Euro: Euro 2024 Qualifying

[TheGreenTBer]

I think it was deserved. Spain dominated possession but outside of a couple of chances didn’t trouble us. It was fairly comfortable by Scotland standards.

Biggest result since 2007? Has to be

Dominating possession but doing little, if any, of actual substance with the ball? Spanish football 101.

 

[Corto]

Dominating possession but doing little, if any, of actual substance with the ball? Spanish football 101.

It's not just the style of play, their starting 11 yesterday shouldn't scare anyone. Valencia, Bilbao, Espanyol, Osasuna, etc... Ceballos from RM (where he's basically the 6th choice in midfield, despite having a solid season) and Gavi/Carvajal coming from the bench - I think that was it from RM/Barca.
Rodri was there, no Olmo or Pedri.

Honestly, Spain is just on a bit of a slump when it comes to elite talent, and it's alright after enjoying years of Ramos/Xavi/Iniesta/Busquets/D. Silva/D. Villa/etc etc.

 

[Evilo]

It's not just the style of play, their starting 11 yesterday shouldn't scare anyone. Valencia, Bilbao, Espanyol, Osasuna, etc... Ceballos from RM (where he's basically the 6th choice in midfield, despite having a solid season) and Gavi/Carvajal coming from the bench - I think that was it from RM/Barca.
Rodri was there, no Olmo or Pedro.

Honestly, Spain is just on a bit of a slump when it comes to elite talent, and it's alright after enjoying years of Ramos/Xavi/Iniesta/Busquets/D. Silva/D. Villa/etc etc.

When a team like Spain feels the need to poach older players like Aymeric Laporte and Robin Le Normand, yeah, it smells like poor generation.

 

[maclean]

lol fair enough. None are all of the way back to their previous heights, but every time I catch one of your youth teams, you seem to consistently have a few kids that intrigue me for the clubs I support...and your NTs generally do a great job of moving the ball as a collective, even when they don't have the individual class to beat defenders 1-on-1 consistently.

Definitely lack the star power you had with Nedved, Rosicky, Koller, etc. when I was a kid...but maybe that's starting to change too with the likes of Hlozek & Schick?

Speaking of, how is Karabec doing this season? I caught him a couple of times last year (or maybe the year before) and liked what I saw.

Yeah, I mean don't get me wrong, I'm glad we finally seem to be pulling out of the malaise of the past... 15 years or so. But I still remain highly sceptical of our players, who seem to max out at a Bundesliga level (no offence?). Otherwise our players only seem to flirt with greatness, but never become complete stalwarts. Vaclík had a couple years in La Liga, Souček at West Ham, but both very much on that level of just-barely-starters (to say nothing of the fact that West Ham could still get relegated, plus who knows how Souček will get along with the new coach... oh wait they don't have one of those yet). I love Schick, in particular because he broke out with my local side Bohemians, but the kid's injured all the dang time. Hložek has promise, still needs to prove himself in my books though - he was one of the few players with a decent game against Moldova though. Majority of the team plays the Czech league and that didn't used to be the case.

I haven't really followed the current youth at all, but Karabec just missed a penalty shot against Netherlands the other day... Not getting a lot of A-team time with Sparta, but they've had a way too full roster for years now in their attempts to get back to the top. Generally speaking though, I've found that in the past period our promising youth players have tended to end up stumbling hard in taking that next step, let Fenin stand as a shining example.

 

[Ceremony]

I had genuinely heard of about five of that Spanish team. I don't exactly follow football to the extent I used to but there really wasn't much to them.

 

[cgf]

Yeah, I mean don't get me wrong, I'm glad we finally seem to be pulling out of the malaise of the past... 15 years or so. But I still remain highly sceptical of our players, who seem to max out at a Bundesliga level (no offence?). Otherwise our players only seem to flirt with greatness, but never become complete stalwarts. Vaclík had a couple years in La Liga, Souček at West Ham, but both very much on that level of just-barely-starters (to say nothing of the fact that West Ham could still get relegated, plus who knows how Souček will get along with the new coach... oh wait they don't have one of those yet). I love Schick, in particular because he broke out with my local side Bohemians, but the kid's injured all the dang time. Hložek has promise, still needs to prove himself in my books though - he was one of the few players with a decent game against Moldova though. Majority of the team plays the Czech league and that didn't used to be the case.

I haven't really followed the current youth at all, but Karabec just missed a penalty shot against Netherlands the other day... Not getting a lot of A-team time with Sparta, but they've had a way too full roster for years now in their attempts to get back to the top. Generally speaking though, I've found that in the past period our promising youth players have tended to end up stumbling hard in taking that next step, let Fenin stand as a shining example.

I hear what you mean. That's basically what happened to our 2000ers; very cohesive passers at the youth levels, but none of them successfully made the jump to senior football...with the only real success story from that age group being Burkardt; who wasn't a major NT factor before the U21 level.

Schick's health is definitely an issue and Hlozek is still developing...but I really like what he's flashed for Leverkusen so far. He's much more of an offensive all-around than Schick is, being a clever passer and having the technical skills to run with the ball through traffic, but he's also scored some pure-poacher goals for Leverkusen.

Feels like that could be a nearly perfect forward duo given how well their games should complement each other. Just need Karabec to hit and that could be a really fun attacking trident.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Iceland have sacked Arnar Vidarsson, they won their most recent qualifiers against Luxembourg but prior to that they went winless in their NL campaign and their only wins in 2022 were against San Marino and Venezuela. In fact their most recent win was their first competitive win since October 2021!

 

[HajdukSplit]

Age Hareide is the new manager of Iceland, notably he was recently the manager of Denmark and managed them at the 2018 World Cup and qualified them for Euro 2020 but was replaced after Covid cancelled the tournament and his contract expired. Last few years he's been working at the club level in Scandinavia (Rosenborg & Malmo)

 

[Jussi]

Finland take the lead vs Slovenia, Pohjanpalo from Pukki's low cross into the box.

 

[Jussi]

Pukki also assisted Oliver "Scott Lang" Antman for the second goal. 2-0 FT

Also really proud of the video they posted today:

 

[HeHateMeFrisbee]

Malta get battered everywhere they go! Malta get battered everywhere they go!

 

[HajdukSplit]

Wow Wales getting pummeled at home by Armenia and now down to 10. Ukraine came from two down in Skopje

 

[Ceremony]

Wales slithering back to the irrelevance they deserve. Good.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Wales slithering back to the irrelevance they deserve. Good.

One day IM going to figure out who you support internationally and club for that matter.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Ukraine complete the comeback, aided by a late Macedonian red card. Israel got a much needed win “away” at Belarus (neutral venue) to keep their campaign alive. Denmark conceded in the last seconds at home to Northern Ireland and are off to a relatively poor start in their group but that was is wide open

 

[HeHateMeFrisbee]

LOL @ Wales

 

[ScottishCanuck]

Denmark are a real chore to watch these days.

Peaked in WC qualifying and steadily been going downwards since

 

[HajdukSplit]

Crazy game in Riga, Latvia equalized in the 94th minute with 10-men but Turkey scored the next attack to win it in the 95th. Would have been too good for Croatia for both Wales and Turkey to drop points, but they face each other on Monday

 

[Ceremony]

One day IM going to figure out who you support internationally and club for that matter.

I'd say this page and the last make at least one of those quite obvious.

 

[karhukissa]

Finland take the lead vs Slovenia, Pohjanpalo from Pukki's low cross into the box.

FIN, SLO and NIR are the real candidates to go through behind Denmark, and Finland has already beaten both of them. Looking very good regarding qualification.

 

[Venkman]

Alexander-Arnold played in midfield and scored a beauty, nice pass for the first goal too. Eze made his debut off the bench.

 

[Ceremony]

Bet you'd be raging if you were Norwegian.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Scotland are basically 95% qualified as long as they win their home games

 

[Power Man]

lol Norway

 

[Power Man]

Scotland’s 2nd goal was really nice