There were a whole bunch of friendlies plus two qualifiers just after the November rankings were released, plus a friendly between Poland and Bosnia&Herzegovina on 10th December. Looking at the results of these games, I predict:
Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina drew 2-2, but won their earlier friendlies against Ivory Coast (19) and Slovakia (18) respectively, so both teams should gain. Their opponents will lose out.
England will probably fall in points, though maybe not position, as will Germany. France should gain after beating England.
Portugal beat first-placed Spain 4-0, incredibly. That gets them the maximum possible points for a friendly game - 600 - and may result in them even overtaking England (dare I say it). The Netherlands, who beat their opponents Turkey (29), might even go top. But that's less likely.
Expect Luxembourg, Romania, Northern Ireland and Belgium to do well after draws. Northern Ireland's was with a poorer team, but they maintain good form.
Finally, Georgia beat much better opponents in the form of Slovenia (15), and will also gain.
Showing posts with label Northern Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Northern Ireland. Show all posts
17/11/2010
European Friendlies 17/11/2010
European Games
A lot of friendlies and two Euro 2012 qualifiers today. Here are the more surprising results:
Germany only scraped a draw against much weaker opponents, but at least they did better than England who lost to rivals France. It was also disappointing for Northern Ireland to lose against African team Morocco.
More happily, Poland beat Ivory Coast, Belgium beat Russia, Georgia beat Slovenia, Bulgaria beat Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Slovakia. In each of these games, the lower-ranked side won.
Similarly, there were draws for Luxembourg, Romania and Liechtenstein against much higher-ranked Algeria, Italy and Estonia respectively.
In the Euro 2012 qualifiers there were no surprises, with Finland destroying San Marino as Croatia beat Malta.
A lot of friendlies and two Euro 2012 qualifiers today. Here are the more surprising results:
Germany only scraped a draw against much weaker opponents, but at least they did better than England who lost to rivals France. It was also disappointing for Northern Ireland to lose against African team Morocco.
More happily, Poland beat Ivory Coast, Belgium beat Russia, Georgia beat Slovenia, Bulgaria beat Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Slovakia. In each of these games, the lower-ranked side won.
Similarly, there were draws for Luxembourg, Romania and Liechtenstein against much higher-ranked Algeria, Italy and Estonia respectively.
In the Euro 2012 qualifiers there were no surprises, with Finland destroying San Marino as Croatia beat Malta.
08/10/2010
Euro 2012 Qualification: 8/10/2010 results
UEFA have drastically updated their MatchCentre to display the matches far more sensibly. I won't go into the changes, but let's just say it is much simpler to use and has much less scrolling! It also now displays team statistics, including results and averages of previous games between the two sides.
My complaints would be first that it is still not updated very well as the match goes on. It can take some time to get the 'live' results appearing, and corrections often have to be made so you can't trust what it says. [Portugal's own goal was originally credited to one of the Danish players]
Secondly, in the statistics section there are red (home) and blue (away) bars to show how many goals, cards, shots etc. each team has had. But while some of these are positive, others are negative. It can therefore be hard to see which team is dominating a game – if a team has a good number of shots but a low number of cards, it looks like an even game, but a good number of shots and high number of cards looks like a dominated game.
Most Unexpected Result: Armenia 3 – 1 Slovakia. Surprising because Armenia are 89 points lower in rank than Slovakia, who were in the World Cup!
Most Expected Result: Hungary 8 – 0 San Marino. Because San Marino are... one of the worst international football teams in the world.
Most Embarrassing Result: Serbia 1 – 3 Estonia. Serbia helped Estonia to their victory with an own goal in extra time at the end of the second half. This was the first of two own goals scored today.
Most Promising Result: Northern Ireland 0 – 0 Italy. Holding Italy to a scoreless draw is fantastic for any team. Northern Ireland would have no shame in losing to Italy, but drawing shows that their victory against Slovenia was not a fluke result. More importantly, Northern Ireland are the only team in the British Isles who didn't lose tonight! (England weren't playing; Ireland lost to Russia; Wales lost to Bulgaria; Scotland lost to the Czech Republic)
Most Unusual Result: Portugal 3 – 1 Denmark. Why Unusual? Portugal scored all the goals! At least they managed to win despite this.
Cleanest Game: Spain 3 – 1 Lithuania; Moldova 0 – 1 Netherlands; Northern Ireland 0 – 0 Italy. No cards of any kind. Spain continue the way they were going in the World Cup before the final (they were the only team to get no cards in the group stages). However, it's a very clean game for the Dutch. And Northern Ireland earn more kudos for not getting any cards against Italy, who have been known in the past to dive.
Dirtiest Game: Wales 0 – 1 Bulgaria. In this awful game one Welsh player – defender Chris Gunter (Nottingham Forest) – got a straight red card. His teammate Sam Ricketts (Bolton) got a yellow, as did four Bulgarian players including another Bolton player.
My complaints would be first that it is still not updated very well as the match goes on. It can take some time to get the 'live' results appearing, and corrections often have to be made so you can't trust what it says. [Portugal's own goal was originally credited to one of the Danish players]
Secondly, in the statistics section there are red (home) and blue (away) bars to show how many goals, cards, shots etc. each team has had. But while some of these are positive, others are negative. It can therefore be hard to see which team is dominating a game – if a team has a good number of shots but a low number of cards, it looks like an even game, but a good number of shots and high number of cards looks like a dominated game.
Most Unexpected Result: Armenia 3 – 1 Slovakia. Surprising because Armenia are 89 points lower in rank than Slovakia, who were in the World Cup!
Most Expected Result: Hungary 8 – 0 San Marino. Because San Marino are... one of the worst international football teams in the world.
Most Embarrassing Result: Serbia 1 – 3 Estonia. Serbia helped Estonia to their victory with an own goal in extra time at the end of the second half. This was the first of two own goals scored today.
Most Promising Result: Northern Ireland 0 – 0 Italy. Holding Italy to a scoreless draw is fantastic for any team. Northern Ireland would have no shame in losing to Italy, but drawing shows that their victory against Slovenia was not a fluke result. More importantly, Northern Ireland are the only team in the British Isles who didn't lose tonight! (England weren't playing; Ireland lost to Russia; Wales lost to Bulgaria; Scotland lost to the Czech Republic)
Most Unusual Result: Portugal 3 – 1 Denmark. Why Unusual? Portugal scored all the goals! At least they managed to win despite this.
Cleanest Game: Spain 3 – 1 Lithuania; Moldova 0 – 1 Netherlands; Northern Ireland 0 – 0 Italy. No cards of any kind. Spain continue the way they were going in the World Cup before the final (they were the only team to get no cards in the group stages). However, it's a very clean game for the Dutch. And Northern Ireland earn more kudos for not getting any cards against Italy, who have been known in the past to dive.
Dirtiest Game: Wales 0 – 1 Bulgaria. In this awful game one Welsh player – defender Chris Gunter (Nottingham Forest) – got a straight red card. His teammate Sam Ricketts (Bolton) got a yellow, as did four Bulgarian players including another Bolton player.
17/09/2010
FIFA/Coca-Cola Rankings Adjustment September 2010
So what about those FIFA/Coca-Cola rankings, then? Well, there have been some big changes in the European teams, with several huge shifts upwards or downwards. Most shockingly, Scotland – despite a draw and a win – have lost their position as the UK's second (and the British Isles' third) team. That place is now taken up by Northern Ireland, who managed a 14 place shift upwards to 45th, while Scotland drifted downwards to 47th.
The largest jump was from Montenegro, who are in group G with England, Wales, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Their shock victory over a very poor Bulgaria (perhaps shaken over their 4-0 defeat by England) gave them a 33 place rise to 40th in the world! Bulgaria, however, have dropped 11 places to 54th, and also lost their coach, who resigned after the bad weekend.
Another notable improvements is Cyprus, thanks to their draw with Portugal. The Cyprians go up from 63 to 43 – 20 places! Portugal hold their position in 8th. Also, the defeaters of France – Belarus – went up 23 places to 55th, while France (despite beating Bosnia-Herzegovina) drop six places to 27th.
Finally, and just for amusement, Andorra and San Marino both dropped a place (Andorra have 2 points, San Marino have 0), thanks to the Central African Republic drawing with Morocco 0-0. This gave them 30 points, and I would not be surprised if it was treated like a victory.
The largest jump was from Montenegro, who are in group G with England, Wales, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Their shock victory over a very poor Bulgaria (perhaps shaken over their 4-0 defeat by England) gave them a 33 place rise to 40th in the world! Bulgaria, however, have dropped 11 places to 54th, and also lost their coach, who resigned after the bad weekend.
Another notable improvements is Cyprus, thanks to their draw with Portugal. The Cyprians go up from 63 to 43 – 20 places! Portugal hold their position in 8th. Also, the defeaters of France – Belarus – went up 23 places to 55th, while France (despite beating Bosnia-Herzegovina) drop six places to 27th.
Finally, and just for amusement, Andorra and San Marino both dropped a place (Andorra have 2 points, San Marino have 0), thanks to the Central African Republic drawing with Morocco 0-0. This gave them 30 points, and I would not be surprised if it was treated like a victory.
03/09/2010
Euro 2012 Qualification: 3/9/2010 Results
There are always surprises
These matches will be summarized properly after the Tuesday games, when I will go over each group and the points scored in individual posts. However, here are the surprises of Friday's football:
1. Northern Ireland (59) beat Slovenia (19) giving them 1357.5 FIFA points, which is the most points achieved today by a team.
2. Belarus (78) beat France (21) giving them 1342.5 points. This would be more spectacular if France had not done so badly in the World Cup and had several players banned for today's game.
3. Georgia (110) drew with Greece (12) 1-1! Greece are an odd team who sometimes do well, and sometimes badly.
4. Cyprus (63) scored well against Portugal (8), and ended up drawing 4-4! That's going to hit Portugal hard.
5. Moldova (89) beat Finland (51) 2-0!
In the British Isles (including the Republic of Ireland) there were some good games. Only Wales lost, and England's Defoe scored a hat-trick against Bulgaria. England have now matched their home games winning streak record of 11 games. In total 55 goals were scored today.
Tuesday: More international football.
Next weekend: F1 from Italy, and the Barclays Premier League.
These matches will be summarized properly after the Tuesday games, when I will go over each group and the points scored in individual posts. However, here are the surprises of Friday's football:
1. Northern Ireland (59) beat Slovenia (19) giving them 1357.5 FIFA points, which is the most points achieved today by a team.
2. Belarus (78) beat France (21) giving them 1342.5 points. This would be more spectacular if France had not done so badly in the World Cup and had several players banned for today's game.
3. Georgia (110) drew with Greece (12) 1-1! Greece are an odd team who sometimes do well, and sometimes badly.
4. Cyprus (63) scored well against Portugal (8), and ended up drawing 4-4! That's going to hit Portugal hard.
5. Moldova (89) beat Finland (51) 2-0!
In the British Isles (including the Republic of Ireland) there were some good games. Only Wales lost, and England's Defoe scored a hat-trick against Bulgaria. England have now matched their home games winning streak record of 11 games. In total 55 goals were scored today.
Tuesday: More international football.
Next weekend: F1 from Italy, and the Barclays Premier League.
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