Euro 2016 Qualification Thread

[Liquid]

Critical games versus Cyprus and Israel this coming week.

I smell 6 points and qualification.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Forgot to post this earlier but Hodgson named his England squad for the games against San Marino and Switzerland

Hart, Butland, Heaton, Clyne, Stones, Jagielka, Cahill, Shaw, Smalling, Gibbs, Shelvey, Carrick, Milner, Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling, Delph, Mason, Rooney, Kane, Vardy, Walcott

Vardy and Shelvey in...

 

[Peasantslayer]

Would have been nice to see Redmond and Callum Wilson get a call up, they've been doing well for the last year or so.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So this round of Qualifiers start tomorrow and will continue of the next few days, here is the schedule

Thursday

Group A
Czech Rep v Kazakhstan
Netherlands v Iceland
Turkey v Latvia

Group B
Belgium v Bosnia
Cyprus v Wales
Israel v Andorra

Group H
Azerbaijan v Croatia
Bulgaria v Norway
Italy v Malta

Friday

Group D
Georgia v Scotland
Germany v Poland
Gibraltar v Rep Ireland

Group F
Faroe Island v N.Ireland
Greece v Finland
Hungary v Romania

Group I
Denmark v Albania
Serbia v Armenia

Saturday

Group C
Luxembourg v Macedonia
Ukraine v Belarus
Spain v Slovakia

Group E
Estonia v Lithuania
San Marino v England
Switzerland v Slovenia

Group G
Russia v Sweden
Austria v Moldova
Montenegro v Liechtenstein


Kick off times vary, will post the second batch of games in this break in the next few days..

 

[m8h3r]

I can, with all honesty, say that there isn't a single match there that I would call must watch.

 

[Jimlaad43]

I can, with all honesty, say that there isn't a single match there that I would call must watch.

Germany vs Poland?
Hungary vs Romania? (Crazy rivalry of two countries who properly hate each other)
Spain vs Slovakia?

 

[m8h3r]

I highly doubt Poland can match Germany same as Slovakia and Spain.

Hungary and Romania are not teams I particularly follow.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Russia v Sweden sounds alright..

 

[Liquid]

WALES SET TO GO AHEAD OF ENGLAND IN THE RANKINGS

*ascends to another dimension of existence*

Oh god.

 

[Peasantslayer]

It's a bit silly how a team can go down in the rankings despite being the only team in Europe to win every single game in qualifying.

 

[Liquid]

It's a bit silly how a team can go down in the rankings despite being the only team in Europe to win every single competitive game in qualifying.

Slovakia (16th) have a 100% record, thank you very much. It's the talk of the town here in Bratislava.

 

[Peasantslayer]

Slovakia (16th) have a 100% record, thank you very much. It's the talk of the town here in Bratislava.

Didn't even notice them, in Spain's group as well.

 

[Liquid]

I highly doubt Poland can match Germany same as Slovakia and Spain.

Hungary and Romania are not teams I particularly follow.

In the return fixtures, Slovakia beat Spain and Poland beat Germany. Hungary vs Romania will be good because it features Romania, the 5th best team in Europe according to the rankings.

Plenty of good football to watch, if you just want to watch a good game of football. If you only want to watch games where you have a vested interest, well... can't help you there. Maybe Hungary vs Romania and Cyprus vs Wales to try and work out how those two teams are ranked above England?

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Hey @Liquid, don't know if you know but we only need 6 points from our final 4 games to qualify..

 

[Dennisch]

And with a new coach (Google his coaching career. Danny Blind) the results remain the same.

The Netherlands lost yet again, against Iceland. 1-0. That's pretty much the end of the qualis for us.

Yeey for Hiddink. Yeey for Blind.

 

[Liquid]

Bale.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So we won, it wasn't pretty and we didn't really play that well but it was a Bale header in the 82nd minute that sealed it and it now means that a win at home to Israel and we are in our first major tournament for almost 60 years, Cardiff will be rocking on Sunday! 👍

 

[Ross]

Having been down at Swansea/Gower for the last few days, pretty much everyone that I talked to down there is really excited about football (some even more than rugby!).

 

[Dennisch]

Robben is out for 4 weeks due to an injury in his groin.

Again.

 

[daan]

With a picture like that, not sure I want to check and see how we're doing...

 

[daan]

 

[Akmuq]

Love you Georgia.

 

[lxmmy]

Germany win 3-1 against Poland.

Comfortable win. Interesting tactics by Low by putting Emre Can as a right back and with the inclusion of Gundogan which pushes Ozil out on the left flank. Gotze and Muller were causing a whole load of danger for the Poland defence.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Scotland crap against Georgia and have got Germany at home next!, Northern Ireland Brilliant and only need a win against Hungary to qualify, England v the whipping boys tomorrow and Hodgson says Stone Shelvey and Vardy will start..

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Sorry to double post, I was hoping someone would post after me, but anyway the next batch of qualifiers start tomorrow and here is the schedule....

Sunday

Group A
Latvia v Czech Rep
Turkey v Netherlands
Iceland v Kazakhstan

Group B
Wales v Israel
Bosnia v Andorra
Cyprus v Belgium

Group H
Malta v Azerbaijan
Norway v Croatia
Italy v Bulgaria

Monday

Group I
Armenia v Denmark
Albania v Portugal

Group D
Poland v Gibraltar
Rep Ireland v Georgia
Scotland v Germany

Group F
Finland v Faroe Islands
N.Ireland v Hungary
Romania v Greece

Tuesday

Group C
Belarus v Luxembourg
Macedonia v Spain
Slovakia v Ukraine

Group E
England v Switzerland
Lithuania v San Marino
Slovenia v Estonia

Group G
Liechtenstein v Russia
Moldova v Montenegro
Sweden v Austria

Kick-off times vary...

 

[lxmmy]

Looking forward to Vardy and Shelvey starting. Both thoroughly deserve the call, hopefully they can perform as well for club and country.

Turkey v Netherlands will be an interesting match. Also Sweden v Austria will be quite tight.

 

[Famine]

As a result of the matches on 3rd and 4th of September, we have our first eliminations.

They are, unsurprisingly:
Gibraltar (average result 5-0 defeat, 0pt, only 1 goal - against Scotland)
Andorra (average result 4-½ defeat, 0pt, only 3 goals)
Malta (average result 1-0 defeat, 1pt from a draw with Bulgaria)

Slightly more surprisingly but not that much:
Kazakhstan (average result 2-1 defeat, 1pt from a draw with Latvia)

And very surprisingly indeed:
Greece (average result 1-0 defeat, 2pt from draws, doubled by the Faroe Islands):

Pah... if you can't beat the Faroe Islands, you shouldn't be playing international football!!!

Quite.

And to think this team won the same competition only 11yr ago...


One piece of news I missed was the change of the Serbia-Albania result by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The match between Serbia and Albania was abandoned after 42 minutes, following what can only be described as a cluster(bomb).

All sorts of pre-match rubbish occurred - away fans being banned from the stadium, the Albanian players bus being pelted with rocks - followed by more rubbish in the warm ups. A NATO flag was burned by the Serbian fans, they raised a Greek flag, they threw flares at an Albanian player taking a corner...

Then a drone carrying an Albanian separatist flag flew over the pitch, whereupon it was hauled down by a Serbian player. This sparked an angry reaction from the Albanian players, which then sparked a pitch invasion by Serbian fans.


Originally, the abandonment was awarded as a 3-0 walkover win to Serbia, with a 3pt deduction for Serbia. So in effect no-one got any points, but their goal differences moved 3 either way. Both teams appealed and UEFA rejected it. Both teams took it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport...

... who awarded the match 3-0 to Albania and kept the 3pt deduction for Serbia, putting them on -2.

That sort of led to Serbia and Armenia being eliminated, as Denmark and Albania played out the draw to get the 1pt both needed to drop the bottom two teams.


San Marino, Moldova and Luxembourg may also leave tonight.

 

[mister dog]

Wonder if us Belgians can still catch up with the mighty Wales

 

[m8h3r]

So that is England qualified. First to qualify, likely to be the first out of it too.

 

[Famine]

So that is England qualified. First to qualify, likely to be the first out of it too.

There'll be 24 teams in this edition of the tournament, so that's a little less likely now.

But still, quarter-finals at best.