Euro qualifying thread

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 and here

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

while Wales scraped past Andorra and then lambasted the plastic pitch

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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

Yeovil will be furious.

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.

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.

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

What on earth was Casillas doing?

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

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

Slovakia 2-1 Spain

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

What on earth was Casillas doing?

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How on earth is he still playing!!!

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

They're lucky the top two go through automatically.

edit: 1-1 now!

Cracking finish to Wales v Bosnia. What an atmosphere.

Redevelop Dalymount now!

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/x27...-10-2014_sport

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.

http://www.goal.com/en-ie/news/3908/...s?ICID=HP_BN_7

The ego is still running wild after all these years.

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 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.

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

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.

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

The world's gone mad...

Raheem Sterling asked to 'sit out' England Euro 2016 qualifier

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.