Euro 2016 Qualification Thread

[MUSC4EVER]

Wales play Netherlands next week in a friendly, Coleman named his squad today and we are without Ramsey and Bale, Holland named their squad at the weekend and left out RVP and Depay amongst a few others....

Coleman also hit back at claims from Arsene Wenger for laying the blame on him for Ramsey getting injured in the last break, Ramsey did play in the Andorra win when we already qualified but he didn't get injured, it was at the Bayern game a week later when he went off and he played the full 90 for Arsenal against Watford in-between, Coleman said he received no word from Wenger or Ancelotti to rest Ramsey or Bale for the game, he called the remark from Wenger a 'cheap shot'...

 

[lxmmy]

Wales play Netherlands next week in a friendly, Coleman named his squad today and we are without Ramsey and Bale, Holland named their squad at the weekend and left out RVP and Depay amongst a few others....

Coleman also hit back at claims from Arsene Wenger for laying the blame on him for Ramsey getting injured in the last break, Ramsey did play in the Andorra win when we already qualified but he didn't get injured, it was at the Bayern game a week later when he went off and he played the full 90 for Arsenal against Watford in-between, Coleman said he received no word from Wenger or Ancelotti to rest Ramsey or Bale for the game, he called the remark from Wenger a 'cheap shot'...

Ancelotti isn't Real Madrid manager anymore.....

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Benitez I mean....

 

[Liquid]

Coleman named his squad today and we are without Ramsey and Bale

Good. We need to test ourselves without our best players and the rest of the side could do with a run out.

Goalkeepers

Spoiler

Wayne Hennessey (Crystal Palace)
Daniel Ward (Aberdeen, on loan from Liverpool)
Owain Fôn Williams (Inverness Caledonian Thistle)

Defenders

Spoiler

Ashley Williams (Swansea City)
James Chester (West Bromwich Albion)
James Collins (West Ham United)
Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur)
Chris Gunter (Reading)
Neil Taylor (Swansea City)
Adam Henley (Blackburn Rovers)
Paul Dummett (Newcastle United)

Midfielders

Spoiler

Joe Ledley (Crystal Palace)
Joe Allen (Liverpool)
David Vaughan (Nottingham Forest)
Emyr Huws (Huddersfield Town, on loan from Wigan Athletic)
Jonathan Williams (Crystal Palace)
Andy King (Leicester City)
David Edwards (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Forwards

Spoiler

David Cotterill (Birmingham City)
Tom Lawrence (Leicester City)
Tom Bradshaw (Walsall)
Simon Church (Milton Keynes Dons)
Sam Vokes (Burnley)

Fôn Williams is a distant cousin of mine and Wrexham get money if Danny Ward plays for Wales so I'd be happy to see the goalkeepers get their chance.

King/Edwards in midfield just for the potato reference. But in seriousness, Jonny Williams looked great in the qualifiers and Tom Lawrence is another Wrexham lad so I'd like to see him play more.

Bradshaw is an interesting choice, doing well for Walsall and it's amusing to see a top 10 world side picking players from the third tier. It'd also be great to see a player who played in the Welsh Prem play for the national team; he started out at Aberystwyth.

There is every chance we can beat the Netherlands. They're playing awfully and alienating players like Memphis Depay is surely playing into our hands.

 

[Dennisch]

We need to test ourselves

Against a team that's already notoriously unmotivated to play friendlies.

 

[Liquid]

Against a team that's already notoriously unmotivated to play friendlies.

Beating the Netherlands is still beating the Netherlands. Do you want help to advance Blind's sacking or not?

 

[MUSC4EVER]

They 've got to play England soon as well...

 

[Dennisch]

Do you want help to advance Blind's sacking or not?

Yes. ASAP. And head of the KNVB Bert van Oostveen needs to go with him.

Maybe that will give us a chance to build a team that's not a mishmash of nobodies and hasbeens.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

World Rankings have today been updated, Wales drop to 15th, England up one to 9th, Northern Ireland up six places to a highest ever 29th, Scotland down four to 44, Ireland up twelve to 42...

Top ten are Belgium, Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Chile, Spain, Colombia, Brazil, England and Austria.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Play-Offs take place over this coming weekend, here is the schedule

Thursday
Norway v Hungary

Friday
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Republic Of Ireland

Saturday
Ukraine v Slovenia
Sweden v Denmark

Sunday
Hungary v Norway

Monday
Republic Of Ireland v Bosnia-Herzegovina

Tuesday
Slovenia v Ukraine
Denmark v Sweden

All evening kick-offs....

There is also a host of Friendlies taking place over the next few days, England are away to Spain then home to France, Belgium take on Italy and Spain, Wales have the one game v Holland and France also take on Germany

 

[Dreadmed]

England news conference, Rooney won't be starting against Spain (I'm assuming he'll feature in the second half), Vardy has a knock so won't be in line for Spain although he may well be ready for the game against France. However, Roy confirmed that Rooney will be starting in that one, it would be a bit of a shame if Vardy got shunted out to the wing again...

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So its Kane to start up front tomorrow night then, Roy has only picked the three strikers...

 

[Dreadmed]

Seems so, I'm also quite curious to see who'll end up as the CB pairing; a year or two ago, I would've shuddered in horror at the thought of Smalling et al trying to shut out Spain... sandcastles and the tide spring to mind.

 

[Akmuq]

I'd go Smalling and Stones.


Anyway, so nervous about the Ireland game later. No Long and no Walters.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Hungary got a narrow 0-1 win over Norway in their play off last night...

 

[Dennisch]

Anyone from Wales noticing a difference between Oranje with and Oranje without Robben?

 

[Akmuq]

I just watched a full 45 minutes of fog.

 

[m8h3r]

I just watched a full 45 minutes of fog.

I just watched the goals on sky sports, or I think I did anyway.... couldn't really tell you to be honest.

I know it's a friendly not a Qualifier but reports are that the shots/explosions in France could be heard at the stadium.

 

[Mr. S]

I just watched the goals on sky sports, or I think I did anyway.... couldn't really tell you to be honest.

I know it's a friendly not a Qualifier but reports are that the shots/explosions in France could be heard at the stadium.

Yes, we heard them. The wife get us tickets to surprise me and have a nice evening out.

Both Mrs. S and I thought it's just fans using some fire crackers and it took a while until the news broke in the stadium.

Overcrowded mobile networks...

 

[MUSC4EVER]

German team land safely back in Frankfurt, incidentely their team hotel was evacuated the night before because of a bomb threat...

Good performance by Wales last night despite the result.

 

[Liquid]

Anyone from Wales noticing a difference between Oranje with and Oranje without Robben?

Fine. Keep Blind in charge. But Robben will retire one day.

Very happy that my distant cousin Owain Fôn Williams picked up his first cap. He's been part of the setup for years. Great to see him rewarded at last.

 

[Bit64]

I just watched a full 45 minutes of fog.

Kind of annoyed we couldn't hold on but I would've bit your arm off if you said 1-1 draw pre-game.

 

[Dennisch]

Fine. Keep Blind in charge. But Robben will retire one day.

Very happy that my distant cousin Owain Fôn Williams picked up his first cap. He's been part of the setup for years. Great to see him rewarded at last.

Blind switched tactics. He played 5-3-2 yesterday. The system van Gaal used in Brazil.

 

[Liquid]

Was there any given reason as to why he didn't use that in qualifying?

 

[Akmuq]

Kind of annoyed we couldn't hold on but I would've bit your arm off if you said 1-1 draw pre-game.

They'll rue those mist chances.

 

[Dennisch]

Was there any given reason as to why he didn't use that in qualifying?

It isn't the Dutch way of playing football. He and Hiddink are too stupid to realise we don't have the material for 4-3-3.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Ukraine get a comfortable two goal lead into the second leg of their Play-Off against Slovenia and Sweden beat Denmark 2-1 with Ibra getting the winner from the penalty spot...

England v France to go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday night after talks between the English and French FA's....

 

[lxmmy]

It isn't the Dutch way of playing football. He and Hiddink are too stupid to realise we don't have the material for 4-3-3.

The Dutch need to play a false 9 formation as you still have a abundance of fast wingers but you no longer have a striker which have the pace to get in behind but to play as a target man.

 

[Famine]

14/11/2014 - Greece 0-1 Faroe Islands
14/06/2015 - Faroe Islands 2-1 Greece

Just wanted to post these two results again, because Greece played Luxembourg in a friendly on Friday...

... and Luxembourg won 1-0. It's the first friendly they've won in at least 2 years - probably more - though they did beat FYR Macedonia in the qualifiers.

 

[Wiegert]

Hard to believe that Greece achieved their highest FIFA ranking within the last two years. Reaching a position currently occupied by Colombia.

Still not as surprising as seeing them come back from behind to beat Hungary 4-3 in a home match last month.