Category Archives: Euro 2016

Euro 2016 countdown – Czech Republic

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“The Czechs made it through to the 2016 finals despite being drawn in a potentially difficult group with Holland, Turkey and Iceland. A team with few well-known stars, coach Pavel Vrba has moulded them into a side that is greater than the sum of its parts. Expectations were low at the start of the qualifying campaign but an injury-time winner in their opening game in Prague against Holland galvanised the side and they went on to win their opening four games, while their rivals struggled. The Czechs have an impressive record at the European Championship, winning (as Czechoslovakia) in 1976, reaching the Final in 1996, the semi-finals in 2004 and the quarter-finals in 2012. They have qualified for every tournament since 1996.” World Soccer

Poland’s Robert Lewandowski: the man Scotland fear in Euro 2016 qualifier

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“There was a time when Scottish football conjured up images of artistry, of neat triangles of passing, the ‘pattern-weaving’ approach. Not any longer. A century ago, Hungarian football was obsessed by trying to emulate the Rangers tourists of 1905; this past week has featured a series of Polish condemnations of Scotland’s supposed clogging. The message has been so consistent, it feels there must be policy behind it, a string of not especially subtle nudges to the referee, Viktor Kassai.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Ireland v Germany – the build up, the battle, and the bliss

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“The international scene in Ireland needed an injection of positivity after a steady decline since the 2002 World Cup in Saipan. So much negativity surrounds the soccer team, with bandwagon loads of people getting their fix from rugby because, well, we’re quite good at a minority sport. Perhaps that’s harsh but we witnessed something special on Thursday night. For me, a young freelance journalist based in Co. Tipperary, it was a surreal experience after being granted media accreditation for the first time.” backpagefootball

Success Is No Longer Foreign to East Timor, but the Players Are

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“With so little to cheer in their nation’s brief soccer history, fans of East Timor’s national team would be correct to consider this the squad’s golden era. East Timor, which did not play a World Cup qualifying match until 2007 and did not win one until this year, has advanced to the second round of World Cup qualifying for the first time. Under normal circumstances, the team would be warmly received when it assembles in Dili, the capital, next week for its next two matches. But instead of cheering, infuriated fans in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony off Australia’s north coast, are raising questions about how the team was put together: Apparently the national federation went on a shopping spree for players in the world’s richest marketplace — Brazil — and came back with more than enough to reshape its team.” NY Times

Are we seeing a Norwegian Renaissance in Europe?

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“The Norwegian Eliteserien is not considered a top league in Europe, but recently it has shown that the league is still strong despite the nation’s relatively small population. This season has seen two Norwegian sides reach the group stages of the Europa League, while another fell at the last hurdle. In addition the national team is also showing a renewed strength in its attempts to reach next year’s European Championships.” backpagefootball

What English clubs can learn from the transfer mastery of Shakhtar, Lyon and Porto

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“At first glance, there’s really not a lot of similarity between war-torn Donetsk, debt-ridden Porto and metropolitan Lyon. The urban trio are not the surprise frontrunners for European city of culture, nominated by a hipster whose concerns are more esoteric than realistic, nor are they the latest cities to be twinned with Slough, a dystopia desperate to ship its industrial reputation for a bright European future. The answer, in truth, lies with three men you’ve likely never heard of.” backpagefootball

Euro 2016: A minnow’s tale?

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“The Euros always make for fantastic viewing and can often spring a surprise on football fans when they see the likes of Greece and Denmark upstaging Europe’s biggest nations to win the competition. And with this year being the first in which the tournament shall contain 24 teams, there’s a bigger chance than ever of a ‘lesser’ nation claiming victory in France. If qualification is anything to go by, football is indeed coming home. The only side to have currently won 100% of their games is England, taking maximum points thus far from Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino. In qualifying for Euro 2012, just two teams won all of their games, Germany and Spain, semi-finalists and champions. In qualifying for Euro 2008, no teams took maximum points. So we’ve established England will, at the worst, be eliminated semi-finalists.”
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Iceland’s place at Euro 2016 a result of calculated development, growth

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“Iceland’s ascent as a footballing nation, falling at the final hurdle of 2014 World Cup qualification before become one of the first to qualify for Euro 2016, has been one of the big surprises in recent years. However, looking at the infrastructure the tiny island nation has built, it seems like less of a mystery and more of an inevitability. Despite an average daily temperature hovering around freezing for nearly half the year, Iceland has been slowly creeping toward the upper echelons of European football since the new millennium. Seven of the squad that pulled off a historic double against the Netherlands, winning 1-0 away from home on Sept. 3 after a 2-0 victory in Reykjavík in October, also qualified for the 2011 UEFA Under-21 Championship.” SI (Video)

Romania: a team of ageing journeymen somehow ranked No7 in the world

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“On the face of it, everything looks rosy for the Romania national side. They’re ranked seventh in the world and they sit top of their qualifying group for Euro 2016, having conceded only one goal in six games. If they beat Hungary away on Friday, they’d be a win from securing their place in France next summer.
Roy Hodgson tells England they can pull off Euro 2016 success. The president of the Romanian Football Federation, Razvan Burleanu, has been happy to take credit for Romania’s rise, saying that he had a plan to take Romania into the world’s top 20, then the top 15, then the top 10, and merrily asserting that his country is ahead of schedule.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Tom English: Poland challenge next for fighting Scotland

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“For Scotland, the sensible thing is to look forward in hope, but the irresistible urge is to look back in anger. The contrasting images of intensity and energy and goals against the world champion Germans on Monday night compared to the meek surrender in Georgia three days before is just the latest manifestation of Scotland being a footballing parody of itself. The fluctuation is a brand of torture that has been reduced to a fine art in Scotland, a form of water-boarding, just for football fans. The prevailing agony of the Scottish supporters leaving Hampden after the 3-2 loss to Germany might have taken the shape of the contention – ‘If only we’d played like that in Tbilisi we wouldn’t be in such a hole.'” BBC

Germany v Poland – The Water Battle of Frankfurt
“The plaque underneath the statue of Poland’s legendary national team coach, Kazimierz Górski, outside Warsaw’s new national stadium reads: ‘As long as the ball is in play, everything is possible.’ On the occasion the biggest match of Górski’s time in charge of the national team, whenever the ball was in play it would be repeatedly stuck in deep pools of rainwater.” backpagefootball

Wales, Iceland, and Wait, Who? Your Not-Quite-Last-Minute Guide to Euro 2016 Qualifying

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“You know what’s not fun? Having to go a weekend without club soccer, yet this is the reality the gods1 of FIFA and UEFA have cast upon us over the next few days. But you know what is fun? International tournaments. You might remember exciting events such as last summer’s Women’s World Cup, when the USWNT kicked ass and Carli Lloyd finally became a household name. Or perhaps you recall the summer before, when Germany made David Luiz cry. If evoking either of those memories makes you yearn for the past, do not fret: After two summers of World Cups, the European Championships kick off in June 2016.” Grantland

How West Brom secured Salomón Rondón thanks to Vladimir Putin’s protectionism

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“Salomón Rondón’s move from Zenit St Petersburg to West Bromwich Albion began with a phone call from Tony Pulis to André Villas-Boas asking him if there was any talent in Russia he should be looking at. The Zenit manager replied that because of new restrictions on foreign players – a direct diktat, it is said, from Vladimir Putin, concerned by the national side’s poor performances in qualifying for Euro 2016 – he was having to offload Rondón. The 25-year-old Venezuelan, he believed, would thrive in the Premier League.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Hipster Guide 2015: Which clubs across Europe could spring a suprise in the 2015/16 season?

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“Writing an article like this will get most people a platinum card to the sacred hall of Football Hipsters, or get them a one way route to the exit from the Football Man club. Either way, Cabral Opiyo is taking the risk to bring the list of some of the less mainstreamEuropean clubs that might just cause a few heads to turn this season.” Outside of the Boot

Celtic cousins – How are Ireland and Scotland the same yet different?

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“At the end of a long, often arduous, domestic season for most of Europe, only in UEFA would it make sense to schedule a run of Euro 2016 qualifiers for this coming weekend, 12-14 June. Yet so it comes to pass that Ireland and Scotland clash in Dublin this evening with a huge amount at stake in Qualification Group D.” backpagefootball

Scotland fight on and dream on after messy Dublin display
“You counted them from the first minute of the Euro 2016 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland – the Scotland blunders, the moments of uncertainty, the epidemic of misplaced passes that took hold of Gordon Strachan’s team for 45 minutes. You watched some of it in disbelief and some of it in anger and confusion. Where did this weakness come from? Who stole Scotland’s serenity?” BBC

England face tall task to beat Slovenia’s goalkeeper Samir Handanovic

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“Jan Oblak performed heroics when Benfica drew 0-0 away to Juventus in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final last season. He projects a confidence that makes him appear taller than his 6ft 1in. He secured a move to Atlético Madrid at the age of 21 as the long-term replacement to Thibaut Courtois and, although he has largely played second fiddle to Miguel Ángel Moyà this season, Oblak is widely regarded as one of the best young goalkeepers in the world. He even shares a surname with probably the greatest Slovenian footballer ever, Branko Oblak, but he is some way from becoming the first choice for his country and is unlikely to face England in their Euro 2016 qualifier in Ljubljana on Sunday. It’s a joke as old as international football itself: if we’re being kind to Josip Ilicic, Slovenia probably have three top-class players; two of them are goalkeepers.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson