is very important. The counties that get very far in big tournaments tend to be those that have a lot of players from the top European leagues. The fact that the Netherlands made it into the final in the last world cup shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that followed European league football. To a lot of football-illiterate fans it was a gigantic surprise.

Regular fans of national teams are just ignorant to the other sides players. Both old retired players and present players as well. They seem to only follow their own players and hype them up amongst their own fan base. They also focus too much about other non-football related things between the counties in question.

Both Bosnian fans and Belgium fans have to take a lot of crap from others. I have red what Korean and Russian fans are saying about Belgium. haha so funny. They are convinced that Belgium is a tiny country and an easy team. From an neutral point of view, it's so easy to spot those zealot fans that are full of shit.
Another thing I find funny is that those zealot fans totally discredit victories that others achieve.

 

The matches between Serbia and Croatia were more intense than when they faced us ... nothing unusual as we don't have a rivalry going ... against the likes of Scotland, Croatia even seemed less interested. Our main rivalries are with Germany, France and Holland ... although the french speaking community cares more about the rivalry with France, Holland is the team we like to beat most ... we played over 200 matches against Holland (including unofficial ones) and almost 130 official matches ... we only faced off twice at a final event though (beating them in 1994 and a draw in 1998) ... since 1997 Holland hasn't won against us while they had a golden generation ... ours visibly started clicking during the 4 - 2 victory over Holland in 2012 ... this was also the ideal friendly tie ahead of the Brazil qualifiers.

"Spilling points" against the teams that aren't expected to take the first 2 spots could easily decide who ends up as the group winner ... unsure if Belgium can replicate the Brazil qualifiers run ... Wales are actually starting to look good ... wouldn't be surprised if they pull off an upset ... they could very well be one of the top 3 teams instead of Israel.

 

Sneijder had an amazing season back then for club & country ... peaked at the right moment but now has gone downhill ... before WC2010 most were afraid that the back 4 wouldn't hold up though but they did just fine.

Because of all the hype Belgium often gets overrated ... still there are very few Belgians that will overhype our own team ... it's the media circus that splits opinion ... either people feel that we're overrated or they view us as dark horses (some even have us down as one of the favorites in Brazil). Since the hype started some fangirls just feel the need to bash Belgium in an effort to make their own team look better ... shows how great their character is ... sometimes it baffles me how far they'll reach to include Belgium in their fantasy arguments ... I'd say that we're fair game if we are somehow involved ... yet if there's no link, why bother dropping our name when there are much bigger names in football.

 

It's pronounced 'Chevapchichi.' There are accents on the c's. You have to try them in Sarajevo. Simply amazing. And try our burek too. I don't mean to brag or anything, but our burek and cevapi are way way better than in Croatia and Serbia... And yes, English is probably the best language after Bosnian itself to use in Bosnia. I don't think I have a cousin in Bosnia who doesn't have at least a basic knowledge of it. Most of the youth know it.

 

Ćevapi or ćevapčići (che'vap'chee'chee). If you speak English and German you should be fine. Last year I stayed in Sarajevo at a hotel in the "Old Town". The name of the hotel is actually "Hotel Old Town". Fantastic hotel with the best location ever. The girl working there spoke fluent English. I really don't think it will be a big problem if you speak English and German. You might have to use some hand gestures from time to time, but over all you should be able to communicate just fine. haha

Btw, don't have the Croats and Serbs try to convince you that ćevapčići are Croatian or Serbian. They're not. Same goes for Pita and Burek. Pita, Burek, and ćevapčići are as Bosnian as it gets.

If you ever go to Sarajevo I recommend going to Baščaršija (Old Town). Pretty much every ćevapčići place you see there will be good and it will be served in a very traditional way. I also recommend trying out Banjalučki ćevapi. You can find them in Baščaršija as well. This is a slightly different variation of ćevapi that originated from the city of Banja Luka. According to many, Banja Luka is probably where ćevapčići might have originated from. Before the war it was said that the best ćevapi were served in Banja Luka followed by Sarajevo.

I have visited a lot of Bosnian towns. There are a lot of good ćevapčići places throughout, but Sarajevo is definitely one of the best locations. I have gone back to the city of Banja Luka as well. The Serbs expelled most Bosniaks from that city and the tradition is gone now. The famous ćevapčići restaurants that reopened there are no good anymore.

The best ćevapčići I ever had were Banjalučki ćevapi in the city of Bosanska Krupa in north west Bosnia. They were served in a restaurant owned by a Bosniak family that was expelled from the city of Banja Luka. They were making them the traditional way they used to do it before the war in Banja Luka. Those ćevapčići were unbelievable. Best I ever had.

Also try pita/burek once you visit Sarajevo. You won't regret it.
Ask for burek ispod sača.

If you can't remember this write it down. I am serious! You have to try burek ispod sača.

 

If you come from pot 1, you are the favorite. Same applied to Croatia in the WC qualifying cycle.
Until we are the team to come from pot 1, we are not the favorite. That's how rankings work, surely.

 

Rankings aren't good sources in terms of figuring out where a team stands. The system takes into account the past four years, therefore BiH has an advantage due to them having a better Euro 2012 campaign then Belgium did. However Belgium on paper is a much better team. No denying it.

 

I also go by the odds ... on face value Belgium would be the overwhelming favorite ... still Belgium accounts for more than 50% of sales and Bosnia seems to represent good value (outrights - group B winner) ... non-adjusted odds would probably show that Belgium is the favorite but I doubt that we're a huge favorite. Besides Belgians love underdogs ... give me half a chance and I'd convince you that these odds are biased to the point that you're the clear favorite.

 

Look man. You guys raped the shit out of Serbia/Croatia countries arguably better than or equal to us. Our best striker is a third choice player at Manchester city and a Bundesliga relegation striker in Stuttgart.

Our most talented player is from an above average team in Roma. Our biggest preferred DM according to our coach is a 2.Bundesliga benchwarmer vs a 37 year old hag in CSKA..

Defense we got a Schalke player... And the rest are laughable.

GK is maybe the one position we could maybe compete with.

Our coach is a dunce too. So I say... Belgium are favorites

 

You're selling us way too short. That's basically Dado pessimistic and you have no reason to say shit like that.

 

Anything can happen but there is nothing I said above that isn't true.

 

F

Dzeko is no longer third choice in fact he's first along with aguero , also you make us sound really bad , our home field is a big advantage we have ( even when we played with major scrubs vs Spain ) the ball is round anything can happen , we are about on par with Croatia in regards to how good our TEAM is , Serbia is below par because they have good players but a very poor team

 

Dzeko>Benteke
Dzeko>Lukaku
Dzeko, Ibisevic<Lukaku,Benteke

Their wingers shit on ours. Our CMs are slightly worse than theirs.

Their wingbacks are nonexistent(Vertonghen far better at CB but is solid at LB but feel like thats wasting him considering him next to Kompany is unreal).

Gks are on par or maybe even in Courtois favor.

Wilmots>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Susic

They certainly have the better team theres no denying that. We may have better team chemistry on our day but the same can be said for them.

The only way we give them trouble is in Zenica. Unless Susic realizes that our best chance is Lulic and Hajrovic getting a lot of touches on the wings to take advantage of their clear weakness and banging in crosses cuz Kompany is not the best in the air and Dzeko certainly should know what to do against him.

Pjanic may disappear in the two games. They have some very strong DMs/CMs that could quickly make him nonexistent.

 

The recent news about our Savez hasn't been promising. I hope that someone like Barbarez or Halilhodzic becomes our next coach, but I seriously doubt that. I wouldn't be surprised if some shit head from Borac or Siroki gets appointed. You guys fail to realize what kind of anti-Bosnian Ustasha and Chetnik political forces are still impacting our Savez.

No way Halilhodzic will be our next coach. They are going to say Susic was Bosnian and we can't have a Bosnian coach twice in a row. haha

 

Being the winner or loser between Belgium or Bosnia could be the difference in avoiding a team like Germany in the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign (i.e., the difference between being a pot 1 or pot 2 team).

 

Don't ignore Cyprus, Wales and Israel - I see Belgium struggling with all of these teams - not that Bosnia won't - it will be tough against Israel's NT - they could win the group.

I give us better chance against Cyprus and Wales than I give to Belgium and better chance to Belgium against Israel - I can see BiH struggling majorly against Israel.

We are better than Belgium but hopefully we don't succumb to physicality and aggression from their players like Fellaini - who is overrated otherwise - like quite of few players on Belgium's NT.

We'll have at least one new starting CB in these qualifications - things might not go as smooth but we should still qualify.

 

or we could both end up in pot 1

 

Uhhh...ok....