EURO 2008 Qualifying

[HoyaSinceBirth]

The Qulaifying matches for Euro 2008 truly kicked off to day.
there were three games a coupel weeks ago
Georgia 6 Faroe Islands 0
Macedonia 1 Estonia 0
Belgium 0 Kazakstan 0

Here's a link for the standings in each group.
www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/Standings/index.html

Here are today's reuslts:
Czech Republic 2 Wales 1
Iceland 3 N.Ireland 0
Scottland 6 Faroe islands 0
England 5 Andorra 0
Bosnia-Herzegovina 5 Malta 2
France 3 Georgia 0
Norway 4 Hungury 1
Slovakia 6 cyprus 1
Serbia 1 azerbijan 0
Belarus 2 albania 2
Finland 3 Poland 1
Netherlands 1 Luxemburg 0
Germany 1 Ireland 0
Romania 2 bulgaria 2
Sweden 1 Latvia 0
Greece 1 Moldova 0
Israel 1 Estonia 0
Italy 1 Lithuania 1
Spain 4 Lictenstien 0

[SEAHoya]

Wow, some interesting one's in there:

Netherlands struggle to beat Luxembourg at home, while Italy drop two points to the Lithuanians at home. Also, surprised to see Poland losing to Finland 3-1. Early days obviously, but I'm sure these were all a bit worrying to those involved... At least England took care of business so I'm happy.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

actually this is apprently par for the course for italy after winning the WC last time they did it in 1982 they didn't win another match for 15 months and didn't qualify for the 1984 European cup.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Today's Results:

Iceland 0-2 Denmark
Israel 4-1 Andorra
Ukraine 3-2 Georgia
Azerbaijan 1-1 Kazakhstan
Norway 2-0 Moldova
Russia 0-0 Croatia
Lithuania 1-2 Scotland
Sweden 3-1 Liechtenstein
Turkey 2-0 Malta
Finland 1-1 Portugal
Albania 0-2 Romania
Bulgaria 3-0 Slovenia
Slovakia 0-3 Czech Republic ;D
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-3 Hungary
Northern Ireland 3-2 Spain Healy scored all 3 goals for the Protestants
Netherlands 3-0 Belarus
Poland 1-1 Serbia
San Marino 0-13 Germany podolski had 5 goals in the rout
F.Y.R. Macedonia 0-1 England
Armenia 0-1 Belgium
France 3-1 Italy

[FLHoya]

hoyasincebirth said:

Today's Results:

Iceland 0-2 Denmark
Israel 4-1 Andorra
Ukraine 3-2 Georgia
Azerbaijan 1-1 Kazakhstan
Norway 2-0 Moldova
Russia 0-0 Croatia
Lithuania 1-2 Scotland
Sweden 3-1 Liechtenstein
Turkey 2-0 Malta
Finland 1-1 Portugal
Albania 0-2 Romania
Bulgaria 3-0 Slovenia
Slovakia 0-3 Czech Republic ;D
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-3 Hungary
Northern Ireland 3-2 Spain Healy scored all 3 goals for the Protestants
Netherlands 3-0 Belarus
Poland 1-1 Serbia
San Marino 0-13 Germany podolski had 5 goals in the rout
F.Y.R. Macedonia 0-1 England
Armenia 0-1 Belgium
France 3-1 Italy

The Germany score makes this article I read this morning seem kinda funny in retrospect:

sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-germanyloew_picture&prov=reuters&type=lgns

The Northern Ireland score is surprising in a sense, but fitting in another b/c NI also beat England at home in WC2006 qualifying (apparently Windsor Park:UEFA as The RAC:Big East). I was also thinking as I read the score and thought of the England game, didn't N. Ireland also have one of those weird shock WC upsets at some point?

Turns out they did in 1982. Against Spain. Who knew!

Apparently England's coach Steve McClaren had a very Esherickean moment in their game, as he missed Bambi on Ice Skates' (Crouch's) goal cause he hadn't come out of the locker room yet (the goal was in the 46th minute).

And jeebus, Poland only took a single point from Finland and Serbia! 007 is probably despondant (read: it's 50-50 when I send him an IM tonight after work that he's even remotely aware of this). That's a potentially tricky group, with Portugal (also on 1 point after tying Finland and 76 year old Jari Litmanen, but through only 1 game instead of 2), Serbia, and the spoilers Finland and Belgium in the mix.

Not as bad, however, as the France-Italy-Ukraine group (which also includes Scotland and Lithuania, neither of whom is terrible). Put it in perspective, at least one of the finalists in WC2006 is gonna have to go into a home/away qualifier just to make Euro 2008 (yeah that'd suck to draw them)...and at least one of the three 06 Quarterfinalists in the group is done after the group qualifying phase. Honestly, in those type situations I'm half inclined to pick Scotland to finish 1st/2nd.

Plus side though, since the Faroe Islands are in the group, the WC2006 Champs and Runners-Up are both visiting the Torsvollur Stadium:

www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/europe/faroe_islands/torshavn_torsvollur.shtml

Now there's a road trip!

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Newest Results from 10/7 and 10/11
Standings can be found here: www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/Standings/index.html
Faroe Islands 0 - 1 Lithuania
Wales 1 - 5 Slovakia
Scotland 1 - 0 France
England 0 - 0 F.Y.R. Macedonia pretty bad
Czech Republic 7 - 0 San Marino
Moldova 2 - 2 Bosnia-Herzegovina
Russia 1 - 1 Israel
Cyprus 5 - 2 Republic of Ireland Ouch real embaressing
Hungary 0 - 1 Turkey
Sweden 2 - 0 Spain
Denmark 0 - 0 Northern Ireland
Serbia 1 - 0 Belgium
Croatia 7 - 0 Andorra
Romania 3 - 1 Belarus
Slovenia 2 - 0 Luxembourg
Italy 2 - 0 Ukraine
Portugal 3 - 0 Azerbaijan
Armenia 0 - 0 Finland
Kazakhstan 0 - 1 Poland
Latvia 4 - 0 Iceland
Bulgaria 1 - 1 Netherlands
Greece 1 - 0 Norway
Andorra 0 - 3 F.Y.R. Macedonia
Iceland 1 - 2 Sweden
Croatia 2 - 0 England not bad but england should do better with the talent they have.
Russia 2 - 0 Estonia
Belarus 4 - 2 Slovenia
Malta 2 - 1 Hungary
Republic of Ireland 1 - 1 Czech Republic
Ukraine 2 - 0 Scotland
Turkey 5 - 0 Moldova
Wales 3 - 1 Cyprus
Northern Ireland 1 - 0 Latvia
Serbia 3 - 0 Armenia
Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 - 4 Greece
Liechtenstein 0 - 4 Denmark
Luxembourg 0 - 1 Bulgaria
Poland 2 - 1 Portugal
Netherlands 2 - 1 Albania
Belgium 3 - 0 Azerbaijan
Slovakia 1 - 4 Germany
France 5 - 0 Faroe Islands
Kazakhstan 0 - 2 Finland
Georgia 1 - 3 Italy

[washingtonhoya]

hoyasincebirth said:

Croatia 2 - 0 England not bad but england should do better with the talent they have.

Paul Robinson also shouldn't allow goals like this.

Obviously no major surprises yet, with the exception of NI 3-2 over Spain. I'd include England drawing FYROM 0-0 at Old Trafford was a surprise, but I think McClaren is going to continue Eriksson's legacy of disappointing finishes. I'll be rooting for Scotland to make it out of the group stage, but I'm not too optimistic that their form is going to hold, especially with games away to Italy and France left and home against Ukraine. I wouldn't put too much stock in the results this early. All I really know is that if Greece wins again I'll eat my hat.

[kghoya]

id love to see england fail...even though he had a great view, it doesnt look like mcclaren was paying attention to this squad during the world cup

they sucked it up and relied heavily on beckham free kicks and crosses...what does he do? he got rid of one of the guys that was carrying them...i know hes getting older and this and that...but you gotta score goals to move on...

[HoyaSinceBirth]

wow that's pretty much the worst thing ever that goal. I mean imgaine how bad he feels. I'll be surprised if he starts the next game. Just out of principle you have to sit a keeper after a blunder like that. completly unexcuseable. He had all the time in the world. Control the ball and then play the ball up field. wow that's just painful to watch.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Ok what have we learned in this qualifying so far?

Croatia - your fans can loose you your shot at the title.
Greece - history probably won't repeat itself
England - there's a reason Chelsea wasn't starting an English player for some time
Russia - all the petro-dollars you spent on Hiddik gets you ... a tie with Israel ...

[htownhoya09]

hoyasincebirth said:

wow that's pretty much the worst thing ever that goal. I mean imgaine how bad he feels. I'll be surprised if he starts the next game. Just out of principle you have to sit a keeper after a blunder like that. completly unexcuseable. He had all the time in the world. Control the ball and then play the ball up field. wow that's just painful to watch.

As bad as the goal may look, he actually got pretty unlucky. The ball skipped at the EXACT wrong moment. Also, I think it would be a terrible idea not to start Robinson; what kind of message does that send to your starting goalie, whom they will be relying on for quite some time (as I'm pretty sure Robinson is quite young). I really think that England needs to start him next game to try to rebuild his confidence.

[htownhoya09]

stpetersburghoya said:

Ok what have we learned in this qualifying so far?

Croatia - your fans can loose you your shot at the title.
Greece - history probably won't repeat itself
England - there's a reason Chelsea wasn't starting an English player for some time
Russia - all the petro-dollars you spent on Hiddik gets you ... a tie with Israel ...

Does Lampard not start for both Chelsea and England? I don't think its fair how everyone is so critical of England. They obviously have an incredible amount of talent. One could actually compare them to Italy pre-World Cup, as both teams have a large amount of talent but never seem to be able to be able to put it all together and act as a team (as many of the players have stronger allegiances to their clubs than the national team). I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that England wins Euro 20008 when McClaren finally realizes that he simply can't put all stars out on the field and expect them to figure it out. Sven Eriksson clearly never realized this.