Euro 2012 Qualification (pre-empt to handball cheat phase)

Group I: Spain, Czech Republic, SCOTLAND Lithuania, Liechtenstein

Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland

Group G: ENGLAND, Switzerland, Bulgaria, WALES, Montenegro

Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta

Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino

Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg

Group C: Italy, Serbia, NORTHERN IRELAND Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands

Group B: Russia, Slovakia, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, FYR Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra

Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan

what a good draw for Ireland. also England Wales...amazing.

the Czech Republic are rubbish now, right? RIGHT? Good.

Oh look, we have the best fucking team in the world in our group *again*. looking forward to the torres vs the caldwell brothers lolz already :-(

(liechtenstein are the faroes with hills instead of water, aye? 2-2 draw of lolz there). good luck craig levein :-)

Berbatov's got to play in a tournament sooner or later. this is my bulletproof reasoning for Bulgaria qualifying.

Spain, England and Holland can book their hotels already I reckon. Probably Greece too, the boring bastards.

France get Romania again ugh. Looking forward to a very boring draw. Well maybe not, because by then, Domenech won't be there anymore.

all the top seeds will go thru

by hook or by outstretched palm

It's the last 16-team (i.e. entertaining) tournament

the Czech Republic are rubbish now, right? RIGHT? Good.

― FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Sunday, 7 February 2010 11:51 (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://i47.tinypic.com/28gv694.jpg

:'(

That's one narrow face.

So, who goes through then. Top teams. Hosts? then what, play-offs for the last few slots?

best runner up goes thru with top teams, 4 play-off winners = 14 + 2 hosts

Rosicky might be back from injury by 2012, who knows?

Umm, he has played in like 10 games this season. It's like he's a regular player again.

cheers, steve. scotland will come third.

good draw for us.

(not a qualifier but)

8/11 on Sweden to beat a pish Scotland with half of their better players missing = buying money imo

Scotland's back four expected to be Broadfoot - Berra - Kenneth - Wallace --- I think Zlatan might enjoy his return to the international fold :(

McGregor's reaction to hearing the team
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48687000/jpg/_48687519_mcgregor282.jpg

Could be worse, could be Danny Fox at left back.

(presume that Wallace is Lee and not Ross...)

ooh you've only gone and made us angry, Zlatan.

a terrible stream, intense confusion regarding the teams wearing each other's kits (???), and it being Scotland means I don't think I'll be bothering with this game any longer. Plz b letting me know if I miss anything pure amazing.

uh, boldly assuming that anyone is actually watching, that is.

Scotland mostly pish, Sweden strolling it. 2-0 and counting - really annoyed I didn't get a bet on this.

I am watching with mild horror, and being grateful for small mercies (i.e. that Charlie Mulgrew not playing means they are only making us look stupid down one side rather than have a choice of laughable full backs to torment)

ir4qg04ls channel 7 has a decent stream, btw. And surely intense confusion only lasted until you saw either team with the ball?

Consolation: we're an entire back line and half a midfield away from what will hopefully be playing in the real games.

ah, forgot about ir4qg04ls over the summer, thanks. That is true re seeing either team with the ball, although I still have no idea why the kit thing is the case. I'm imagining the discussion descending in to talk in the "if Lisa goes to school, then I go to school, but then Lisa stays home, so I stay home, so Lisa goes to school..." vein, before settling on this setup.

if you prefer Craig Burley, and why wouldn't you (haha), then ESPN coverage available at http://str34m.c3ltict4lk.org/ch2.html

(degoogleproof, obviously)

and 3 :(

Craig Burley criticising Scotland for not pulling jerseys enough in the box :/

"Chris Iwelumo, who will unfortunately always be remembered for that incredible miss against Norway". Aye, he will if you keep mentioning it every fucking time you see him, you twat.

Craig Burley doesn't know what irony is.

(it doesn't involve someone saying "he couldn't miss from there" about Iwelumo)

They have talked about nothing else since he's come on.

hahaha

Just realised I wasn't on the SPL thread, sorry.

Weirdly enough that miss is not how I remember Big Chris.

Only just got home btw but this England game sounds tremendous.

xpost, that's because you watch football other than the stuff you're paid to. Craig Burley wears his lack of knowledge like a big shiny badge. A move to BBC World Cup panels surely awaits in his future.

Oops I forgot Wolves did have somebody playing tonight, kinda took my eye off when Doyler pulled out of the Ireland game. Am cool with Berra picking up a knock for the weekend really.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

^ x 10000000.

Decent goal from Gerrard, and also enough to stop the commentators chuntering on about goal-line technology until I poke my ears out.

HERO ONCE MORE.

Commentators be hatin' on Fabio.

if there's anything that will convince me of the need for goalline technology it's meaningless goals in meaningless friendlies, it's true.

Ha ha, why the fuck is this on telly?

Not enough booing, not enough of John Terry dying in a fire.

Gibbs needs to cunt Gerrard in the bastard now before Sunday.

italy beaten 3-0 by russia. two goals by shirokov, who is michael cox' 479-1 shout for top scorer at the euros.

That game was good fun. Russia carved Italy open time upon time. No way can Italy go into the Euros with a flat back 4. Maggio was a positional liability at RB, especially with an ultra narrow midfield in front of him. Italy were supposedly playing 4-3-1-2 but Pirlo was so deep it was more 4-1-3-2. Balotelli had a good first half and set up a sitter for Cassano in the 2nd half which was missed. Russia were a bit shaky at the back but were lovely going forward, lots of short pass combinations, overs, etc.

http://img.rasset.ie/0005f88d-642.jpg

FWIW I would take Michael Carrick over Gareth Barry any day of the fucking week.

Though obviously an actual good player would be preferable to either?

ya to both of you

hazzard gone from hazzard to hazzarrd to hazzarr to azzarr in space of first 5 mins here.

extra z's mine tho ffs.

nicely done, danny welbeck
really wish these cunts would stop tackling each other from behind

Ea-sy

I really like Welbeck, mostly because he looks like he should be playing for my school team in the early 90s. Reckon he'll be one of the few England players to come through the summer with their reputation enhanced.

Fucking hell Beckham, just because we're playing Belgium doesn't mean you need to look like you're off to the trenches.

good game good game

same story as the Norway game i think. we're shit but we're at least decently organised shit now.

abject.

could win it. seriously.

Ladbroke's salutes yr spirit

In one way I'm quite happy that England have finally accepted that they are Greece and have set off to a tournament accordingly. On the other hand it's nigh on unwatchable.

Cahill out, Martin Kelly called in as a replacement. It's grimly amusing watching worse and worse defenders being called in while Rio Ferdinand is still sitting around not being picked on the basis of form honest.

that shelvey-spearing midfield pairing is getting closer and closer.

looking forward to Norman Shwarzkopf in a dalek costume

6 Liverpool players!!! Hodgson clearly trying to hobble are title challenge for next season!

are=our

In one way I'm quite happy that England have finally accepted that they are Greece

Or Fulham. It's like watching an England side from the 70s.

winning the european championships with liverpool would be a remarkable bit of trolling from roy.

just looked at the highlights of the france-estonia game. the first two goals are lovely (first one a quick one-two between ribéry and benzema with a great benz pass; second one is a nice benzema shot from the corner of the box on the receiving end of a corner kick). and giroud did quite well on that 4th goal by flicking it back to menez. i'm almost starting to be hopeful for france at this euro to actually come out of the group stage ! which would already be a step-up after the disasters that were 2008 and 2010.

france are in possibly the easiest group jibe.

They've scored twice at tournaments since 2006 though, you can understand the pessimism.

yeah but patrice isn't rallying the troops this time and domenech is long gone. they'll be fine.

if only i could feel like there's not gonna be any problems. let's not forget who we're talking about here ok. as ismael just said, 2 goals scored in tournaments since 2006. 2008 saw us out of the tournament and domenech proposing to his gf instead of replying to questions. 2010 had the players go on strike ! i'd be fucking crazy to come to this tournament and think hey easiest group we're in the quarters no problem. also laurent blanc is not really worth shit imo. every time he gives an interview he spouts bullshit such as "we want to play like barcelona" and then i guess he hopes that will happen by itself. he keeps evra on the field even though that annoying dick has forgotten what being part of the back 4 means about 2-3 years ago (it means you have to defend before you worry about attacking patrice! that's what it means). our defensive midfields are all injured. our defense is loltastic and i'm wondering who'll be the first out of rami mexes koscielny to get a red card for some silly foul.

so ya, being sure we'll get out of the group stage is not really my mindset right now !

Alan Hansen predicts that Germany, Holland and Portugal would all reach the semis despite being in the same group.

http://twitpic.com/9tc1iv

haha, Jibé OTM!

This is how it's going to go down:

Winners: Germany
Runners-up: Russia
Semis: Ukraine and France

How are Croatia as a unit these days? Would dearly love them to do well and I want to support a second team that will be less soul-crushing than England.

france and russia will be my sponsored teams this next fortnight.

Any post from here on might be my last for the duration btw, so just:

Lol england, terry, rooney
WOW did you see that goal from menez/goetse/rvp?
WOW did you see that assault from mexes/de jong/dunne?
Trap out.

I think any second team should do the job, Matt. I have a nice feeling about Denmark, don't know why.

gl d-mac, hope you have a great time and trap wins you around with a 3-0 victory over the world champions

When are we actually starting a thread? Also when does this actually start? I need a wall chart.

Yes best wishes darragh. How long are you going for, and what games? I want to be able to pin some violence/abuse directly on you, if that's okay.

headin tomorrow early, hitting stansted and leipzig, collecting camper friday AM, poznan four days gdansk 6 days poznan few more days then return through same route in reverse friday fortnight.

I've been to Leipzig, nice but quite quiet as I recall.

Gdansk is pretty lovely

In fact I saw Nando et al tearing it up against Ukraine there in 2006 xp - there's a good omen for your trip.

Winners: Germany
Runners Up: Holland
Semis: Spain and France

EURO 2012

Posting it on ILE because international tournaments are important, even this one.

otm

Best wishes DMac!

Also France are cool going frwd but Evra/Mexes are accidents waiting to happen.