Genie Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Holland 2 down just after HT to Bulgaria, they are shit these days aren't they. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Belgium losing at home to Greece as well, goal 20 seconds into the 2nd half Martinez working his magic again 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Holland fecked up my accy. They will be back though eventually I think...their youth infrastructure is far superior to Britain's so they should be back in next 5-10 years. Think this is just a terrible generation of players now likes of Robben are well into their 30s. Apparently they started a 17 year old at CB who's played 2 games in the Dutch league? That is a shambles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 3 hours ago, Jarpie said: Finland lost again, and even as armchair watcher I can see exactly where the problem is with tacticts, they try to play too fancy when they should be playing more direct and simple because the skill-level just doesn't cut it. Get Woy back....took qualification to the last game didn't he? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarpie Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 9 minutes ago, VillaChris said: Get Woy back....took qualification to the last game didn't he? Yeah but our attack was so inefficient under him, imo we were closer in 1998 qualification when we'd gone to playoffs against Yugoslavia if we'd won Hungary in the last game. "Going into the last match, Finland would have needed a win at home to Hungary to earn a place in the play-offs. They led the game 1–0 going into injury time, but scored an own goal, and once again the dreams of qualification were over." In late 90s and early 2000s we probably had our best football generation with Litmanen, Tainio, Kolkka, Johansson etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 (edited) Yes 98-2004 was Finland's best chance of making a tournament as you had major stars in Litmanen, Hyypia, good keepers in Jussi and Anti Niemi and a solid core with likes of Forssell, Tainio, Johnathan Johannsson, Kuqi all decent players in the English league. It reminds me of Iceland now....a major star in Glyfi and a decent core of reliable solid players. Looking at the current Finland side very little to be excited of given Eremenko is banned now. Pukki did little at Celtic. I did see Joel Pohjanpalo score a hat-trick for Leverkusen start of the season, is he seen as your best prospect by a mile? Edited March 25, 2017 by VillaChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarpie Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 (edited) 7 hours ago, VillaChris said: Yes 98-2004 was Finland's best chance of making a tournament as you had major stars in Litmanen, Hyypia, good keepers in Jussi and Anti Niemi and a solid core with likes of Forssell, Tainio, Johnathan Johannsson, Kuqi all decent players in the English league. It reminds me of Iceland now....a major star in Glyfi and a decent core of reliable solid players. Looking at the current Finland side very little to be excited of given Eremenko is banned now. Pukki did little at Celtic. I did see Joel Pohjanpalo score a hat-trick for Leverkusen start of the season, is he seen as your best prospect by a mile? Probably, Pukki is not completely lost cause but I remember reading comments that he's not exactly most enthuatistic about training. Most of our promising youths goes to hockey which is understamdable. Our big problem has always been incostistency, we might win Portugal 2-0 and next lose to Moldova 2-0. Edited March 26, 2017 by Jarpie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Buffon got his 1000th appearance... and another clean sheet. What a legend of the game. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 3 hours ago, VillaChris said: Holland fecked up my accy. They will be back though eventually I think...their youth infrastructure is far superior to Britain's so they should be back in next 5-10 years. Think this is just a terrible generation of players now likes of Robben are well into their 30s. Apparently they started a 17 year old at CB who's played 2 games in the Dutch league? That is a shambles. will they though, Ajax has always been a major developer for Dutch football and not much has come through academy recently. Their squad at moment has 1 world class player, 1 used to be world class player and a lot of players that have been rejects at clubs recently like Lens, Vorm, Janssen, De Jong, Cillessen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 10 hours ago, andym said: Belgium losing at home to Greece as well, goal 20 seconds into the 2nd half Martinez working his magic again Great result by us last night, ashame about lukakus behaviour though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Belgium, what a mystery, yes have had shit managers (Wilmots and now Martinez) but even then, the player have to take a lot of blame. They are frankly overrated and have a very weak mentality that runs right through the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 26, 2017 Moderator Share Posted March 26, 2017 Belgium's biggest issue is the manager. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 (edited) 7 hours ago, Zatman said: will they though, Ajax has always been a major developer for Dutch football and not much has come through academy recently. Their squad at moment has 1 world class player, 1 used to be world class player and a lot of players that have been rejects at clubs recently like Lens, Vorm, Janssen, De Jong, Cillessen Feyenoord tends to produce more these days doesn't it? It's not something you can predict straight away given the current players would be 15 or 16 years old. Looking at their current crop you've got Virgil Van Djik who missed this round with injury. I don't understand why they didn't Wesley Hoedt last night in defence as he's a solid player for Lazio who are having a really good season, same with de Vrji. Then you have likes of Strootman and Wjandulam (home games only) in midfield. Jorde Claise looked alright in the world cup but has he done anything for Southampton I think they lack massive quality upfront now though...the era of RVP, Huntaleer is over and Robben will probably retire from the national team after this campaign. A showpony like Memphis Depay and Bas Dost isn't going to cut it really so they need a decent striker to come through as Janssen hasn't turned out as well as I thought he would at Spurs. I just don't think they'll go in terminal decline, there's too much raw talent that comes through but they probably need to have a serious debate over their style of play now. I'd actually say they're on par with England but with England's better seeding they get easier qualifying groups. England would struggle in a group with Sweden and France after all. Edited March 26, 2017 by VillaChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 1 hour ago, TrentVilla said: Belgium's biggest issue is the manager. The last two actually. I have defended Martinez but he is so stuck in his ways. Greece down to 10 men and offerering no threat, if that was Enrique he would have took off two defenders. oh no not Martinez he just changed like for like and didn't even bring Benteke on when there were so many crosses going into the box. And Fellani playing ahead of Dembele! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 26, 2017 Moderator Share Posted March 26, 2017 56 minutes ago, PaulC said: The last two actually. I have defended Martinez but he is so stuck in his ways. Greece down to 10 men and offerering no threat, if that was Enrique he would have took off two defenders. oh no not Martinez he just changed like for like and didn't even bring Benteke on when there were so many crosses going into the box. And Fellani playing ahead of Dembele! I've said it for years, Martinez is a poor manager. I said it when we were linked with him both times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Belgium haven't had much of a history of international success either, so I don't think they really believe that they're going to win things. It takes a proper manager to sort that out. I can't think of many other nations who all of a sudden go from mediocrity for decades to having ridiculous depth of quality in such a short time. I think if they hadn't lost so many defenders at the Euros they may have won it anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 I thought they'd win the Euros but we saw in their opener v Italy and also v Wales against well drilled defensive teams they have no answer and just play as individuals. They remind me so much of the England team between 2004-08. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Azerbaijan just equalised v Germany. Wouldn't shock me if we see them in a tournament in the near future, they've improved a lot from last 10 years when they were whipping boys in a group, they could easily finish above Czechs and Norway in this section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 59 minutes ago, VillaChris said: Azerbaijan just equalised v Germany. Wouldn't shock me if we see them in a tournament in the near future, they've improved a lot from last 10 years when they were whipping boys in a group, they could easily finish above Czechs and Norway in this section. they were slaughtered by Northern Ireland last time out and think they are very far off. They only struggled to beat San Marino 1-0 as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 3 minutes ago, Zatman said: they were slaughtered by Northern Ireland last time out and think they are very far off. They only struggled to beat San Marino 1-0 as well Norn Iron are comfortably the second best team in the group. Azeri took 4 points off Czech and Norway without conceding a goal. It will be interesting if Norway have a late rally under Lagerback, their squad is slowly starting to improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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