Thanks Ceres... No it's just that I find it funny that the Euro runner up is not even mentioned. It's all good though. Rankings don't mean that much, just take a look at the last two years.
I find that the FIFA ranking is fairly accurate when you only look at the European teams. Though, if you look at the World ranking as a whole, it makes no sense, since it is much more difficult for European teams to gain ranking points due to tougher opponents in compare with most other places in the World... The European U21 ranking has been made, but I'm not quite sure when it's going to be published, so perhaps some changes could still happen. It would therefore make no sense to mention more than a few absolute top teams in the ranking. You could ofcause wonder why e.g. Denmark is in top 4 and not Serbia, since Denmark did not even qualify for the last U21 Euro finals ?. The fact, however, is that actual results is always the only measurement in a ranking like this and the Danish U21's have only lost 1 match in this qualification and before this had been undefeated in 17 official U21 NT games in a row, only missing the last U21 Euro finals on away goals by two draws against the Champions Italy in the last play-off's... A very unlucky draw for two very good teams you could say, but it also proves that qualifying does not always speak the only truth about the actual strenght of a team .... .
No, the only measurement in a ranking is actual results and so it should be. The fact that Serbia have qualified more times in a row than Denmark, or that Italy have won this tournament the most times in the past, should not count in a ranking. Especially not in a Youth ranking where the squads differ from year to year. If you look at the actual results in this U21 Euro qualification, then ther is nothing in the results this far, showing that Serbia deserve a better ranking than Denmark. Ukraine that came far behind Denmark in their Q-group (losing both home and away to Denmark and in all honesty not looking as good as Turkey and Greece in the same group), managed to eliminate Belgium that came 1st in the Q-group with Serbia... If we were ranking teams by 'achievement', then Turkey should have been ranked 3rd best team in the World in 2002/03, because they finished 3rd at the WC-02. The fact, however, is that Turkey got this far mainly by getting lucky draws. First they got past a not all that difficult looking Q-group. Then eliminating Austria in play-off to reach the WC finals and a 3rd place by getting a draw agains Costa Rica and beating China, Japan, Senegal (on golden goal) and finally South Korea. Do you think that this achievement still should have made them higher ranked than teams like Argentina (eliminated in group stage) or England (that beat Argentina but only reached the quarterfinals at the WC-02) ?... I think not... No doubt that Turkey did well and made a great achievement, but their actual results did not qualify them for a higher ranking... .
Holland just beats France 2-1 in the final minute of injury time. Spain and Croatia tied 1-1 now in OT. Spain gave up a match tying late penalty on some clumsy defending.
Spain gets the late winner in OT. Portugal leading Italy 2-1 at the half. Denmark/Germany 0-0 at halftime.