WC Qualifers 2018 - Europe

[Morten]

I remember that Norway had played good football in the last EC campaign, when they were in the same group with (my) Bulgaria. Beating Croatia 2-0, but fucked up the last match against Italy. Then in the play-offs they were eliminated by Hungary.

P.P. The coach was Hogmo then.

Not really, we had a good period against weak teams and a Croatia-team in turmoil. Other than that, there was plenty of shite football, teams we should have beaten but didnt. We never had a easier group. topped it all of with a piss poor performance against Hungary.
Høgmo is statistically the worst NT coach in decades.

 

[Bardh]

[MENTION=21472]Bardh[/MENTION] I was in the gym watching 2nd half and everyone commented that we should allow Kosovo to have their consolation goal. Kinda dick move not to allow it when we got such a great reception.

Ćiro Blazevic, Štimac, Bilić would have done differently imo

We missed a few chances and didn't serve to score to be honest. Defending was pathetic. You can see in individual cases that we have some talent and some potential and we played a great away game to Finland, but this team barely know each other's names. They are completely new; still in the "pre-season" phase if you like. I am sure they will improve quickly. This first qualifier is just for warming up

 

[Bardh]

Still don't know why there even is a Kosovo national team... it's like Albania's B team, everyone knows Kosovo will never play in a Euro or World Cup and all this team does is steal good players from Albania... we even have to play in Albania because we don't have proper stadiums lol... We already had great talents like Milot Rashica choose Kosovo, now Labinot Kabashi (Barça player) might play for Kosovo too, and what's up with Gashi? Heard he refused the Albania call up, maybe he'll play for Kosovo as well in the future... I don't see this as a positive at all, splitting great Albanian players between the 2 teams only weakens Albania's chances in future tournaments...

True. I was against Kosovo's admission because now we have two weak teams instead of a stronger one. But we are an independent country after all, and looks like we need a team as well.

 

[Antimilan]

Ciro Blazevic rumored to be a potential coach of Kosovo NT next spring. He might as well die while coaching the team... but hey... he led BiH NT to play-offs of World Cup qualifiers in 2010, losing to Portugal, so I expect he might still have something in him to make his stint at the Kosovo NT a worthy one.

 

[Antimilan]

Not really, we had a good period against weak teams and a Croatia-team in turmoil. Other than that, there was plenty of shite football, teams we should have beaten but didnt. We never had a easier group. topped it all of with a piss poor performance against Hungary.
Høgmo is statistically the worst NT coach in decades.

Morten, what about Veton Berisha... why didn't the Norway coach call him up? Is he injured or something? I saw a couple of matches of him for Greuther Furth in Bundesliga 2 and he was quite talented.

Would his brother Valon (one of RB Salzburg's key players) get a starting role in the Norway NT lineup today?

What element is Norway missing... where do they lack more, attack, defense, any particular field position... or the coach is to blame for the tactics, lineup etc.?

 

[Antimilan]

Mertens assist to Hazard at 1:37. Amazing assist, great finish. Great playmaker, wasted at Napoli. Glad he got a chance to start with Hazard instead of subbing for him; good move by Martinez.

Really surprised by this loss of BiH. They plundered Estonia 5-0... then went on to lose vs. Belgum 4-0 away. Not typical BiH, but I guess every NT has its own bad day some time.

 

[Barcaman]

Croatia 1 up in Finland.

 

[AnfieldEd]

2 wins out of 2 for Greece - true against the two worst countries in the group (although I think Cyprus can give Estonia a good run for their money on that point) but yes 6 points is a good start. Estonia tomorrow and that will be a big game. The games against Bosnia is where qualifying for that play off spot will be decided assuming Belgium walk the group.

Then fingers crossed we finish 2nd we get a country from either groups C, F or I.

 

[Barcaman]

Serbia scored for 3-2 amid Austria dominance.
Dušan Tadić looks good, crowd doesn't like Alaba very much.

 

[Alarcón]

crowd doesn't like Alaba very much.

Yeah, I wonder why...

 

[vukkapor]

Serbia scored for 3-2 amid Austria dominance.
Dušan Tadić looks good, crowd doesn't like Alaba very much.

The first half Serbia was better than Austria, the second they were even... Yeah, they booed him because he went to the ground and he saw that he wasn't getting a foul and the ball was going towards him he got up and continued playing like it was nothing..

 

[Capitan Puyol]

Ciro Blazevic rumored to be a potential coach of Kosovo NT next spring. He might as well die while coaching the team... but hey... he led BiH NT to play-offs of World Cup qualifiers in 2010, losing to Portugal, so I expect he might still have something in him to make his stint at the Kosovo NT a worthy one.

Actually Miroslav (Ciro) Blazevic's greatest success was in World Cup 1998, when his Croatia finished in 3rd place, hardly eliminated in the semifinals by the host and champion later - France. Croatian users here can say more about it.
Now he is old but no question a great manager.

 

[xXKonan]

Hard to believe I'm watching Portugal a lot more often due to Gomes.

He's having a solid game so far.

 

[KiX7777]

Placed a bet on hattrick on Portugal game. Thought Ronaldo going to bully them, but I got pleasantly suprised.

Regarding Ciro (Blazevic): he is good coach but he is somewhat crazy. He screwed us on Euro 1996, he intentionally wanted to play Germans in knockout round and he lost against Portugal in group with B team to achieve that. We could have played Czech and proceed further (we were really strong then). Of course, we lost against Germans, but we got brutally robbed by referees though. So yes, he is good coach but i would not hire him anymore because of his age.

 

[CuleLife4Life]

Hard to believe I'm watching Portugal a lot more often due to Gomes.

He's having a solid game so far.

Gomes came up at the right time. The new batch of Portuguese players are defintely a group to keep an eye out for. They'll be a force in a few yrs and can probably compete to retain their Euro in 2020.