QuoteMontenegro: The Dangerous Newcomers to the International Party
Montenegro might be ranked 143rd in the world but they shouldn't be underestimated
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...&feed=football
World Cup Qualifying Group 8
Thread for news discussion about the group and our opponents (instead of having a million different Georgia/ montengro/Italy etc threads) Please add news about squad selection, injuries, results etc etc
Fixtures:
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Cyprus v Italy 19:45
Georgia v Rep of Ireland 17:00
Montenegro v Bulgaria 19:00
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Italy v Georgia 19:50
Montenegro v Rep of Ireland 18:00
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Bulgaria v Italy
Georgia v Cyprus
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Georgia v Bulgaria
Italy v Montenegro
Rep of Ireland v Cyprus
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Rep of Ireland v Georgia
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Cyprus v Georgia
Montenegro v Italy
Rep of Ireland v Bulgaria
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Bulgaria v Cyprus
Georgia v Montenegro
Italy v Rep of Ireland
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Bulgaria v Rep of Ireland
Cyprus v Montenegro
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Bulgaria v Montenegro,
Cyprus v Rep of Ireland
Georgia v Italy
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Italy v Bulgaria
Montenegro v Cyprus
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Cyprus v Bulgaria
Montenegro v Georgia
Rep of Ireland v Italy
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Bulgaria v Georgia
Italy v Cyprus
Rep of Ireland v Montenegro
Last edited by boovidge; 03/09/2008 at 7:03 PM.
Montenegro: The Dangerous Newcomers to the International Party
Montenegro might be ranked 143rd in the world but they shouldn't be underestimated
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...&feed=football
Excellent - do you happen to have the kick off times?
only the times for saturday and wednesday so far.Originally Posted by mjpcc
Cannavaro ready for Azzurri return
Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro claims he is fit and ready to lead the defending champions as they begin their World Cup qualifying campaign against Cyprus on Saturday.
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2008/...annavarof.html
Must pick up 6 pionts from first two.
For what it's worth Georgia's only injured first teamer is a defensive midfielder called Jaba Kankava who's out with a broken ankle. A regular for Dnipro who are a decent team.
I'm surprised how weak the Bulgaria team looks based on the clubs the players are playing for (their club's most recent league finish in brackets):
GK Dimitar Ivankov (Bursaspor, 13th Turkey)
LB: Alexandar Tunchev (Leicester City, 22nd English Championship)
CB: Lucio Wagner (Levski Sofia, 2nd Bulgaria)
CB: Igor Tomasic (Maccabi Tel Aviv, 6th Israel)
RB: Stanislav Manolev (Litex Lovech, 3rd Bulgaria)
CM: Stanislav Angelov (Energie Cottbus, 14th Germany)
CM: Stilian Petrov (Aston Villa, 6th England)
AM: Velizar Dimitrov (Metalurg, 12th Ukraine)
AM: Martin Petrov (Manchester City, 9th England)
AM: Zdravko Lazarov (Shinnik Yaroslavl, 1st Russian 2nd division)
FW: Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham Hotspur, 11th England)
Berbatov's gone to united now
"Failure to Prepare. Prepare to Fail"
Roy Keane
The Bulgars are most impressive going forward, and its defensively where we are possibly weakest. It will be interesting.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Full Bulgarian squad:
Goalkeepers: Dimitar Ivankov (Bursaspor), Stoyan Kolev (Otelul Galati)
Defenders: Alexandar Tunchev (Leicester City), Valentin Iliev (Terek Groznyi), Zhivko Milanov (Levski Sofia), Stanislav Manolev (Litex Lovech), Igor Tomasic (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Lucio Qagner (Levski Sofia), Ivan Ivanov
(CSKA Sofia).
Midfielders: Stilian Petrov (Aston Villa), Stanislav Angelov (Energie Cottbus), Stanislav Genchev (Vaslui), Chavdar Yankov (Hanover 96), Velizar Dimitrov (Metalurg Donetsk), Blagoy Georgiev (Slavia).
Strikers: Dimitar Berbatov (Man United), Martin Petrov (Manchester City), Zdravko Lazarov (Shinnik Yaroslavl), Dimitar Rangelov (Energie Cottbus), Ivelin Popov (Litex Lovech).
On Paper(bar Petrov and Berbatov) I think Montenegro look better. We really should be getting second in this group. Yes I'm biased, but I think if a neutral compared our squad to them, they would say we look better.
Some might say we have players playing in the Championship, but in reality a lot of those players would jump at the opportunity to play in the Championship. Also I would say Doyle and Hunt are among the top 5 players in the Championship.
Bulgaria do have alot more experience of qualifying for tournaments (i think i read 5 world cups)
We should be careful not to do a "dunphy" and claim their players are rubbish because we havent heard of them.
They last qualifed for a tournament in 2004 though. I don't think they qualifed for the 2002 world cup, but I'm probably wrong.
Do you think experience of qualifying for the 1994 world cup for example actually has any effect on their modern day players?
However I will say they got 25 points in their last campaign, 8 more than us. Their points tally indicates they are better than us but in fairness I think we were in a tougher group.
psychologically, qualification might look like less of a hurdle. I'm sure their fans expect a second place finish.
Last edited by boovidge; 04/09/2008 at 8:53 PM.
Yeh they were 1 point behind Holland in their last group and had the same group of players as they currently do so I won't be writing them off. If anything they'll do better than their last campaign as the players should know each other inside out.
Off-topic but have you seen Hollands stats for their last campaign?
They scored like 15 goals...so much for open attacking play.. Its strange because their defence is just good, while their attacking players are very good.
did anyone see N. Ireland v Bulgaria last season?? I wasnt impressed one little bit with Bul....they were absolute RUBBISH at the back...the other main thing i noticed was absolutely everything went through Petrov...straight out to the wing to him each time. thnk god FInnan is back.
Bulgaria, Montenegro and Cyprus are very similar, like to attack but not defend, we need a solid defence to cope with attacking mentality and try to hit them on break at least in the away games.
I think thats the case for every team in this group
Bulgaria had the best defensive record out of all the teams in the group, including Italy, who scored the most goals out of everyone in the group.
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