The official MURC Euro2004 qualifications thread

[UtwigMU]

On Saturday the frist round of Euro qualifications kicked off. The final will take place in Portugal

http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/Euro2004/

For those unfamiliar with European soccer:
The qualifications will take place in ten groups consisting of five nations. The host (Portugal) and 10 winners will qualify automatically.

The 10 runners-up will play off 5 additional home and 5 aditonal away matches and 5 winners will qualify.

Here are the groups:

Group1 (played/score)
Slovenia (1 / 3)
France (1 / 3)
Israel (0 / 0)
Cyprus (1 / 0)
Malta (1 / 0)

Group2 (played/score)
Romania (1 / 3)
Norway (1 / 1)
Denmark (1 / 1)
Luxembourg (0 / 0)
Bosnia-Herzegovina (1 / 0)

Group3 (played/score)
Netherlands (1 / 3)
Austria (1 / 3)
Czech Republic (0 / 0)
Moldova (1 / 0)
Belarus (1 / 0)

Group4 (played/score)
Poland (1 / 3)
Sweden (1 / 1)
Latvia (1 / 1)
Hungary (0 / 0)
San Marino (1 / 0)

Group5 (played/score)
Germany (1 / 3)
Scotland (1 / 1)
Faroe Islands (1 / 1)
Iceland (0 / 0)
Lithuania (1 / 0)

Group6 (played/score)
Spain (1 / 3)
Ukraine (1 / 1)
Armenia (1 / 1)
Northern Ireland (0 / 0)
Greece (1 / 0)

Group7 (played/score)
Turkey (1 / 3)
England (0 / 0)
Liechtenstein (0 / 0)
F.Y.R. Macedonia (0 / 0)
Slovakia (1 / 0)

Group8 (played/score)
Bulgaria (1 / 3)
Croatia (1 / 1)
Estonia (1 / 1)
Andorra (0 / 0)
Belgium (1 / 0)

Group9 (played/score)
Italy (1 / 3)
Wales (1 / 3)
Yugoslavia (0 / 0)
Azerbaijan (1 / 0)
Finland (1 / 0)

Group10 (played/score)
Russia (1 / 3)
Albania (0 / 0)
Switzerland (0 / 0)
Georgia (0 / 0)
Republic of Ireland (1 / 0)

The notable (surprising) results:
Faroe Islands Scotland 2-2
Croatia Estonia 0-0
Latvia Sweden 0-0
Belgium Bulgaria 0-2
Armenia Ukraine 2-2

[UtwigMU]

Here are my predictions:
Group 1
Winner: France (they are still good, despite WC fiasco)
Runner-up: Slovenia, perhaps Cyprus or Israel
(We - Slovenes - have spanked Italy in friendly match 1-0 recently and renewed team is better than our WC team. We lost with France 2-3 in Paris a few years ago, taking the lead in 1st half)

Group 2
Danmark, Norway or Romania, It's a close call.

Group 3
Winner: Netherlands
Runner-up: Austria, maybe Czech republic

Group 4
Winner: Sweden
Runner-up: Poland

Group 5
Winner: Germany (perhaps future World champions)
Runner-up: Scotland

Group 6
Winner: Spain
Runner-up: Ukraine or Greece

Group 7:
Winner: England (Despite Turkey being 3d we have to know England was eliminated by Brasil in WC)
Runner-up: Turkey

Group 8:
Winner: Belgium
Runner-up: Bolgaria (Croatia is changing generations in their team, but there is a chance)

Group 9:
Winner: Italy
Runner-up: Yougoslavia

Group 10:
Winner: Russia, possibly Ireland
Runner-up: Ireland, possibly Russia (Switzerland couldn't cope with Russia in our WC qualifications group)

[lecter]

My predictions differ only a little:

Group 2: Romania (rulz! )&Denmark will go through, I think in this order...

Group 3: The Czechs will no doubt qualify, they have a truly
excellent team, which might even take the top spot from Holland (it really depends how well the Dutch work together, because if they work well they can become European champions without problems I think, their squad is fantastic)

Group 9: Don't count too much on Yugoslavia, they have big stars but their teamwork is crap, I see Wales or Finland with a pretty strong chance.

[UtwigMU]

How's Romanian team now? Who's the coach after Sacking Haji?
Haji was a good coach but as my Romanian friends told me there were problems in WC qualifications before he took the post and IMO he didn't have enough time to reorganize the team.

IMO you have good players, but is the team working?

[lecter]

The coach right now is Iordanescu again (the one who took us to the quarter finals in USA '94)...the team isn't all that good, but we're making progress, the players are quite young and they need to properly function as a team and get the star syndrom out of their heads, because they do have individual talent...I don't think there will be problems against Norway, but Denmark looks very dangerous. Before Hagi we had lost both games against Italy, but had proved to be quite strong in the other ones, I think that if Boloni wouldn't have gone to coach Sporting Lisbon we would've beat u guys Anyways, I don't think that Iordanescu is such a good choice for national team coach, I personally like Mircea Lucescu (Besiktas coach now) a lot.

[Tomasz]

Group 9: Don't count too much on Yugoslavia

Well stated: they looked pretty bad in their 5-0 friendly loss to the Czechs.

Being Polish, I'll mostly follow Group 4:
I'm just happy they drew a relatively winnable group:
San Marino has absolutely no quality and Latvia is pretty bad too. Hungary has a rich soccer history, and may be dangerous, but are definitely beatable. Sweden, although a good team, has looked pretty poor in a recent friendly against Russia and in their match against Latvia. Hopefully Poland can beat them like they beat Norway in World Cup Qualifying. However, Poland is a totally unpredictable team, especially now since their lineup is being constantly shuffled by Boniek after the World Cup Finals debacle. They have a solid goalkeeper, a few above-average strikers, and a respectable defense, but lack depth in the midfield (they have no real playmaker)...so we'll see what happens.

[UtwigMU]

Bump, post your Euro discussions here, will update you.

[Pace]

hehe, wee Scotland had a surprising result. I see your world champions only managed 1 better (beating the mighty Faroes 2-1). And then Wales go and do that to Italy, and England draw. Hohum. Any change of your predictions?

P.

[efty]

My prediction is that Cyprus will win the European Cap

I would be great if we go through but that is not likely.

[KeiFront]

Group 8:
Winner: Bolgaria (Croatia is changing generations in their team, but there is a chance)
Runner-up: Belgium

[The PIT]

I reckon England to come 2nd and have to qualify via the playoffs.

[UtwigMU]

Originally posted by eftychios
My prediction is that Cyprus will win the European Cap

I would be great if we go through but that is not likely.

Of course it's not likely. We are going to pwn you as well as Israel (yes Dogbert and Goldstein).

Then maybe not, our 5-0 defeat with france was the worse in national team matches history. Not so long ago we were leading France 0-2 in Paris at halftime and lost 3-2. But the pillars of our defense were injured during that match.

[UtwigMU]

Standings

Group1 played score
France 3 9
Israel 1 3
Slovenia 2 3
Cyprus 1 0
Malta 3 0

Group2(played/score)
Norway 3 7
Romania 3 6
Denmark 2 4
Bosnia-Herzegovina 2 0
Luxembourg 2 0

Group3 (played/score)
Netherlands 2 6
Czech Republic 2 6
Austria 3 6
Moldova 2 0
Belarus 3 0

Group4 (played/score)
Hungary 2 4
Latvia 2 4
Poland 2 3
Sweden 2 2
San Marino 2 0

Group5 (played/score)
Germany 2 6
Scotland 2 4
Iceland 2 3
Lithuania 3 3
Faroe Islands 3 1

Group6 (played/score)
Spain 2 6
Ukraine 3 5
Greece 3 3
Armenia 2 1
Northern Ireland 2 1

Group7 (played/score)
Turkey 3 9
England 2 4
F.Y.R. Macedonia 3 2
Liechtenstein 2 1
Slovakia 2 0

Group8 (played/score)
Bulgaria 3 9
Belgium 3 6
Estonia 2 1
Croatia 2 1
Andorra 2 0

Group9 (played/score)
Wales 2 6
Yugoslavia 2 4
Italy 3 4
Finland 3 3
Azerbaijan 2 0

Group10 (played/score)
Switzerland 3 7
Russia 2 6
Albania 2 1
Republic of Ireland 2 0
Georgia 1 0

Qualifying Round

16/10/2002 Res
Czech Republic Belarus 2-0
Bulgaria Andorra 2-1
Iceland Lithuania 3-0
Yugoslavia Finland 2-0
Russia Albania 4-1
!!!Republic of Ireland Switzerland 1-2
!!! Wales Italy 2-1 (We have pwned Italy as well in Trst (Italian = Trieste))
Greece Armenia 2-0
!!! England F.Y.R. Macedonia 2-2
Luxembourg Romania 0-7
Northern Ireland Ukraine 0-0
Norway Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0
! Germany Faroe Islands 2-1 (Perhaps Germans could do better)
Hungary San Marino 3-0
Austria Netherlands 0-3
Turkey Liechtenstein 5-0
Malta France 0-4
Estonia Belgium 0-1

[Ant]

Up

[Novdid]

Yes, the next round is just around the corner!