Euro 2012 qualifiers

If he wanted to recall someone,why not Richards ?
CAPELLO: "Too talented and not old enough"
He could cover at both full back and centre back and is still young
CAPELLO: "Exactly! So what, now you want me to start applying logic to my selections? No chance!
I think international Managers are a different breed to club managers i.e. just becasue someone is highly successful at club management does in no way mean he will be at international level!
CAPELLO: "Now you tell me!"
.....7 goals in 73 matches wasnt it ?.......
CAPELLO: "What's that got to do with anything?" "It's hair splitting people like you that give me a bad name"
What do you think the Republic of Irelands chances are of qualifying?
DGPW. With Capello not being their manager, and Thierry Henry not in the mix, I think they will quaify 'hands down'
youd think two out of Switzerland,England and Bulgaria.
DGPW. Thats settled then; Bulgaria & Switzerland!
Oh, (off subject I know, so I'm running for shelter!),and keep your eyes and ears on master wheeler dealer our 'Arry, during the next twenty-four hours.
Have a serene & happy day.

some funny post there!

I think Irelands chances of Qualifying are quite good. Our Manager was in hospital for the last friendly but hes out now and fit thank god! I think we will qualify in 2nd place to Russia and edge out Bulgaria. It will be tight as we dont score alot of goals and thats not how the team is set up. We are missing 3 of our first team players with Damien Duff being the biggest name out for Friday. Its an away game also so I think the best we can look at for the first game 1s a draw and then we should win our 2nd on Tuesday at home in our new stadium in Lansdowne road!

The point is Dermott, no matter what team is put out, you can be absolutely certain, each and every player will wear their National shirt with pride, give nothing less than their total physical and emotional commmitment and play with joy in their hearts.
Even should the team fail, there will exist the certainty that each and every player gave of his best. Over many decades I never seen an Irish team perform any other way,( and never more so than when under the managership of 'whore Jackie', who gave them their golden years). When was the last time that could be said of an England side?
Incentally, I guarantee also, win or lose, none of the Irish players will have any energy left, or the inclination, to go night clubbing Friday night, or even organise a 'room visit'.
The above are just some of the reasons none of your players could hope to make it into the English squad (why would they want to!), and those same reasons are why I both think and hope they enjoy a successful European Cup run; so bringing to the competition a welcome breath of fresh air. Good luck to them.

Thanks DGPW, appreciate that!

You are correct about wearing the Jersey with pride! The one person who wont wear it, Stephen Ireland, has been told by most of the other players, including Richard Dunne his current team mate at Villa that he's not wanted back anyway! Pratt that he is!

It will be nice to see Ireland qualify and giving it all on the pitch in the Euros, very nice. I agree with your comments about England though, its one excuse after another and very dissapointing for anybody who follows English football! There are many reasons they didnt play well and if you dont know what they are, JUST ASK THEM, LOL!

Roll on Friday Night!

Friday, 3 September 2010 European Championship Qualifying
Andorra 0-2 Russia
Armenia 0-1 Rep of Ireland
Belgium 0-1 Germany
England 4-0 Bulgaria
Estonia 1-2 Italy
Faroe Islands 0-3 Serbia
France 0-1 Belarus
Greece 1-1 Georgia
Iceland 1-2 Norway
Kazakhstan 0-3 Turkey
Latvia 0-3 Croatia
Liechtenstein 0-4 Spain
Lithuania 0-0 Scotland
Luxembourg 0-3 Bosnia-Hercegovina
Moldova 2-0 Finland
Montenegro 1-0 Wales
Portugal 4-4 Cyprus
Romania 1-1 Albania
San Marino 0-5 Netherlands
Slovakia 1-0 FYR Macedonia
Slovenia 0-1 Northern Ireland
Sweden 2-0 Hungary

Mixed bag for the UK & Ireland sides.
England maybe yet another false dawn, but a win is a win.
Good starts for both the Irish sides.
Scotland disappointing as usual in competitions.
Wales a terrible result.

Real shocker for the new look France side though!!
Game of the night (by the score) Portugal v Cyprus.

Didnt see any of the games but a great result for Northern Ireland and an excellent win for the Republic of Ireland.
England....well,you cant argue with 4-0 but Switzerland away next week will be a much tougher task.
France....fast becoming a laughing stock....dont think there are many that will sympathise.

Too true on the France thing Zid. Although I feel a little sorry for Monsieur Blanc - he really never should have accepted the job under the circumstances. The French FA really deserve every bit of crap that comes their way though.
I notice (with a bit of dread) that the WC finalists both had a VERY comfortable start to the competition.

Well,Wayne Rooney answered his critics and mistresses in style with an excellent display and scored the opening goal as England had an impressive 3-1 win away in Switzerland.
Football sure is a funny old game.Who would have thought after their dire displays in the World Cup England would be capable of two such emphatic victories against their main Euro 2012 qualifying rivals.
And achieved without the likes of Terry,Lampard and Ferdinand in the side.It will be interesting to see if Capello plays any of those three if they are fit for the next match.
The Republic of Ireland beat Andorra 3-1 to maintain their 100% record.Not a great performance but a wins a win.
Scots fans wont know wether to laugh or cry after they scraped past the mighty Liechenstein 2-1 but,again,a wins a win,I suppose !

At last! A win for Scotland! We won 2 - 1 at home against he mighty Liechtenstein! OK - we only got the winner in the 7th minute of injury time, but the players must be so proud fighting back from a 1-0 deficit!

Tuesday, 7 September 2010 European Championship Qualifying
Albania 1-0 Luxembourg
Austria 2-0 Kazakhstan
Belarus 0-0 Romania
Bosnia-Hercegovina 0-2 France
Bulgaria 0-1 Montenegro
Croatia 0-0 Greece
Czech Republic 0-1 Lithuania
Denmark 1-0 Iceland
FYR Macedonia 2-2 Armenia
Georgia 0-0 Israel
Germany 6-1 Azerbaijan
Hungary 2-1 Moldova
Italy 5-0 Faroe Islands
Malta 0-2 Latvia
Netherlands 2-1 Finland
Norway 1-0 Portugal
Rep of Ireland 3-1 Andorra
Russia 0-1 Slovakia
Scotland 2-1 Liechtenstein
Serbia 1-1 Slovenia
Sweden 6-0 San Marino
Switzerland 1-3 England
Turkey 3-2 Belgium

No real shocks in match 2, except perhaps Bulgaria losing at home to Montenegro.
Good results by Ireland, Scotland & England.
Some heavy scoring by some of the 'better' sides.
FRANCE manage a win

Bulgarias manager has "stepped down", after their opening 2 defeats .......... defeat to Montenegro was one thing, but against England (now that was FAR to much for the Bulgarian FA to take !!)

Friday, 8 October 2010 European Championship Qualifying
Albania 1-1 Bosnia-Hercegovina
Andorra 0-2 FYR Macedonia
Armenia 3-1 Slovakia
Austria 3-0 Azerbaijan
Cyprus 1-2 Norway
Czech Republic 1-0 Scotland
Georgia 1-0 Malta
Germany 3-0 Turkey
Greece 1-0 Latvia
Hungary 8-0 San Marino
Kazakhstan 0-2 Belgium
Luxembourg 0-0 Belarus
Moldova 0-1 Netherlands
Montenegro 1-0 Switzerland
Northern Ireland 0-0 Italy
Portugal 3-1 Denmark
Rep of Ireland 2-3 Russia
Serbia 1-3 Estonia
Slovenia 5-1 Faroe Islands
Spain 3-1 Lithuania
Wales 0-1 Bulgaria

Not a very good evening for the British Isles sides.
England were probably lucky not to be playing going by the other results.
Northern Ireland the only ray of hope with a gritty nil niler at home to Italy. Italy still top the table & Estonia (after a great 3-1 away win against Serbia) remain second. However NI are only 2 points behind them & 3 behind Italy with a game in hand over both of them. A very tight table indeed in which few would have given NI a cats' chance in hell of impressing in..
The Republic will be gutted at losing 2-3 at home to Russia. They were done a favour though by Armenia who succeeded in a surprising 3-1 win over Slovakia. This leaves Russia, The Republic & Slovakia all heading the table on 6 points. Only lowly Andorra (yet to score a point) are really out of this contest as both Armenia & Macedonia are both on 4 points.
Scotland go down away from home 1-0 to Czech Republic but still manage to just about cling to second place. Spain eased to a home win against mighty Lithuania and are 2 points ahead in the table with a game in hand. Spain, at least appear to be heading for an easy qualification.
Wales go down at home to Bulgaria & also have not registered a point yet. Montenegro claim a 1-0 win against the also pointless (in more ways than 1 ) Switzerland to now top the group over England who did not play. The Tuesday game pits England at home to Montenegro. If England truly wish to make a showing in this competition then they need an impressive winning display in this game. A pathetic draw (or unthinkable loss ) will rightly put the manager under new & deserved pressure.
Norway continued their unbeaten start to the competition & are a massive 5 points clear. In the same group newly managed Portugal finally get their show on the road with a home win, but will need a series of great results to topple Norway.
Germany & Holland also carry on with impressive unbeaten starts to look pretty easy qualifiers...

Who's the Montenegro coach ....... Georgio Grahamic .......... ONE NIL to the Montenegro, ONE NIL

Maybe near Statto, but no banana...
Zlatko Kranjčar
His son, Nico, is currently at Spurs.
Montenegro has not had a Federation for very long (4 years ??) as, previously they were Serbia and Montenegro. In rather a surprise (to me at least) the Montenegro team seem to have eclipsed the Serbian national one rather.
Kranjčar has a pretty long club managerial record going back to 1991, after a pretty reasonable career as a striker in scoring just over 200 goals in his career.
I suspect that the Montenegro team will be well up for the England game. However if the current England side have any aspirations of playing to their FIFA standing then they should brush them aside pretty easily. I rather suspect that will not be the case though!!

Still reckon it might be worth a few bob on the correct score (0 - 1)