Quite looking forward to this now. Macedonia at 1/4 to win looks ok to me. their the joint best team in the world now theyve drawn with england
Russia are gonna have to start turning these draws to wins. England in Croatia looks a cracker. Ukraine will have it's fans. Can Scotland hold out for at least a point? I remember Scotland going to Czech and places recently and doing ok. Actually Scotland must have a great record away from home. Arent they 9 unbeaten or something?
bosnia v greece looks like a low scoring game. Rep Of Ireland 4/1 to beat the Czech republic. Great game. cases for both sides i suppose. Wales will want to bounce back. Werent they a bit better than the result on Saturday suggests? Germany even money :rubchin
Rep Of Ireland 4/1 to beat the Czech republic. Great game. cases for both sides i suppose. Wales will want to bounce back. Werent they a bit better than the result on Saturday suggests?
Irland with a lot of personal problems.Shay Given the goalkeeper and 6 other key players can´t play.These players are Kevin Doyle (Striker), Stephen Eilliott (Striker), Steven Reid (Midfield), Alan Quinn (Midfield), Stephen Carr (defender) and Graham Kavanagh are out.Also they have problem after the red card for Richard Dunne.
After the worst performance by an international team in the history of time i would expect alot of money to go on the czech republic to beat ireland on Wednesday. There is an absolute media frenzy at the moment here to get rid of Steve Staunton.
Rep Of Ireland 4/1 to beat the Czech republic. Great game. cases for both sides i suppose. Wales will want to bounce back. Werent they a bit better than the result on Saturday suggests? Germany even money :rubchin
Three games there that interest me komp.
I watch the abysmal defensive display by Wales on Saturday , I did not expect a win but the worst home defeat in 90 odd years was painful to watch. Gabbidon was having to cover for the other 4 defenders , Duffy performance was worse than Jones in goal.The midfield played reasonable when going forward and with a bit of luck the can score against Cyprus .How many Wales will conceed is another matter.
What kind of performance was their home win against Ireland?
Were Ireland as poor as the reports in the papers ?
Slovakia beat Cyprus 6-1 at home in their first match in the group.
Which indicates a poor defence. We did lose 1-0 to Cyprus less than a year ago in a friendly .That goal was a penalty , Wales played poorly that day as well , as they lacked any flair in midfield.
With news that Bellamy's trial due for Wednesday has been postponed I can see Wales getting a win at home .The crowd will small following that result at the weekend. Wales to win.
The Czechs did out play Wales in their first match of the group , and won with a late goal .The had a 3-0 away at Slovakia which looks good following their large wins against the weaker nations in the group.I cannot see the Czechs loosing this one.
I think Germany will make sure of a win in Slovakia and the German frontline should cause a lot more trouble to the Slovakian defence than the midgets of Wales did.Germany won 2-0 in a friendly on Saturday. Germany always qualify for tournaments and I see any price above evens as decent.
I believe that Andorra v Macedonia game has it's own little history as well.
Some of you must remember that a couple years ago Andorra managed to get their first ever victory in official games...vs. Macedonia 1-0 (1-0)...accidentally or not, a large amount of money was on that game in Asia, even on ht/ft bet!
I don't think that history is going to repeat itself this time...Macedonias were on the edge of Fifa investigation re mentioned game, and they're not going to risk this time.
They showed some good performances lately and Macedonians are looking forward for this victory to keep maintaining their little dream, in order to spend winterbreak at the upper top of the table.
Clear away win.
Serbia-Armenia 1
Lousy price...but I'm taking it as a combo booster, same as Netherlands.
Serbia beat Belgium in a tight game,but with numerous attacks and constant pressure.
Zigic and especially Pantelic are in great form, 20000 spectators maybe...it'll be enough for another three pointer.
Armenia aviod the defeat vs. Finland in a last game mainly because of excellent performance of thier magnificient Gk.
Russia for @ 1,25 is acceptable.
They must beat someone in their yard, if not Estonia, then...
Italy, too.
France walk over Gruzia easy, with 3-0.
Don't see any reason that Italians won't do the same thing.
maybe not with such goal difference, but AW in any case.
After lousy start, Italians are back on track , but still with minus 2 points from France and large minus 5 from Scotland.
Scotland is in front of two hard away clashes, first vs. Ukraine and then vs. Italy in March '07.
Ruling World Champion mustn't alloud another humiliation.
Turkey vs. Moldova should be another HW.
I'm thinking about Sweden, too, basing this pick on a quality difference in the first place.
Iceland have lost their only game as host , so far, against Danmark with 0-2.
I rate Sweden better than Danmark, so not expecting an easy win, but maybe low scoring game, Sweden clean sheet...some 0-1 or 0-2.
I'm not ready to experiment anything...so much unpleseant surprises in the last round.
Don't believe that could happend again in just a few days....
Just one more information for those interested in beting on Macedonia: the game in Manchester has been the 5th consecutive game that we played X on HT...This run must end sometime and I think it will be on this game.So I will go for 2-2 HT/FT(I'm getting greeder as I grow older) because of everything else writen up and because it's time we lead on HT for once...Good Luck...
I also think that Serbia will beat Armenia, but the scoreline might not be so high. Armenia played very defensivley against Finland and created no clear goalscoring chance. Finland did create enough chances to win the game (0-0), but the goalie was very good as charly1 mentioned. Kuqi missing an empty net did not help either. A correct scores combination of 1-0 (9), 2-0 (6.5) and 3-0 (7.5) gives 2.51 in odds which is good enough for me.
Finland must beat Kazakhstan or the team will lose vital ground in the table. The players were very disapointed after the Armenia game as they all knew Armenia was there for the taking. Johansson (striker) was injured but Forssell came on and played his best in a long time. Our important midfielder Väyrynen (PSV) was also injured, but he´ll probably play. If the team plays as it did on Saturday we will score at least one goal this time and with our defense looking very impressive (Hyypiä not playing for Liverpool has improved his game in the national team) that should seal the game. 0-1, 0-2 for Finland. I am going to bet big on Finland to double my misery on Wednesday when we once again fail to produce in football.
Andriy Shevchenko has returned to training with Ukraine and is expected to start against Scotland in Wednesday's Euro 2008 qualifier.
The Chelsea striker missed his country's 2-0 Group B defeat by Italy on Saturday with a virus.
But he took part in a practice session with the squad on Monday.
However, the Ukrainians will be without Shevchenko's fellow forward, Oleksiy Byelik, while defender Oleh Romanchuk is also sidelined.
Byelik has been withdrawn after injuring his leg during the match in Rome.
Midfielder Anatoliy Tymoschuk took a knock on Saturday, but he is likely to be fit for Wednesday.
And Andriy Gusin, who missed the Italy game through injury, is back in training and should be available. Volodymyr Yezerskyi picked up his second yellow card in qualification in the clash with the Italians and is suspended
Have to say i dont know much about the players out but it does look like Ukraine have a good few missing doesnt it?
Good to see their two best players Tymoschuk and Shevchenko carrying knocks too.
I do fancy Scotland to get something out of this i have to admit. Before the France game i fancied a defeat there and a draw in Ukraine, maybe even nick a win.
Our formation will be set up to defend and hit Ukraine with the quick breaks with Miller the main target man using his pace.
Its a formation which has worked very well against the bigger nations down the years.
Must admit i didnt think Ukraine looked anything special in the World Cup and if they play similar to as they did there then they are certainly there for the taking youhave to think.
Any Ukraine fans out there wiht some info on their team and the players missing?
Elsewhere the Welsh i do like the look of. Ok they had their worst defeat in many a year but they didnt play too badly i didnt think and went down to some top quality long range efforts.
Wales odds a bit higher than they should be due to their loss and Cyprus's win but i still think Wales will have too much going forward for the Cypriots and i fancy them for a comfortable victory.
Were Ireland as poor as the reports in the papers ?
Worst performance I can remember in 20+ years of watching Irish teams. It was pub team stuff. We made them look like Brazil when they ame forward.
I said beforehand they would get beaten and had my biggest priced football winner with Cyprus this year. We’ve probably hit rock bottom and can only be better on Wednesday. That however is all relative. The defense is a joke. Kenny in goals must be traumatized and Robbie Keane up front looks disinterested. We’re very weak at the moment and from the Czech point of view there will never be a better time to get at us.
2.25+ is a steal for the Czezhs IMO. Evens would be more like it. I’m on heavy on the Czechs Wednesday. Hopefully we will get tanked as if we manage a 1-0, 2-0 defeat Staunton might manage to hang on. Some more misery would be much better for us in the long run.
Wales will beat Cyprus too. They are absymal away from home and they'll probably still have hangovers from the Saturday celebrations
Macedonia played great matches against England in their two meetings and they didn't deserve to lose in Skopje. THey played great football at Old Trafford and under Srecko Katanec Maecodnian team look very good, hungry for success.
Katanec did a great job, and under him Macedonia has 3-1-1 and those wins were against Ecuador, Turkey and Estonia, and the draw is agaist England away and at home Macedonia lost (i must againt) undeservedly and after the conceded goal they were much better opponent.
I never liked Macedonian team like I do now. They are playing like a team and with great Pandev as leader in the offense this team is capbable of good things.
Andorra is amateur team and they owe too much to this Macedonian team. Andorra achieved their first win in official match against Macedonia and after that match there were speculations that that match was fixed. Macedonian players are obligated to win there and they will win easily against Andorrian amateurs for sure. THe atmosphere is great and with this style of play I can put money on away win and to sleep tight because I expect Macedonia to fight and to win with 3-4 goals difference.
The odds are already droped rapidly, I took this bet @ 1.80 and if you have intention to took it too, you have to be quick because the lines will change
I was interested in Scotland on the Asian handicap actually. Like Kiko, I also expected France to waltz by our defence but.... it was just a mass of blue. A massive wall built on the edge of the box. Practically no space at all. Walter Smith aint daft.
Our away performaces under Smith have actually been pretty impressive in my opinion and not just based around getting everyone behind the ball. In Italy and Norway for example we were actually starting to pass and move ffs! It was like real football! We're not too bad at soaking up pressure then hitting on the break so aye, I think there's a chance. The players really should be focused on getting at least a draw from this and building on that victory over France.
England played very bad against Macedonia in their previous two meetings despite the fact that they took 4 points from those matches. I do not remember when England was so bad. Their midfield is looking like there is no midfield, the attack line is sharples, the wing backs are just an average. Only thing that is on necessary level is the central defense.
Croatia trashed 7:0 Andorra (which is an irrelevant fat) but the result 0:0 in Moscow before that is the thing that is making me taking this bet. Croatia played really good football there and they should’ve won all three points there. They had decent opportunities but the luck wasn’t on their side on that match. Now after their huge win against Andorra and bad performances of their opponent, player’s self-confidense is on high level.
What to say about McLaren’s men? Gary Neville was very slow and he was easily passed by in whole 90 minutes from Macedonian players, Gerrard was completely lost but he can produce danger situations no matter how good is his form but he is suspended for this match. I can say the same thing for Lampard, but he is playing very bad in the last few months. Downing - completely out of space, Carrick – that guy wouldn’t play even in my neighborhood, the weakest player that played for England, in my opinion. Rooney is not playing at his best also and he hasn’t scored a goal for while. The best players in the team in the match against Macedonia were Crouch, who can be matches well by tall Croatian defenders (Robert Kovac or Simunic) and King who won’t play because of injury, but he will probably be replaced from Ferdinand who is playing on high level also.
The English NT is very overrated and without Beckham, Lennon, Hargreaves and Gerrard in the middle they are not a team that can be rated as favorite here. Croatia is without loss in Zagreb for more than 15 years and they have solid and talented squad that can match every team in the world.
We have Croatian team playing at home with great home support, great home record, playing against out of form England and we have Croatia as underdog, so this is must bet situation.
I think that Poland can get something at home against Portugal.
I watched their game against Serbia they played about a month ago and I was quite impressed.
Poland should've been 2 or 3 up at halftime and Serbia was very lucky to get a point in that match.
Portugal are without Figo and Pauleta who retired after the World Cup and the first results were not satisfying - a loss in a friendly against Denmark and a draw in Finland in their qualification opener.
I already took Poland(+0.25)@2.15 with Gamebookers (medium stakes)
Euro 2008 Qualifiers: 11th Oct
as I grow older) because of everything else writen up and because it's time we lead on HT for once
...Good Luck...
