You Qualify! You Qualify! You Qualify! Everybody Qualifies! Euro 2016 Qualifying Rounds

The expansion to 24 teams has rendered this somewhat less important than normal but there were some interesting results in the first set of qualifying matches. Portugal rested Ronaldo and promptly lost at home to Albania, Iceland beat Turkey 3-0, Bale scraped a 2-1 win over Andorra, Bosnia lost to Cyprus at home and the Czech Republic, who are pretty hopeless these days, beat the Dutch.

Albanian goal was pretty sweet.

http://www.soccer-blogger.com/2014/09/08/video-portugal-vs-albania-2014-highlights-0-1-balaj-goal-volley-european-qualifying/

Euro qualifiers have been terrible for as long as I can remember so being made less interesting somehow doesn't bother me too much. The bigger a knockout tournament the better as far as I'm concerned; more chance of upsets and fun stories and unlikely events. Screw it, lets scrap the qlfs and have one big tourament inviting everyone.

^^ yes please, where can I sign? These international breaks are the bane of my existence. Just get all countries together every four years for two months, June and July idk, let them play every other day allowing them a 35 player squad. It's not complicated.

rip iker

Paco saves the day.

Lol. Stoch makes it 2-1.

:D

kaz

akh

stan

Another sad and lonely weekend filled with the immense cruelty and emptiness of dreadful international qualification football.

http://i.imgur.com/81hDmFH.gif

Let every nation qualify, shack up together for two months once every two years and figure it out. Fuck this shit.

jesus christ

what on earth is this meant to achieve ffs

since i searched for this thread to make the first comment there we've scored three goals fyi

oh god that last goal

our passing is still pretty bad tbh but the practice might help

marc fucking wilson tho

aww standing ovation for subbed gk <3

MARC FUCKING WILSON THO

haha that would have been one of the great own goals

cmon doyler he needs this kickstart

lol subs crazy aggressive, MON really going for it

jesus we are actually pretty shockingly bad defensively

ouch gibson

ireland have kind of been ridiculously shit in the entire time i've been watching this (post replays of 7th goal)

not messing id have their lad at left back

they just did an intricate 20-pass move

explain me kevin doyle

he's the gamest lad who lived off that and a very particular type of service at reading and wolves and at international level for quite some time.

took a bit of a battering confidence wise under trap and at club level and possibly gameness caught up with him in terms of fatigue and injury, that was a few years ago and, look, successive relegations has left him far too expensive for wolves and he's never really come back

he's very very good in the air, in itself it's enough to keep him as third place/second place behind the fitter and more skilled long, and omnipresent robbie who excels at feeding off the types of scraps provided by long's incessant running into channels and behind (shane long in a green shirt would chase down a corner flag if the mist was on him) and doyle's body-punishing presence in situations where sane men his size simply wouldn't be.

i like doyle and consider him a hero and a gentleman for his service to unworthy causes over the years, and hope his pasture of hovering around the subs bench for ireland doesn't irk him overmuch. a premier league club of eg villa or sunderland level should have gone for him and looked after him years ago. not sure spurs wouldn't be smart to take him on as an option jsut for cover, if we were to jettison soldado as a misfit for our current system, but that may be soft talk.

ty that is a v erudite & fair-minded explanation

gwan polska

good match this, in the balance now

germany smothering possession first half without penetrating convincingly, bellarabi on his debut missing chances, best opportunity falling to durm second half with a woeful effort clean through. dogged polish defending

unexpected goal from neuer coming out big all wrong for a routine cross, doesnt get to arkadiusz milik in time before he nods over and in. v open game now, schurrle finding acres wide left but spurning everything, muller and gotze so clever, hummels amazing playing 6 yard box to 6 yard box, literally just layed off the ball in poland's box and then charged back to make the last ditch challenge to deny the resulting break. poland now with loads of space on the counter, within whiskers of springing lewa a few times but the willing runner milik has just been subbed and they're slowly dropping deeper and deeper...

woof, podolski free to wait all day in the box for the dropping ball arrows a perfect volley smack against the bar

max krause on for the kinda shit clogger rudiger (idk who he is) but these subs are fucking ger's own momentum imo

great hold up play by lewa and lays it off for the onrushing mila (the guy on for milik lol) to smash in the second for poland!!

mila was supposed to transfer to chicago last year but ownership nixed it :(

vamos polska

what is CMON in polish

if ever there was a time outside of *london nightclub* for rtc to lose it completely

Apparently it's "c'mon."

I'm told this is the first EVER Polish national team won against Germany.

"Polska do boju!" is what I'm seeing via Twitter, or "Poland to fight!"

xp yup, also first Germany away loss in qualifying in 16 years

jesus

iceland!

We're tanking it and I'm loving it.

gylfi on fire right now

Nick Ames @NickAmes82 · 14m 14 minutes ago

Play stopped as a drone flies right above the pitch, dangling an Albanian flag right above it! This is incredible. Crowd going mad.

Nick Ames @NickAmes82 · 13m 13 minutes ago

Mitrovic, jumps, grabs the flag as it falls – and all hell has now broken lose here. Players and officials on both sides fighting.

Nick Ames @NickAmes82 · 12m 12 minutes ago

This is disgraceful. Albanians have now fled the pitch, pelted by objects. Serbians following. Never seen anything like this.

video of the drone:

https://twitter.com/James_Dart/status/522111096472477696

That's kind of amazing.

deadspin has more video http://screamer.deadspin.com/havoc-at-serbia-albania-as-match-interrupted-by-flag-ca-1646284088?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Northern Ireland 2-0 up away to Greece. May be the end of Ranieri if anyone can afford the compensation.

O'Shea in the 94th minute!

I cant

I went and showered and came back and that had still happened

Scotland v Ireland game is going to be a belter.

Adams.

Explosive pace.

whatever happened to poor Paddy McCourt?

Unless Turkey lose at home to Iceland, Netherlands are out.

Extraordinary under normal circumstances, even more so given the expansion of the format.

crikey

Albania qualifies for their first major tournament!

Damn it!

boom

fuk

Cheers for that, it makes a Scotsman feel even worse.

Georgia just equalised so Poland are temporarily top of the group.

Netherlands not leaving things for Turkey to decide. Losing two nil at home to the Czech Republic.

Cyprus just took the lead against Bosnia - meaning they are now third in the group.

oh hey I'm half Cypriot

oh it's 2-2 fuckem the songbird-slaughtering cunts

A Brief History of Enosis

Rvp own goal, this is priceless.

kind of hope iceland win now

Great free kick from Inan in the 89th minute. Turkey ended up finishing five points clear of Netherlands.

Wow. And they qualify automatically ahead of Hungary who had been the top third placed team.

Idk whether the police helicopter that has been circling overhead for the last fifteen minutes is connected.

pfft, biting Beckham

sweden, ukraine, bosnia, hungary. where are estonia when you need them?

i got a bad feeling about tonights game

Yep

we can't really think we have any right to win. one 1-0 against germany with our only chance of the match doesn't make this shower a good side. we've been rank awful most of this campaign, as bad as ever.

Bosnia v Republic of Ireland Key Battle: Miralem Pjanic v Glenn Whelan

By James Wheeler

Hmmm.

If Ireland give any free kicks away within about 30 yards of goal they're toast.

We qualify! We qualify! We qualify!

Congrats the Irish.

Brady >>>>>>>>>>> Pjanic

COYBIG

This feeling. Pride??

RTE Player cannae take the strain

This team is a constant reproach to that horrible old Italian witch

bit harsh

she was just the translator afaik

http://img.rasset.ie/0006a0bf-642.jpg

Was a really nice experience from kickoff tonight to watch that game knowing that we were going to do it. Total lack of mental fragility.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b4/13/e1/b413e1e0fe9012e1764f69e0667a30c0.jpg

Lol

Yeah it was a solid performance. Everyone did their job. McLean was a bit of a lunatic when he came on tho

He shouldn't get near the plane, nor any plane. Total lack of maturity and I've a real dislike of him since his hatchet tackle against the poles. I think he may be a cunt.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12208308_528011880706919_6842754805317860052_n.jpg?oh=52dc19b4a93599f0cd525658d6cc29ff&oe=56EF378A

o zlatan

ffs

yep

I mean its not the easiest group but its not the toughest either. Belgium were disappointing in the WC and despite all their players they still haven't gelled. Besides The Zlatan, Sweden are a bunch of journeymen and are beatable. I'd fancy our chances to hold the Italians to a draw too.

Belgium are ranked number 1 in the world. That hás to say something, doesn't it?

Group D is maybe harder, none of the others are.

The prospect of Wales beating England is quite likely, I guess?

i see no reason why not, already joked to the kids about Bale vs Rooney

On a legacy basis it looks bad, but this is prob the worst Italy team of all time? Can't tell if Belgium or Sweden are exactly the kind of technical team who murder Ireland or exactly the kind of overrated rabble that we beat.