Euro 2012 Qualifiers

[Keystone Phil]

Wow. Northern Ireland was lucky to escape with a draw against the Faroe Islands. Even though it was only a tie, that will likely be the best result the Faroe Islands will see throughout qualification.

[Tender Branson]

Well, Azerbaijan did us a favor today by beating Turkey 1:0

The Belgium vs. Austria game starts in a few minutes, if we could beat them and then Turkey we´d have a good chance of being at the Euro 2012 ...

[Keystone Phil]

Serbian ultras attack Italian fans before the start of the game so we're in a delay. I doubt that they even play at this point which ought to mean a 3-0 forfeit by Serbia.

[Keystone Phil]

The game gets underway and the Serbian fans throw a flare onto the field. Unreal. Call the damn game!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wow. Northern Ireland was lucky to escape with a draw against the Faroe Islands. Even though it was only a tie, that will likely be the best result the Faroe Islands will see throughout qualification.

My point exactly.

[Keystone Phil]

3-0 per l'Italia!    Bye, Serbia.

...or they might "play later." What a disgrace.

[Tender Branson]

But Austria and Belgium have about the same strength, so I think it will be a draw. At least our team is not as bad anymore as it was ...

Has anyone seen that game ?

4:4

LOL, one of the weirdest games I´ve ever seen. Our goalkeeper with a huge parade, first fended off a shot by a Belgium striker 3 meter ahead of him, then a few seconds later again and then a couple seconds later touched the ball barely with this fingers so that it went to the goal crossbar.

Then Paul Scharner got a red card because of striking a Belgium player Zidane like with his head - 1m away from the English referee Dean.

The Englishman Dean was a quality of his own, almost stepping in never when there was a foul (he probably likes very rough games) ...

When Scharner saw red, Austria was leading 3:2, but then Belgium entered power-play mode and scored 2 goals. Austria looked beaten, but then Martin Harnik out of nowhere scored the equalizing goal with just 1 minute to go ...

Really great game !

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=299375&cc=5739

[Tender Branson]

Here is a cool video of the highlights of the Belgium adventure, with real ORF commentary !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiLSnNeBUFQ

[Keystone Phil]

I wouldn't exactly be happy with that result if I was a fan of Austria. 

[Lief 🗽]

That's the second 4-4 tie of the qualifiers so far! Nice to see after the low-scoring World Cup.

[Tender Branson]

I wouldn't exactly be happy with that result if I was a fan of Austria. 

Haha, well, all we have to do now is beat the Belgians after the winter @ home in Vienna.

Then we beat Azerbaijan and Kazhakstan and tie Turkey and lose against Germany.

Then I guess we should remain second ?!

[minionofmidas]

Here is a cool video of the highlights of the Belgium adventure, with real ORF commentary !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiLSnNeBUFQ

Just the goals, actually.

[Gustaf]

Obviously wasn't a good night to be a Swede.

Ah, well. We should still pull out the 2nd place.

[Hans-im-Glück]

Iceland 1, Portugal 3

I think Portugal is on a good way.Under Queiroz they only destroy the game , but now they are playing football.

In the German group all are playing for Germany. I will be a hard fight between Turkey, Belgium and Austria for the second place. In the moment I think Austria have good chances.

[GMantis]

Hm, Estonia loses 0-1 due to an own goal by a Russian? One might almost wonder whether this was an accident

[Keystone Phil]

Hm, Estonia loses 0-1 due to an own goal by a Russian? One might almost wonder whether this was an accident

Huh? Estonia isn't in Russia's group. 

[GMantis]

Hm, Estonia loses 0-1 due to an own goal by a Russian? One might almost wonder whether this was an accident

Huh? Estonia isn't in Russia's group. 

Russians in Estonia have not treated very well after 1991, so that's why I suggested (not very seriously) that it might not have been an accident. Of course, if he's a member of their team, he's probably well integrated, so this is very unlikely, but it's still rather ironic.

[Keystone Phil]

Hm, Estonia loses 0-1 due to an own goal by a Russian? One might almost wonder whether this was an accident

Huh? Estonia isn't in Russia's group. 

Russians in Estonia have not treated very well after 1991, so that's why I suggested (not very seriously) that it might not have been an accident. Of course, if he's a member of their team, he's probably well integrated, so this is very unlikely, but it's still rather ironic.

I don't get which team you're talking about though.

[Hash]

Hm, Estonia loses 0-1 due to an own goal by a Russian? One might almost wonder whether this was an accident

Huh? Estonia isn't in Russia's group. 

Russians in Estonia have not treated very well after 1991, so that's why I suggested (not very seriously) that it might not have been an accident. Of course, if he's a member of their team, he's probably well integrated, so this is very unlikely, but it's still rather ironic.

I don't get which team you're talking about though.

An Estonian player of Russian ancestry/ethnicity scored an own goal.

[Keystone Phil]

Hm, Estonia loses 0-1 due to an own goal by a Russian? One might almost wonder whether this was an accident

Huh? Estonia isn't in Russia's group. 

Russians in Estonia have not treated very well after 1991, so that's why I suggested (not very seriously) that it might not have been an accident. Of course, if he's a member of their team, he's probably well integrated, so this is very unlikely, but it's still rather ironic.

I don't get which team you're talking about though.

An Estonian player of Russian ancestry/ethnicity scored an own goal.

I figured but I didn't get the point at first. I thought he was saying the Estonian of Russian descent scored an own goal in a game against Russia to spite the Estonians.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

France.

The match has showed that now we have several possible good combinations for middle and attack. It still needs construction and automatisms, but something could be on its way...

And sometimes life is ironic to the point that after Romania we play Luxembourg.

From what I caught of the game (the last twenty or so minutes) the "new" French team really impressed me. Also seeing almost everyone in the stadium waving the tricolore was neat visually.

Damn it, they annoy me with that. For a very few years, each time there is a match in Stade de France, you can see all these very same French flags waved by so much people, would almost have a North Korean taste. IIrc it appeared a matter of time after Morocco and Tunisia played in Stade de France a few years ago, and there had been troubles during anthems, people booed the Marseillaise, and then politicians felts scandalized, that the anthem shouldn't be booed, etc. Seems spontaneous though, maybe since then they sell all those very same French flags for cheap close of the stadium, dunno...

Does the French team ever place home games outside of the Stade de France? Try spicing it up a little, guys.

Funny you said that precisely the day before France played in...Metz.

And yeah, France regularly plays outside of the Stade de France.

[Keystone Phil]

And yeah, France regularly plays outside of the Stade de France.

Regularly plays outside? Every recent home game I've seen highlights of showed them there.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

And yeah, France regularly plays outside of the Stade de France.

Regularly plays outside? Every recent home game I've seen highlights of showed them there.

Yeah, last ones were there. Hey we were in psychological troubles, he needed home sweet home. Unless it's an other explanation...

Tbh, before Metz I can't recall when was the last one outside of Stade de France. But there have regularly be some yeah, biggest other spots being Marseille and Lyon, but others as well, Saint-Etienne, Lens, Nantes, for some that can be regularly chosen, sometimes even rather small cities could have been chosen, and once there even have been one in the very small Breton city of Guimgamp. Far more rarely, and maybe only once, at least in my memory, it can happen in overseas territories.

Well, most of the games that are not in the main stadium of the country, or in the 2 other biggest (Marseille and Lyon), use to be either small qualifiers (Faroe in Guimgamp), or friendly matches (Costa-Rica in Martinique).

[Keystone Phil]

I'm dying without these qualifying matches and it's especially bad for an Azzurri fan since our last game was  suspended due to the Serbian Ultras (though I'm not complaining about an automatic 3-0 victory in our favor). Action starts up in late March but we had some news yesterday about Ukraine possibly being suspended, meaning there would be a new co-host - http://www.worldfootballinsider.com/Story.aspx?id=34112

There have been back up plans in place for awhile. I think I remember reading Hungary and Germany might  host some games if this happens which would be interesting. Of course, the whole tournament should just move to Italy since they were supposed to get it anyway but no, we can't have that. UEFA (and FIFA) have to continue to "make history" instead of picking decent hosts.

[minionofmidas]

There have been back up plans in place for awhile. I think I remember reading Hungary and Germany might  host some games if this happens which would be interesting. Of course, the whole tournament should just move to Italy since they were supposed to get it anyway but no, we can't have that.

Bit unfair on Poland?