Midweek International Friendlies (26/03)

Vokes

Lots of international friendlies on tonight. Could be last chance for some fringe players to bring themselves into the reckoning for the various Euro 2008 squads.

Algeria v Congo DR, 16:30
Andorra v Latvia, 18:00
Armenia v Kazakhstan, 18:00
Austria v Holland, 19:30
Belarus v Turkey, 18:00
Belgium v Morocco, 19:45
Bosnia-Herzegovina v FYR Macedonia, 19:15
Bulgaria v Finland, 16:00
Colombia v Honduras, 23:30
Denmark v Czech Republic, 19:15
Egypt v Argentina, 19:00
Estonia v Canada, 16:00
France v England, 20:00
Ghana v Mexico, 20:00
Hungary v Slovenia, 17:00
Israel v Chile, 17:30
Lithuania v Azerbaijan, 17:00
Luxembourg v Wales, 19:15
Malta v Liechtenstein, 18:30
Montenegro v Norway, 18:30
Northern Ireland v Georgia, 19:45
Poland v USA, 19:30
Portugal v Greece, 19:45
Romania v Russia, 18:30
Scotland v Croatia, 20:00
Slovakia v Iceland, 19:15
South Africa v Paraguay, 17:00
Spain v Italy, 21:00
Sweden v Brazil, 19:45
Switzerland v Germany, 19:45
Tunisia v Ivory Coast, 20:00
Ukraine v Serbia, 17:00

Will also be interesting to see how our group rivals get on. Haven't seen Montengro play before - so will be looking to catch the highlights. Italy / Spain game might be decent.

I'll be at the Brazil / Sweden game which is a 50th anniversary match (sort of) of the WC in '58, so naturally I'll be supporting whomever has the better looking set of female fans :cool:

shane86

Superb 3rd goal by the Nordies tonight (first was decent. Missed the 2nd as I temporarily channel hopped to see some lad singing Bob Marley on a TG4 X Factor type yoke )

The 4th goal was plain wtf happened there!

Georgia are not the team I saw beat the Scots 2-0. They were even beaten at home by Latvia recently. If they replicate their form v Scotland we wont get more than a point. Continue this downward slip and we will get all six.

Montenegro beat Norway. Norway are no great shakes, but confirms what I thought, we have drawn a potential tough team that are 6th seeders by default*


Exira and delirah to see Capello beaten. I dont like the guy. He is overrated and overhyped, the English tabloids will have their tails between their legs tomorrow.


*: that just reminded me actually. Presumably any new country are seeded 6th by default. Out of curiousity, when Germany reunited were they seeded 6th in their next group in the early 90s, technically being a new country?

Necronomicon

Montenegro 3-1 Norway

Hmmmm........

dsmythy

shane86 wrote: »

*: that just reminded me actually. Presumably any new country are seeded 6th by default. Out of curiousity, when Germany reunited were they seeded 6th in their next group in the early 90s, technically being a new country?

Interesting point actually. I'm guessing they just took over from where West Germany where. Did they even have a ranking system back then though?

Mr. Presentable

shane86 wrote: »

Exira and delirah to see Capello beaten.. He is overrated and overhyped,

Scudetto: 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96 (Milan); 2000/01 (Roma), [2004/05, 2005/06 (Juventus) later removed]
Runner-up: 2001/02, 2003/04 (Roma)
UEFA Champions League: 1994 (Milan 4–0 Barcelona)
Runner-up: 1993 (Marseille 1–0 Milan) 1995 (Ajax 1–0 Milan)
European Super Cup: 1994 (Milan 2–0 Arsenal)
Supercoppa Italiana: 1992, 1993, 1994 (Milan); 2001 (Roma)
Runner-up: 2005 (Juventus)
Coppa Italia Runner-up: 1997/98 (Milan); 2002/03 (Roma)

Definitely overated, then.

Pepe LeFrits

Bendtner scored his seventh goal for Denmark tonight. He's now got more goals for his national team than for Arsenal...

PHB

Maybe, just maybe, it's Englands players who are overrated

Mr. Presentable

PHB wrote: »

Maybe, just maybe, it's Englands players who are overrated

That's a bit controversial.

dsmythy

Some interesting scores for me.

Montenegro's win shows us we can't expect 6 points of them like you would another team in their seeding.

The Austrians being 3-0 up but losing 4-3 to the Dutch is worrying for them for the Euros!

Greece beating Portugal 2-1 in Portugal shows to me they won't exactly be just handing over their crown without some sort of fight.

Malta 7-1 obviously a bit of a mad one.

The Poles got spanked 3-0 by the Americans in Poland! That's surprising.

Romania hammering the Russians. Makes you wonder about England. England's loss tonight doesn't really mean much i mean going to France and losing is not exactly the end of the world.

The German's murdering the Swiss is a bad sign for the other host nation in the Euros.

shane86

nipplenuts wrote: »

Scudetto: 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96 (Milan); 2000/01 (Roma), [2004/05, 2005/06 (Juventus) later removed]
Runner-up: 2001/02, 2003/04 (Roma)
UEFA Champions League: 1994 (Milan 4–0 Barcelona)
Runner-up: 1993 (Marseille 1–0 Milan) 1995 (Ajax 1–0 Milan)
European Super Cup: 1994 (Milan 2–0 Arsenal)
Supercoppa Italiana: 1992, 1993, 1994 (Milan); 2001 (Roma)
Runner-up: 2005 (Juventus)
Coppa Italia Runner-up: 1997/98 (Milan); 2002/03 (Roma)

Definitely overated, then.

OK, maybe I should have just said overhyped

I plain dont like the guy. As Ive said previously, assuming they make it I assume his hard nosed attitude will cost them. I dunno, dropping Rooney from the squad for the entire campaign for going on the piss the week before the tournament, something like that. He is a poor mans Jose. Christ, commitment my arse, he has been manager for over 4 months and doesnt have enough English to do a press conference ffs. Maybe my annoyance is just compounded by the whole media hype, the general "omg shush! Capello just sneezed, stop the presses" mentality.

PHB

All the players says he does coaching in English. Maybe hes smart enough to realise that nothing good can come from talking to the English press. Maybe he can keep feeding them this line so that they can't do **** all. Maybe the fact that the media thinks he is a good manager is actually a good thing for the team. Maybe he's playing the English press perfectly. Consider the fact that Beckhams 100th cap passed without a huge uproad is evidence of this.

Lots of maybes today

OPENROAD

shane86 wrote: »

Maybe my annoyance is just compounded by the whole media hype, the general "omg shush! Capello just sneezed, stop the presses" mentality.

Bit like when the Irish media hype up the Irish team.

PHB

Villa just scored an absolute screamer!

eZe^

Argentina beat Egypt 2-0 with a goal from El Kun, he's been on fire this season.


Thuram was quality today imo.


Edit- Villa you genius! I actually love Villa, definitely prefer him to Torres.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

What a volley from Villa!:eek:

Nunu

Watched the England game...my God they were shockingly poor:eek:
No invention at all.

France barely slipped out of first gear but still had all the nice touches in and around Englands 18 yard box. England were so predictable going forward - very easy to defend against.

Put €40 on Montenegro to beat Norway at 11/4;)

Eirebear

Decent result for Scotland tonight considering the weakened squad.

An Citeog

playa3 wrote: »

What a volley from Villa!:eek:

Cracking goal! Here it is for anyone that hasn't seen it: http://101greatgoals.magnify.net/item/X1YJSM0T5C6N06JL

Spain have an unbelievable team but they still lack a lot of cohesion. I don't think 4-4-2 suits them either. Iniesta was playing on the right wing tonight and although he was great when he got on the ball, he could be used so much more effectively. I really think they should try switching to a formation like that used by Barça. Here's the team I'd like to see them play at Euro 2008:

---

Casillas

---

Ramos---Puyol---AN Other---AN Other

---

Albelda/Senna/Alonso

---

---

Xavi

---

Fabregas

---

---Iniesta

---

Villa

---

---

Torres

---

Not sure who should partner Puyol. Maybe Pablo from Atletico or Capdevila who played reasonably well tonight. There are a few more options aswell. No real standout options at left back for me either but the midfield and forwards practically pick themselves. Depending on the opponent and on their relative form, one of Albelda, Senna or Xabi Alonso to anchor the midfield. Xavi and Fabregas are too good to leave out and Iniesta has been unreal this season. I think playing him as a wing forward would give him a lot more freedom and allow him to influence the game more. Torres and Villa pick themselves aswell. Then on the bench, you've got players like David Silva, Joaquin (who's been fairly poor this season), perhaps Capel, Tamudo, Güiza and a few others. They have the players to win the Euros but Aragones really needs to get them playing to their strengths.