Qualification groups are supposed to eliminate the weaker teams so that the final ones have the best. It kinda kills the point to make half of them go through.
Well, if you have a EC with 24 teams that's what happens. There are 53 member countries in UEFA and 24 (45%) of them will be present at the EC.
Laaaaaaaame.
I guess Platini just wanted the extra money for tv rights.
Well i have no issue with expanding the European cup, and by the looks of it, its not like those "weaker" teams, cant compete at all.
just look at the Groups, you will find the suposed favorite teams strugling for the first places.
btw Greece is officialy out.
Still finals are finals, for the best. If a top team goes out in qualifiers, too bad for them, good for the weaker teams who perform better and qualify...
So we now have more of them! I realy dont see what is the problem. I mean it would be an issue if "lesser" teams werent able to compete... but that doesnt seem to be the case. Look at iceland, Wales, even Albania. I supose that would be a problem if in the finals the quality gap was to be very big. But from what i seen in the qualifiers... yeah. Only Germany seems to be faring realy good. I guess The euro would come up with a longer and bigger competition.
That said it seems to make qualification easier. For those who can compete anyway.
bloody hell... Estonia 1, Lithuania 0
deserved win, but damn, one of most intense and even matches i've seen for a while- even despite the fact Estonia had better chances. And what a goal.. Lithuanian defenders caught completely off-guard
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Shocking display by our fullbacks gifted Switzerland the victory. Not that we desreved to win but losing when you had a 2-0 lead in the 80th minute is hard to accept.
Can't even bring myself to watch Wales tonight. We're going to be the only Home Nation to not qualify and the rest are going to get it automatically from the look of it.
Conbination of a group 2x as hard as the others (which we faced, at times, bravely tbf) and bottling it in the games we should win.
If we don't somehow get something against Germany there's basically no chance. We'll be lucky to get 3rd. If we do get 3rd Ireland should be kicking themselves. Between our crap performance in Dublin (in which we still would have won if not for poor officiating) and the Georgia game we've basically gifted them 3rd.
Last edited by Gatsby; September 06, 2015 at 10:54 AM.
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Randomly checking results, Netherlands already 2 goals behind in Turkey.
I already thought that if you end up behind Iceland and Czechs you don't deserve the finals, now it's 4th place. What's going on?
What the hell happened to the Netherlands? complete collapse after LVG left....
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Turkey 3 - Netherlands 0
yep....
The underdogs are realy doing nicely in this qualifiers.
Speaking of wich, i wouldnt be suprised if Portugal would end up losing in Albania. Portugal is playing like , and Albania has proved to be a contender for the first place, of the group. imo.
Netherlands should field more players from Sparta if they want to win.
Last edited by Sir Adrian; September 06, 2015 at 01:30 PM.
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As mad as I get at Scotland, the Dutch and the Greeks make me feel a bit better.
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All the Greeks' problems started when they named Ranieri as their coach, and it went downhill from there. At least their current coach is smart and is using a lot of youngsters to give them experience fro future qualifiers.
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Cyprus (o) - (1) Belgium summary : horrible and boring. Can't understand how this can happen. Maybe its just getting an art with the Belgian team, playing horrible but still winning the game.
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They're shite. I mean, if you look at the material on paper it's pretty meh for a country like the Netherlands but you should still be able to end top of your group, but the way they play is utter shite. There's no pace to the play, possesion is sacred. Risks are avoided and it's better to pass back to the defender than give a risky through ball on the winger. With Blind and Klaassen on your midfield you're guaranteed not to get a lot of forward passes, it's the Ajax method of playing it easy, slowly finding an opening and intending to score somewhere later in the game. Now Ajax manage to pull that off in the competition solely because most others teams are shite too but here something more is asked. Possesion play can work, see Barcelona or Spain a few years ago, but not if you're playing it the way the Netherlands do it. The country used to be known for great attacking football, now you're looking at a 90 minute passing exercise.
The problem with "possession play" is that its use by poor imitators has totally eroded its meaning.
To me, it means a focus on fast, short passing, with the ball on the ground, and constant movement to create overloads in dangerous areas and open the opposition. Out of possession, its all about good positioning to snuff out counter-attacks and frenetic pressing to win the ball back.
Thats how good possession teams play. The issue is teams like Manchester United, and others, with lacklustre personnel and coaching, trying to play that way.
Passing the ball around slowly between defenders and DMs whilst everyone else walks around aimlessly or too tied to their position and formation, isnt playing well with the ball, its basically time-wasting. If you want to have the ball for extended periods and still create good chances you need 9 guys running their guts out at all times to either offer themselves for an easy pass or make an attacking run that stretches the opposition, and the guy on the ball at any given moment needs to have the intelligence and ability to control the ball in tight spaces and make a quick, smart pass. Its the most demanding kind of football there is.
Too many teams these days have watched good possession teams like Guardiola's Barca and somehow taken the lesson that if they just lazily hold on to the ball, they will have a divine right to goals.
The Netherlands lack the players to play that way against well organised, international opposition. Even LVG knew that, and thats why he made the emphasis on a solid back 5 and quick counter-attacks.
Edit: If you look at this clip of Bayern playing City, they're obviously being careful with the ball, but thanks to their movement and decision making they still manage to create 3/4 dangerous situations around or in the box (against a packed defense) in 3 minutes, and only give City one chance to counter-attack, which is quickly stopped high up the pitch.
There are very few teams in the world that can play this way against top opposition, but many lesser teams think they can do it too.
Last edited by Gatsby; September 06, 2015 at 06:10 PM.
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