Euro 2008

[arnt]

Aren't there a lot of russian jewish immigrants in Israel? I wonder how they feel about this match...
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"Engang en ret forvoven Jyde
Med Hagel paa en Thrønder vilde skyde,
Men fik hans Pande ei i sønder,
Nei, der skal Kugle til en Thrønder!"

[Gerrit]

Israel drew 1-1 in that game. That is a very good result Although I'm not entirely surprised. Living in Ireland, I followed the World Cup qualifiers with Ireland and Israel in the same group, and Israel left a good impression, they seem to be improving rapidly. Would be very interesting to see them appearing in a major tournament.

Also, for the fans of the minnows (like me): UEFA.COM has an excellent article on Malta's 2-1 victory over Hungary, their 3rd victory in 25 years in the Euro qualifiers...
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[2mas]

I renamed this thread to simply "Euro 2008".

[Gerrit]

What a dreadful result yesterday... Losing at home to Bosnia is a shock, and a shame

OK, in theory there's no need to panic. With the top-2 teams qualifying directly, Norway just needs to beat Greece at home to get into the top-2 again.

But still, losing at home to Bosnia cannot be good for the confidence of the team, and then there's a game coming up versus Turkey who are in impressive form... Hopefully a revenge versus the Turks but I'd say a draw would be a good result.




My native Belgium always help to put things into a perspective luckily... worse than Belgium is impossible. Against Portugal, I saw a belgian side which was dominated 90 minutes long, and simply ridiculised in the second half. The Portuguese must have thought they were playing Luxembourg... 4-0 was a good result for Belgium, with a bit less luck it was 7-0 or 8-0. What a dreadful performance, the worst I've seen from Belgium in many years. I think it's time for a new manager really, the system fails totally and some players are really underperforming once they wear the national jersey.

Although to qualify for Euro 2008 it's too late anyway, it will be a battle between Portugal, Poland and Finland. Finland qualifying would be nice, I think they've never reached a major tournament before?




Ireland and N.Ireland saved the day for me a bit... Ireland's performance was not good, but they did win vs Wales. The first soccer game ever in the historical Croke Park stadium, and right at this occassion the first goal is scored by a man named Stephen Ireland. That's a nice one for the history books With the Czech Republic losing to Germany, Ireland suddenly is back in the race to Switzerland/Austria!

Northern Ireland beat Liechtenstein 1-4 with a hattrick by David Healy, just like vs Spain. Some papers now called him the best striker ever for NI (what about George Best then? )
NI play Sweden at home on Wednesday in a battle for the top position in the group.




Green Apes, congrats with a well-deserved draw vs England! I saw the game on TV. Very nice atmosphere in Ramat Gan, very colourful and vocally present audience. The team missed Colautti a bit, but defensively Israel was well organised. Awat played a very good game, some excellent saves on the few English shots on goal.

PS: I supported Israel on this occasion. Interesting country versus Ireland's biggest rivals. Easy choice.
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Skotten]

Scotland are in a good position althought the tough games are still ahead. If they can qualify from this group that would be some result.

[Gerrit]

Wednesday it's the top-of-the-table clash NI-Sweden, of Norn Ireland wins it they become top of the group (ahead of Denmark, Sweden and Spain! )

Will be extremely hard to get in though : all was sold out long in advance, and the black market sales usually sell tickets at sky-high prices.

If I cannot get in, then I hope to find a pub with satellite dish to watch Israel-Estonia or Turkey-Norway on TV.



Let's hope Norway recovers from that defeat and proves it was a once-off off-day. A win versus Turkey would be a superb result, though in an away game I'd say if they get a draw it'd be a very good result. If Turkey then beats Greece at home and Norway also beats Greece at home, then Norge is in second spot (and who will then still care about the Bosnian game?)

Heia Norge!!
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Yigit]

Turkey will lose, because of the win in Greece, Turkey will be relaxed and won't care a lot about this game... It's a typical behaviour of our people And Norway can beat Turkey because even if we won comfortably against Greece, it wasn't because we were playing good, it was Greece that played really bad, and Nikopolidis was awful. But still Turkey has one of the most talented midfields in Europe, so if Norwegian defense-midfield can't make a good pressure and let Turkey handle the ball, it'll be hard to win for Norway. But if Norway forces the Turkish midfield to turn the ball over, Norway will have a better chance to win.
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Since 1917...

[Gerrit]

Gutted, absolutely gutted. So close to a superb victory that would get Norway in the running again. And then one of the biggest possible mistakes a goalkeeper can make. FFS, even I'd have stopped that shot!

Truly a shame, now Greece is running away. OK, the two hardest away games are gone and Turkey and Greece still have a trip to Oslo to come. Still, three poins away vs Turkey would have been a great asset.



Luckily I got some Norn Iron goodness to celebrate. Northern Ireland are leading their group, in front of Denmark, Sweden and Spain!! Who predicted this a year ago would have been taken to a mental institution, but look: NI are heading to Euro 2008! Hail hail David Healy, his 28th and 29th goals in his NI career, and now the record goalscorer ever in the green shirt (some paper called him better than George Best, guess that's the euphoria of the moment though...)
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Skotten]

Viking must be hoping that Myhre does'nt make too many mistakes for them otherwise they could be back into another relegation fight.

[Green Apes]

Sorry I've been away for awhile but now I'm kinda back

Israel lost to Croatia in Ramat Gan 4-3 I guess some of you know already, tied with England 1-1 and kick the **** out of Estonia 4-0.
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~GA

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[Gerrit]

How come Colautti was not playing versus England?

I saw that game on TV. Very good atmosphere at Ramat Gan. One of the banners along the field was saying "welcome to Isra-HELL"
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Green Apes]

He had yellow cards problem or something like that.
Yeah thats one of the most exciting signs

happy easter all?
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~GA

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[Gerrit]

By the way, it was 0-0 not 1-1, wasn't it?

Anyway, good easter indeed, but it's not the same with the new Pope. The old one's Dutch was always so funny it made it worth listening to the whole speech. The new one always has an evil grin somehow...





Anyway, happy easter. And to Green Apes (I hope I spell it correctly) : happy Peseach!

By the way GA, I may come to Israel in the near future. Nothing decided yet but a few people I chat with near Tel Aviv are tempting me to come over and I am quite interested to do so. If it will happen depends on if I can stay with them for free though, as my wallet couldn't afford two weeks hotel... If someone offers me a free bed to sleep in (and one of them seriously considers it) then I'm coming to Israel. Very interesting and diverse country so I hope it goes ahead ; and I heard the girls are nice as well
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Green Apes]

Pesah is over damit 3 weeks holiday went to fast.

That would be so great if you came over, you can come sleep at my house though I live in Haifa not in Tel Aviv, it won't be a problem to take a train there, I could also take you to a game or 2, just tell me what your up to I'll be glad to invite you over
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~GA

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[Gerrit]

I will send a PM about that. I'd love to come over, Israel's a really interesting country. And yeah, I need to see a few stadiums and games then!

Anyway, I'll send a PM during my next break at work (damned, these 15 minutes breaks fly by...)

PS: is it Pesah of Peseah? I have seen several spellings of it... Same for the Israeli goalkeeper, the press in Europe never seems to agree on how to write his name. Awat is right, isn't it? Sometimes the papers write is Aouate...
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Rosenborg, forever pride of the North!

[Skotten]

Feel free to move/merge this topic, i couldn't find another one in this forum to talk about the national team!

Watched the first half against Greece, great game!

Iversen is playing well, surprised to hear that Riseth was named on the bench. Gamst has played well and offcourse Carew is proving to be a handful. Will Braaten get on at some point i wonder, it might depend on the score but i think Norge have to try and win this game.

[Skotten]

Marek Sapara is playing ok for Slovakia despite being 2-3 down too.

[Skotten]

Thank you.

2-2. Not what was needed but i think Greece deserved a point after hitting the post/bar in the 2nd half. Norway tried their hardest but it means that the group is still open. Greece however will believe they're favourites after this result.

[attach]

Deserved a point?

Say no more...
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- Jeg var i Molde ett år, og var så uheldig - eller heldig - at vi rykket ned, flirer Strand.

[Skotten]

Great result for Scotland though!

[Engelsk]

What a result for Scotland!

A great win by England!


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[Lloyd]

On a different note. English fans are desperate for Israel to grab a point against Russia, if they don't the english are out

Will the Israel grap point, or even, should they'd be to bothered about getting a point

[2mas]

Iversen, Riseth, Skjelbred and Tettey are all in the squad for against Turkey and Malta.

Read more: Quartet for Norway