YES!!! Armenia ties Protugal 1-1 at home and Finland beats Kazakhstan 2-1 Poland remains safely in first place with 19 points Finland second with 17 points, both 9 games played Portugal third with 15 points and one less game played Serbia with 14 points and two games in hand, plays Belgium later today
1st half was shite for us, we made Russia actually look good lmao. 2nd half we looked dangerous, and Russia couldn't handle us. If only we played the way we played the 1st half as the 2nd we could have won the game 4-1. Not to mention we were missing some key players too.. Bring on the chops.
Well if you were at all curious in the huge discrepancy between Russia's play in the first and second halves, Hiddink, in his tactical mastery otherwise known as sheer lunacy, played the second half with two (one of whom is a wingback mind you), and then only one, defender.
and to continue with the results from Group A... Belgium scored in the the 10th minute and is winning over Serbia 1-0 edit: make that 2-0 with a second score in the 30th!!
This first half lineup was about 5 players from being optimal. Both the keepers used today made their debut for national team, with Akinfeev being injured, Malafeev is otherwise the current number one. The center back is usually Ignashevich instead of Kolodin, but he was late for practise and Hiddink decided to punish him by excluding him from the national team this time around. Bystrov is prefered on the right flank over Saenko, and Kerzhakov would usually start up front instead of Sychev. Hiddink also typically plays a defensive winger instead of today's second striker in Pavlyuchenko. The team that took to the field in the second was very far from optimal, especially considering that the onus to play in defense was placed upon attacking midfielders and a withdrawn striker. The subs brought on for the second half were all either youngsters getting their first shot at the national team or national team benchwarmers. How optimal was the Poland of today?
the Poland team was missing Zurawski (who i think is past it), Radomski and Gargula who are all coming back from injury, Smolarek out with food poisoning, Jelen who is not playing as well as last year and Saganowski who is a 'know' quantity and was not called up for this game Beenhakker has some options for most of the positions (quite a new development for Poland) and the team that played today was close to the starting 11 that will play against Portugal and Finland in September
agreed, still 2-0 with 20 minutes to go edit: my mistake, that was 30 minutes to go and Serbia scores in the 73rd to make it 2-1
It was a good match. Poland did well to to come back from 2-0. This should help Poland forget that lose from Armenia and boost em up against Portugal and Finland. Luckily yesterdays results mostly helps Poland stay in top they just have to take advantage now.
Thats a surprise to me. But here in Canada I rarely get to see Polish league or National team matches. Though with Setanta sports, it may now change. Saw the Poland - Russia game, it was a good comeback. I did see Groclin in the Eufa Cup about 2 years ago and thought Mila looked really good. what happened to him?