EC qualifiers, 1. Matchday [R]

[Blue Army]

Originally posted by desertfox2
Finals:

Wales 2-0 Finland
Croatia 0-0 Estonia

shocking

I would hardly say Wales beating Finland is a major shock. We are undefeated in the last 5 games which includes games against Argentina, Czech Rep as well as Croatia. As well as a victory over World Cup finalists Germany.

[Slash/ED]

Wales have a better team then Finland.

Simple as that.

[olafgb]

Finished

Group 1: Slovenia vs Malta 3-0 (Cimirotic 90')
Group 2: Bosnia vs Romania 0-3
Group 3: Netherlands vs Belarussia 3-0 (Hasselbank 72')
Group 4: San Marino vs Poland 0-2 (Kukielka 88')
Group 6: Greece vs Spain 0-2 (Valeron 76')
Group 8: Belgium vs Bulgaria 0-2
Group 9: Azerbijan vs Italy 0-2

[BrianCappellieri]

Group 1
FT Cyprus 1 - 2 France
FT Slovenia 3 - 0 Malta
Group 2
FT Norway 2 - 2 Denmark
FT Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 - 3 Romania
Group 3
FT Austria 2 - 0 Moldova
FT Holland 3 - 0 Belarus
Group 4
FT Latvia 0 - 0 Sweden
FT San Marino 0 - 2 Poland
Group 5
FT Faroe Islands 2 - 2 Scotland
FT Lithuania 0 - 2 Germany
Group 6
FT Armenia 2 - 2 Ukraine
FT Greece 0 - 2 Spain
Group 7
FT Turkey 3 - 0 Slovakia
Group 8
FT Croatia 0 - 0 Estonia
FT Belgium 0 - 2 Bulgaria
Group 9
FT Finland 0 - 2 Wales
FT Azerbaijan 0 - 2 Italy
Group 10
FT Russia 4 - 2 Ireland

[BrianCappellieri]

Tomorrow's qualifiers:

8 September
Group 7
Liechtenstein ? - ? Rep. of Macedonia

Group 10
Switzerland ? - ? Georgia

[Dandal]

There could have been a real upset in Saturdays games - Sweden played a dead awful game against Latvia and managed 0-0 only because of a dubious off-side call when Latvia scored in the 80-something minute.

[Bauser]

Norway - Denmark 2-2

Looking at the matchfacts with Carew scoring in the 93rd minute it seems like Norway equalized with a lucky goal, but it would have been a robbery if Denmark had travelled home with three points in that game. They only had two efforts on goal throughout the match and didn't have much ball possession either. Riise hit the post in addition to his goal and there were at least two incidents where the ref should have given penalty. It was the first good game I have seen of Norway for a long time. Too bad we only got rewarded with one point.

[Zenit]

Originally posted by Slash/ED
Yes but we're a better side, Russia we're awful today, we we're far worse.

You obviously didn't watch the same game I did. Considering the 2 best players (Izmailov, Sychev) on the squad & the team captain were out, this was a good game by a Russian team that was (finally) well coached & had a good game plan. I'd hold off on that "we're the better side" talk until something changes with the dreadful defending that the Irish exhibited today....

Also...

Considering that neither England or Germany could beat the Finns in Helsinki during WC quals, I'd have to say the Wales result was the upset of the day. Quietly Wales has put together an impressive string of results against some very good competition as of late, nice to see.

Could it get any worse for Scotland? Didn't the Faroe Islands draw with Scotland in Euro 2K qualifying, too?

[olafgb]

Originally posted by Zenit


Could it get any worse for Scotland? Didn't the Faroe Islands draw with Scotland in Euro 2K qualifying, too?

Yes, they did (1-1). Would be a wonder if Vogts survives as Scotland coach until the end of the qualifiers though.

Questioning McCarthy in Ireland is a little ridiculous. Ireland played a very good WC and now after one loss in the qualifiers you want to sack him? I don't see a slight reason for that.

A pity that Cyprus couldn't get a point. The equaliser for France was more than lucky (in its existence, not that it wasn't deserved).

In group 2 Romania's clear victory surprised me as Bosnia doesn't have a crap team. Denmark losing points in Norway is a little bit wondering due to their strong WC, but it also was quite clear that Norway can't play such a bad qualifier as for the WC again.

In group 4 both results are surprising. Sweden would have been the big favourite even without the good WC, and Poland needed 75 minutes to score a goal against tiny San Marino.

Group 6 also delivered a surprise with Armenia recovering from a 0-2 vs Ukraine, though I'd love to see the penalty kick in the 90th.

Group 8 had two surprises with Croatians being unable to collect three points vs Estonia at home - at the end this might hurt them even more than Belgium's home loss vs Bulgaria.

Group 9 didn't have surprises, but remarkable results. Italy needed an own goal to have a rather narrow 2-0 in small Azerbijan. Finland vs Wales is not totally surprising - though I wouldn't rate this victory too low. Finland got much stronger, but this rather in defending a point against top teams. Wales also was very good when defeating Germany short before the WC. As I said before, one of these countries might annoy Yugoslavia in the fight for the playoff spot.

[markdickson]

Originally posted by Zenit

Could it get any worse for Scotland? Didn't the Faroe Islands draw with Scotland in Euro 2K qualifying, too?

In 2000 against the Faroes, it was a shock result, where Scotland had the whole game and only lost a late equaliser because of a brief lack of concentration. However, this time round, we were out played by the Faroes! They scored 2 and should have had more. They missed four or five really good chances to seal the game. We salvaged a draw thanks to our best two players (Lambert & Ferguson) but Herr Vogts has some serious problems. He doesn't seem to know player's best positions and left the defence short of numbers, which resulted in the Faroes threating everytime they came forward. Vogts is tactically inept! I mean there must have been a reason why he was working for the Kuwait FA before we got him!

Vogts has been in charge for 6 games and has lost 5 and drawn with the Faroes. In contrast the Faroes (who started playing competitive football against Shetland & Orkney Islands in the North of Scotland!) have had Dane Henrik Larsen in charge for just 2 games and have beaten Liechtenstein and now drawn with us. We have seen no improvement in Scotland since Vogts took over and if anything we are worse! :(

[olafgb]

Originally posted by markdickson

We salvaged a draw thanks to our best two players (Lambert & Ferguson) but Herr Vogts has some serious problems. He doesn't seem to know player's best positions and left the defence short of numbers, which resulted in the Faroes threating everytime they came forward. Vogts is tactically inept! I mean there must have been a reason why he was working for the Kuwait FA before we got him!


Believe me, in Germany nobody understands the Scottish FA for signing this jerk. His preparation for a game always starts with excusing why they might get a bad result. He's always feeling prosecuted by the media, that's why he's dropping awkward decisions when dealing with them. When a German TV station wanted to ask him questions before the Faroe Islands game, he told them that they've got to ask in English now as he's coach of Scotland - only when Scottish media colleagues kind of told him that he's crazy, he allowed exactly two questions in German. But here Vogts is still standing for a tactical masterpiece of soccer history - bringing a defender for a midfielder 7 minutes before the end of the game vs Bulgaria at the 94 WC quarter finals with a 1-2 score. Soccer-Germany suffered under him from 90 to 98 despite of the EC title in 96; and later on he managed to lead Bayer Leverkusen from a secure spot in the race for the league title to a candidate who had to tremble for the Champions League qualifier. Somehow we all felt that he perfectly fits to Kuwait where finally his words were true that every opponent is strong and can beat them.

[SJFC4ever]

olaf, the sad thing is that Berti Vogts is the LEAST of our problems.

[Slash/ED]

Originally posted by olafgb


Questioning McCarthy in Ireland is a little ridiculous. Ireland played a very good WC and now after one loss in the qualifiers you want to sack him? I don't see a slight reason for that.


It's not one match, we've wanted him sacked for years, he's a useless manager and saturday showed him up for what he was, with a good manager that Russia side would have been blown away, trust me, there was so much wrong with his subs and team selection it's insane.

[desertfox2]

Sunday's 2 matches going on right now:

Switzerland 2-1 Georgia (63rd minute)
Liechtenstein 0-0 Macedonia (20th minute)

[desertfox2]

Final results from today:

Switzerland 4-1 Georgia
Liechtenstein 1-1 Macedonia

[Slash/ED]

Originally posted by desertfox2
Final results from today:
Liechtenstein 1-1 Macedonia

Battle of the Republic Of Ireland bogey teams from hell.