Euro qualifying thread

[pineapple stu]

Seeing as this is getting mixed in the Oman/Georgia squad thread and the Group D Opponent Watch thread, it seems logical to get a separate thread for the rest of the qualifying.

Top two qualify automatically. Best third-place team gets in as well, and the other eight third-placers play off for four remaining spots. France make up the 24. Everyone bar Belgium, Israel and Serbia underway now.

Iceland have a great chance of getting to the play-offs after hammering Turkey. Czechs and Holland should be top two; Czechs beat Holland with a 90th minute goal during the week. Kazakhstan and Latvia drew 0-0; they probably won't trouble the other teams.

Cyprus winning in Bosnia was a big upset, while Wales scraped past Andorra and then lambasted the plastic pitch. Israel v Belgium was postponed due to the Israeli state being murderous scumbags again. Wales play Bosnia and Cyprus at home in October; could get six points there. Lots of quality young players; could see them getting through.

Spain hammered Macedonia 5-1 and look to have no World Cup hangover. Slovakia won in Ukraine, which is a big result for them. Improving Luxembourg held Belarus; definitely a potential banana skin for Ukraine and Slovakia, who look to be going for second and third.

Group D we know about.

England are more or less qualified after beating Switzerland away. Third seed Slovenia lost in Estonia. Lithuania only scored twice against San Marino. Looks like this'll be the group to draw in the play-offs.

First away win in four years for the North, beating Hungary late on (though the Times reported it as Hungary 1-2 Yeovil). Greece lost 1-0 at home to Romania but presumably will still challenge for the top two spots as they always seem to do. Finland came from 1-0 down to beat the Faroes 3-1.

Liechtenstein scored twice in Russia but lost 4-0. Russia have a tough enough group with Austria, Sweden and Montenegro. Will be an interesting one to keep an eye on.

Italy won 2-0 in Norway, a very solid start to qualifying. Can't see them having any problems getting through. Croatia beat Malta 2-0 at home, while Bulgaria scraped through 2-1 in Baku with an 87th minute winner.

In the final group, Albania won 1-0 in Portugal and host Denmark next. Denmark beat Armenia 2-1 at home having been 1-0 down. Serbia had a bye, which means they played France in a friendly, and drew 1-1 at home. Looks a wide-open group.

Next set of games here (http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/qualifiers/season=2016/matches/day=2/index.html) and here (http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/qualifiers/season=2016/matches/day=3/index.html)

[jbyrne]

while Wales scraped past Andorra and then lambasted the plastic pitch

to be fair to wales the pitch was shocking. ball bobbled all over the place. same for both teams will be the cry but such a pitch no doubt favours the team simply looking to contain. imo these pitches have no place in any serious level of football

[Stuttgart88]

Yeovil will be furious.

[DeLorean]

I'm all for the new thread (which I've only spotted now), but would it be better off in the Ireland section? I just think it's more likely to be used in there as discussions will generally take place around the time of Ireland matches. I usually just go straight to the Ireland section, not sure if others are the same. I accept that technically it's got little to do with Ireland, just a suggestion.

[pineapple stu]

The Euros are back on again; the new format means qualifying is split over six days rather than having two set days at a time. So there's three groups on tonight, three tomorrow and three on Saturday.

England 1-0 up on San Marino approaching half-time. Slovakia 1-0 up on Spain is a surprise though.

[pineapple stu]

While it lasts - Luxembourg are now 2-1 up in Macedonia and are in the play-off spots. A point ahead of Spain.

[DannyInvincible]

What on earth was Casillas doing?

http://giant.gfycat.com/PartialFelineBlackrhino.gif

[pineapple stu]

Weird. Not a hint of a deflection or even swerve. Looks like he switched off and saved the free he was expecting. Amateur stuff.

[DeLorean]

Slovakia 2-1 Spain


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAPV2Pga3TA

[bennocelt]

What on earth was Casillas doing?



How on earth is he still playing!!!

[Stuttgart88]

Dutch losing at home to Kazakhstan, having already lost to Czechs.

They're lucky the top two go through automatically.

edit: 1-1 now!

[Stuttgart88]

Cracking finish to Wales v Bosnia. What an atmosphere.

Redevelop Dalymount now!

[geysir]

Holland managed to scrape past Kazakhstan, the ignominy of a once great football nation reduced to ducking and shamelessly diving to gain advantage over the 6th seeds. The Czechs managed to beat a poorish Turkey away.
The main reason why Turkey are so poor, is their shaky defence and god awful goalkeeper.
Result of the night of course goes to the plucky minnows from Iceland, beating Latvia 3 nil away.

"3 nil ..,, we only win 3 nil"

Though with nearly 70% possesion and stringing together about 600 passes, "we" were in a process of resigning ourselves to a possible nil nil drab draw until this stunning goal from fleet of foot Gylfi Sig, for the first.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27ozs0_goal-sigurdsson-latvia-0-1-iceland-10-10-2014_sport

[DeLorean]

Some effort by Bale at the end, good save also. He set up some guilt edge chances too, particularly for Williams. They rode their luck a bit at times as well. All in all not a bad result I suppose given the amount of injuries. We've managed top two with these type of results over the years.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

http://www.goal.com/en-ie/news/3908/main/2014/10/11/5174885/selfish-van-persie-riles-netherlands-team-mates?ICID=HP_BN_7

The ego is still running wild after all these years.

[Stuttgart88]

Jeepers, England are a tedious side to watch and very unimpressive. It took a Rooney free kick to beat ten man Estonia one nil. Iceland would have scored three.

[bennocelt]

Jeepers, England are a tedious side to watch and very unimpressive. It took a Rooney free kick to beat ten man Estonia one nil. Iceland would have scored three.

Yeah they are pretty dull alright. Lucky they are in such an easy group.

[geysir]

The Dutch team are now in Reykjavik for the game on Monday and so far there'a a decent sized invasion of oranjies as well, about a thousand are expected. there's even a few of them (old friends) staying at my house, making big inroads into my serious home brew stash, which I suppose is a complement of sorts.
Football fever here has been kept lit in various ways since the WC play offs, the anticipation for this game, more than any other, has always been bubbling under the surface since the draw was made, now it's at fever pitch. It just can't be measured how everybody wants to see Iceland put it up to the Dutch, this is the game, the defining game. The other week, the 9.000 match tickets for the locals went on sale on-line, unannounced in the middle of the night and on word of mouth were sold out in 30 minutes.
Hard to say if the reborn Lagerback will revert to caution and counterattack after the last 2 games were marked by a relentlessly attacking philosophy, a game plan which even Bielsa would have feared to tread. This campaign will be Lagerback's swansong as he will retire after it's over. His swansong with this team is thoroughly deserved and instead of ending his career in some obscurity he's humbly proving himself more that a match for the best coaches in europe and being a privileged part of one hell of an adventure.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Enjoy geysir, reckon this will be Island's first Finals regardless of the Dutch result.

[DeLorean]

The world's gone mad...

Raheem Sterling asked to 'sit out' England Euro 2016 qualifier (http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29591578)
So his poor legs are too youthful? Must be a bit worrying for Liverpool that he's feeling this tired so early in the season.

[Stuttgart88]

Iceland playing great stuff at moment. A brilliant move nearly put them 3 up against Dutch. Wales in another tense thriller too.

[BonnieShels]

Can that Iceland result finally shut this ****** of "big countries" v "small countries" argument when it comes to Irish football?

We have 10 times the population and we know, yet if we were playing the Netherlands these days we would have been beaten before we went out onto the pitch.

Sorry for the rant but watching teams all over Europe coming up with results that we should be aiming for and we have the cheek to call them minnows.

Congratulations to the Icelanders!

[DeLorean]

I don't believe we're beaten before we go on the pitch at all. We've had one poor campaign where we got our arses handed to us by the world champions to be. Before that we were drawing with Russia, Italy, France, etc. Fair enough a really big win has elluded us for a long time but we've held our own for the most part, certainly not beaten before we've gone on the pitch anyway.

[BonnieShels]

DeLorean, you and myself and many others here don't feel that way generally. But there has been this creep over the last decade from the media and Joe Public and of course certain managers.

But then you have our gormless leader consistently weighing us down with an attitude that clearly has no place in charge of a National association.

When you see the likes of Bosnia getting to World Cups and the likes of clubs from Slovenia getting to Champions Leagues you have to wonder where the sense of ambition is at all.
Germany tanked us in the last campaign. But that's not at all what I'm getting at, the 6-1 was a freak but it was the result of an attitude that has infested us.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Can that Iceland result finally shut this ****** of "big countries" v "small countries" argument when it comes to Irish football?

We have 10 times the population and we know, yet if we were playing the Netherlands these days we would have been beaten before we went out onto the pitch.

Sorry for the rant but watching teams all over Europe coming up with results that we should be aiming for and we have the cheek to call them minnows.

Congratulations to the Icelanders!

Fantastic result, but we all know why Irish soccer struggles...at times...the competition with numerous other sports is the main issue, plus the coaching, domestic league, development of players etc. The fans 'expectations' is only a small factor.

Am convinced the cod-eaters success is just cyclical with a pool of good players, enjoy it while it lasts, but it won't be for ever. But good luck for now...

[BonnieShels]

We all know why but for too long we have put up with the "small country" excuse. Over the last 3 years with Iceland's (and others) results it has shown that organisation and will are what we require. We have neither. I'm tired of it.

[osarusan]

Result of the night of course goes to the plucky minnows from Iceland, beating Latvia 3 nil away.

"3 nil ..,, we only win 3 nil"

Though with nearly 70% possesion and stringing together about 600 passes, "we" were in a process of resigning ourselves to a possible nil nil drab draw until this stunning goal from fleet of foot Gylfi Sig, for the first.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27ozs0_goal-sigurdsson-latvia-0-1-iceland-10-10-2014_sport

And they followed it up with a fantastic win over Holland (who look pretty shaky so far). Fantastic start to their campaign - what's it being attributed to?

Is this the result of some restructuring/refocusing which took place in Icelandic football, or is it because a number of good players happened to be coming through at the same time?

[DeLorean]

Depends who you ask :)

That Sigurdsson is a seriously underrated player. I always thought he did well when he was played at Tottenham but found it difficult to nail down a place for some reason. This goal kind of sums him up, given the lack of attention it got. We would have never heard the end of it had it been Rooney or Gerrard.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxf_s2XP6DM

[DeLorean]

Did anybody see Gareth Bale's reaction at the final whistle last night? Great to see such passion from a guy who could see himself as having more important things going on. His assist for Robson-Kanu's goal was top class also.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWcH2_GT1Hw

[geysir]

Gylfi's a total midfield player, a class act in any of the midfield roles, the team can be adjusted by just moving him from back, to the middle to a more forward role.
On the night , Holland had just one chance, the major part in the victory was keeping Robben at bay all night. apart from that one gilt edge header. Robenn was under pressure constantly and usually was forced pass the ball back.
Lagerback picked an attacking team but they couldn't retain the ball like usual in the face of relentless Dutch pressure, until the last quarter of the game. So defensively magnificent, but work to do holding onto possession and playing the ball out.

And they followed it up with a fantastic win over Holland (who look pretty shaky so far). Fantastic start to their campaign - what's it being attributed to?

Is this the result of some restructuring/refocusing which took place in Icelandic football, or is it because a number of good players happened to be coming through at the same time?
There have always been two or three class player in every generation, like Gylfi Thor now, like Eidur Gudjonsson and his father before him, it's the rise in quality of the rest of the team players that is making the difference.
That rise in quality is mainly down to reaping the benefits from totally overhauling coaching structures, a revolution of sorts, in the way football was to be coached and played.This was done through the clubs and had its beginnings not with the FA but with enterprising ex-pros returning home who needed to eek out a living in the summer of 2001.
Also Indoor stadiums were built, meant football could be played an coached, morning noon and evening 12 months in the year.
The general standard of players that are being produced are technically better than of old. For instance, last night, Lagerback selected a young local league player, Jon Dadi nr 22, ahead of a striker who was the top scorer in the Eredvisie last season. He was the the player who was subbed around the 90th minute to the loudest ovation of the night.
And tonight the u21s play the 2nd leg of their Euro play-offs.

[pineapple stu]

Serbia v Albania abandoned after 40 minutes when Albanian fans - who were supposedly banned - flew in a drone carrying the Albanian flag and a map of Kosovo. Seems a Serbian player tore the flag down, and the Albanian players started on-pitch fights as a result. A few fans joined in, and the game was called off.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2792953/serbia-vs-albania-suspended-martin-atkinson-banned-fans-use-drone-fly-flag-pitch-leading-violet-scenes-belgrade.html

SGs3RcoitqU

[osarusan]

What a start by Northern Ireland. A 2-0 win away to Greece leaves them with 3 wins from 3 games.

[BonnieShels]

Awful isn't it Osa.

[osarusan]

Serbia v Albania abandoned after 40 minutes when Albanian fans - who were supposedly banned - flew in a drone carrying the Albanian flag and a map of Kosovo. Seems a Serbian player tore the flag down, and the Albanian players started on-pitch fights as a result. A few fans joined in, and the game was called off.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2792953/serbia-vs-albania-suspended-martin-atkinson-banned-fans-use-drone-fly-flag-pitch-leading-violet-scenes-belgrade.html


not really funny, kind of surreal, but here's an Albanian using a mascot's head for protection leaving the field. The other players had no such luck finding protection.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78226000/jpg/_78226137_serbia-albania_ap.jpg

[Closed Account 2]

Guardian is saying the drone was launched by the albanian presidents brother from the vip box:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/14/serbia-albania-euro-2016-flag-halted

[pineapple stu]

not really funny, kind of surreal, but here's an Albanian using a mascot's head for protection leaving the field. The other players had no such luck finding protection.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78226000/jpg/_78226137_serbia-albania_ap.jpg
Looking at the video (http://balls.ie/football/video-serbia-v-albania-abandoned-flag-carrying-drone/), it seems that actually is the mascot.

[osarusan]

Awful isn't it Osa.
Couldn't really care about it.

They're just another team like Wales whose results only stand out if they're particularly good or bad.

[BonnieShels]

If O'Shea hadn't equalised I would have been annoyed. As it stands I don't care. :)

[geysir]

I don't mind the North doing well in football, during the night at some stage, the news did filter through a haze of beer fumes, nerves, anger, disgust and finally rapture, that they had beaten Greece, but that would have been no consolation if we had lost our game. When they were getting humped left right and centre, from Reykjavik to Thorshavn to Luxembourg, they were just a sight for sore eyes.
But ff to O'Neill for getting that best away qualification result in ages, that alone is enough to justify beating a lambeg sized drum about. Strange that the O'Neills are finally ruling Irish football.

[Gather round]

I don't mind the North doing well in football, during the night at some stage, the news did filter through a haze of beer fumes, nerves, anger, disgust and finally rapture, that they had beaten Greece, but that would have been no consolation if we had lost our game. When they were getting humped left right and centre, from Reykjavik to Thorshavn to Luxembourg, they were just a sight for sore eyes.
But ff to O'Neill for getting that best away qualification result in ages, that alone is enough to justify beating a lambeg sized drum about. Strange that the O'Neills are finally ruling Irish football

Steady on lad, rapture? How would you have reacted to a win? :eek:

I think we scraped a draw in Torshavn last time to be fair.

Anyway, impressive continuing results for your boys. You mentioned upthread indoor facilities around the country, does this mean lots of five-a-side pitches or something bigger?

[geysir]

Steady on lad, rapture? How would you have reacted to a win? :eek:

I think we scraped a draw in Torshavn last time to be fair.

Anyway, impressive continuing results for your boys. You mentioned upthread indoor facilities around the country, does this mean lots of five-a-side pitches or something bigger?
Bigger, they are multi sport complexes with a fifa standard, 105 x 68m size pitch, with 2,000 seats and the standing room. Altogether there are 6 indoor stadiums in the country, 2 of them in the Reykjavik area with clubs making plans for another 3.
The playing surface is often split for 2 x 7 a side cross field pitches. No need to be a member of anything, you just phone and book an available time, It costs €50 an hour for a 5 or 7 a side and €100 p/h for the full pitch. Throughout winter the schools use them nonstop for competition etc, you can imagine the difference it makes. We are the envy of the Faroese.

[DannyInvincible]

Strange that the O'Neills are finally ruling Irish football.

The O'Neills have ruled Irish football before (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrone_GAA#Honours). :p

[BonnieShels]

I don't mind the North doing well in football, during the night at some stage, the news did filter through a haze of beer fumes, nerves, anger, disgust and finally rapture, that they had beaten Greece, but that would have been no consolation if we had lost our game. When they were getting humped left right and centre, from Reykjavik to Thorshavn to Luxembourg, they were just a sight for sore eyes.
But ff to O'Neill for getting that best away qualification result in ages, that alone is enough to justify beating a lambeg sized drum about. Strange that the O'Neills are finally ruling Irish football.

I do. Seems my dislike has grown with age. When I was younger I felt a certain affinity to 'em but nowadays nah... Love to see them beaten. To be fair it would be class if both qualified for France and even in the same group, as unlikely as it would be.

[Charlie Darwin]

Depends who you ask :)

That Sigurdsson is a seriously underrated player. I always thought he did well when he was played at Tottenham but found it difficult to nail down a place for some reason. This goal kind of sums him up, given the lack of attention it got. We would have never heard the end of it had it been Rooney or Gerrard.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxf_s2XP6DM
To be fair, Sigurdsson is a once in a generation (or two) player who would have been brilliant regardless. We have our corollary in Robbie, or his brother Roy before him. As geysir alluded to, the difference the Icelandic system has made is that he has functional players around him that mean his individual brilliance can shine, much like Ibra in Sweden.

[geysir]

The O'Neills have ruled Irish football before (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrone_GAA#Honours). :p
That would be the inbred tribe of O'Neills, primeval savages who cursed the modern game with their cynical version of how the game should be played. A far distant relation to honourable O'Neills, so far as to be a different tribe altogether.

[Stuttgart88]

Whatever about Michael O'Neill's brilliance, it doesn't reflect well on Billy McKinley! He leaves, they win every game!

[DannyInvincible]

Here's the Serbian football association's (pretty comical) official statement in response to the events in Belgrade the other night: http://www.fss.rs/index.php?id=3021&aid=6227

Not only is it full of faux-virtuous c*ck and bull, it seriously reads like they've translated it into pidgin English using Google Translate.


After last night's UEFA EURO 2016 Group I qualifier between Serbia and Albania (0:0, 41st minute, FK Partizan Stadium, Belgrade) abandonment, Football Association of Serbia is issuing the following

PRESS RELEASE

Football Association of Serbia is expressing regret that the match between Serbia and Albania did not finish in a sports manner, as a very important event of two countries' best teams should have.

In atmosphere that has not been seen for a long time in Serbia, with support of fans acting like one, Serbian National team players, with their good game, were heading towards an important victory on their way to France 2016. Unfortunately, because of a provocation from the opponent's side, started by entering a flag of non-existing so-called "Great Albania" that as such offends feelings of all citizens of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece, with help of a drone that came from outside of the stadium, and that was continued by inappropriate scenes on the pitch, the match was not finished in the usual way and therefore our national team players lost chance to show who was better and of more quality in a fair, sportsmanlike and chivalrous contest.

At this moment we do not want to deal with presumptions about the final solution. We do emphasise that while preparing this match we were in constant touch with all appropriate and relevant state authorities.

However, we would like to inform domestic and foreign public about certain undisputable facts regarding last night's match between Serbia and Albania:

1. Match suspension was in the 41st minute, upon appearance of the mentioned flag that came from outside of the stadium, carried by a drone and as such found itself in the space foreseen for the game. Appearance of the object is a well-planned political diversion. It will turn out that it was the only and key reason for definite abandonment of the match that came later on. Referee Martin Atkinson stopped the match, expecting for the object to be removed. The act that the referee stopped the match was a clear sign that it had to be removed immediately. At one moment, Serbian player Stefan Mitrović managed to catch the flag and, as it can be clearly seen on all the footages, started to fold it as calmly as possible, in order to give it to the fourth official and for the match to be continued. Absolutely all of the Serbian players and officials on the bench were in their seats, calm and without any attempt to show force or rage because of the incident. However, Albanian players acted very aggressively and physically attacked Mitrović.

2. By this way FA of Serbia would like to thank to enormous number of supporters present at the stadium, who remained in their seats and behaving as they did, contributed for the mentioned nationally and politically based provocation not to end with tragic consequences. Unfortunately, individuals who entered the pitch succumbed to the provocation and wanted only one thing - to remove the mentioned flag. Regardless understanding we have, we must not tolerate such an act and FA of Serbia will press charges against them, all in accordance with the law, legal regulations and obligations, and after reviewing footage of security cameras. Furthermore, the same procedure will be started against a person who broke into the Radio Television Serbia studio and sent offensive messages to the Prime Minister of Republic of Serbia.

3. What came next were moments of acting in crisis circumstances. Forming a group of appropriate officials and being familiar with all steps and rules, members of the FA of Serbia took part in UEFA meetings in the best possible way. We declare under full responsibility that the match referee and the match delegate made a decision for the match to be continued. FA of Serbia and our representatives accepted that, but unfortunately not the people from the Albanian FF and their national team.

4. Wanting only football game to be the winner, we proposed the following options foreseen by the relevant regulations to the delegate, referees and Albanian FF:

- For the match to be continued according to the decision of the referee and delegate - Albanian FF refused that

- For the match to be continued after emptying the stands - Albanian FF refused that

- For the match to be postponed and played on Wednesday, 15th October 2014 - Albanian FF refused that

For every of the proposed options FA of Serbia had full support of all relevant authorities - match referees, match delegate and other match officials.

Proposals had also been refused by the highest officials of the Albanian FF and also by their team captain Cana who was present on behalf of their national team.

Further to all the above, referee Atkinson told our captain Branislav Ivanović to take the team to the pitch and therefore show decisiveness of Serbia to play, which was done accordingly.

After few consultations with his teammates, Albanian team captain Cana officially confirmed that Albania did not want to continue with the match, out of reason that some of the players were mentally unfit at that moment.

Referee Atkinson informed the present people that there were four remaining minutes of the game in the first half and up till then already defined two minutes of additional time.

5. FA of Serbia emphasise that before and during the played part of the match, and also after the match was abandoned neither any of the Albanian flags had been burnt nor there had been any banners with inappropriate content. Furthermore, we strongly stress the fact that at all times safety was guaranteed to every member of the Albanian FF delegation.

Events that happened during the match and that resulted in the match to be abandoned have shown us one incredible synchronisation of the whole event that had only one aim - to cause abandonment of the match in Belgrade! And let us immediately stress that Football Association of Serbia has never evaded responsibility, that is not our intention now, but for the truth and justice we will not and do not want to allow the perpetrators who violated football to present themselves as victims.

It is a scandalous fact that the other party, with their "job well done" is ridiculing not only FA of Serbia and Serbian people but also, we dare to say, UEFA. Starting with the person detained for questioning who operated the drone with the flag of "Great Albania", the flag that offends not only Serbian citizens, but also people of Greece, Montenegro and FYR Macedonia, to those who now boast they had brought that drone to Belgrade and display photos on social networks. It is devastating and also easily seen through that even the Albanian Prime Minister himself spoke, he, whose brother allegedly was directly responsible for taking the drone into the stadium! Now we ask: how the world, many politicians, EU and UEFA representatives would react if such a crazy, shameless scenario was to happen in Albania and directed by our "officials"? Also, do not forget organised festivities in the countries of the region after the last night's match was abandoned, when the mentioned flag and abandoned match were celebrated. Those events are in favour of the idea of the FA of Serbia for both matches between Serbia and Albania to be played without guest supporters.

Because of all that, FA of Serbia strongly condemn scenes of violence at the FK Partizan stadium, but also football being shamefully politicized, what is contrary to all UEFA and FIFA regulations and what is the main reason of the match being abandoned. Football Association of Serbia also request from UEFA disciplinary bodies to react as in the Genoa case and act according to the same criteria.

We welcomed our guests from the Albanian FF in the best possible way. Because of that, we are truly worried by the fact that, after decision of the match officials (delegate and referee) for the match to be continued, they did not do anything for that to happen. They simply took UEFA rules in their own hands interpreting them as they preferred. According to that, we estimate that they are directly guilty for the match abandonment and we expect that UEFA disciplinary bodies will register the match with 3:0 result, in favour of Serbia.

At the same time, we warn UEFA that, sadly, something like this can also happen on other stadiums all around Europe and future safety measures should also foresee this new "Albanian way" of acting against football and all parties involved.

Summarizing all, FA of Serbia are aghast by the seen provocation and are afraid that this is scenario of a terrorist action planned in advance, above all directed against interests of our country, Republic of Serbia.

[Charlie Darwin]

At this moment we do not want to deal with presumptions about the final solution.
The mask always slips, doesn't it?

[Cymro]

Very unexpected start to qualifying. I watched the RoI-Germany match on Tuesday, and fair play it was great spirit by you to get the point at the end, but Germany, for a side who have just won the World Cup, were astonishingly mediocre I thought, creating maybe three decent chances in the whole 90 minutes. Maybe because they seem to have lost half their players. Could not recognise many of the names. Podolski was on the bench and should have started, he made a difference when he came on. Loew seems to be taking qualification for granted and trying out fringe players I'd say. Very un-German.

The Dutch are also struggling and would be in real trouble at this point under the old format. Iceland look good to qualify either outright or through the play-offs. I wouldn't fancy them if Wales played them in the play-offs, even though we did win against 3-1 in a friendly a few months ago.

Northern Ireland have made an utterly unpredictably astonishing start. I could maybe have forseen the win in Hungary, and obviously home win v. Faroes, but Greece? Pressure will be when they have to go and attack at home against the likes of Romania, Hungary etc., and of course I wouldn't rule out a defeat in the Faroes as NI seem to lose or draw against a 'minnow' in every group. Other than that though, NI have a great chance of qualifying outright never mind through the play-offs. That is a very good group to be in and the other teams will all take points off each other. NI just need to keep it together now.

The 'home nations' and RoI are all looking good to qualify, but somehow, I have a nasty feeling we'll be the only ones missing out and watching on the telly. Why do I feel this way? I am a Welsh football fan and from past experience there are three things certain in life: death, taxes, and agonising defeat for Wales.

Here's hoping I am wrong!

[pineapple stu]

In atmosphere that has not been seen for a long time in Serbia, with support of fans acting like one, Serbian National team players, with their good game, were heading towards an important victory on their way to France 2016.
Heading towards an important 0-0 home win?

Fair dues.

Can't argue with the bit about the Albanian players' reaction in fairness; utter stupidity.

If the bit about the Albanian officials refusing to play under any of the circumstances offered is true, the match could well be forfeit in Serbia's favour.