By Paul Vance
Published Sep 6, 2010 @ 23:30 PM EST.
The over-expectant English public will be demanding victory, but the inconsistent Swiss will provide tricky opposition in Basel, a venue where England has previously won 3 times. Basel also played host to the last occasion of a Swiss victory over the English, back in 1981. That was Switzerland’s only victory over England since winning two of the first three meetings between the countries back in the 30’s and 40’s.
Their form throughout the qualifying and Finals for the last World Cup, make the Swiss an unpredictable package, while it’s anyone’s guess which England will turn-up - the one that can breeze easily and efficiently through qualification, or the cautious, nervy version that normally features in tournament play.
Much may depend on how recent newspaper speculation affects Wayne Rooney and on which of the sides handles the absence of key players, best. England has particular problems at the heart of their defense, adding Michael Dawson to an injury-list that already included Rio Ferdinand and John Terry. Philippe Senderos and Marco Eggimann will miss out for the hosts, who may also be missing expectant father, goalkeeper Diego Benaglio.
Interestingly, English-born right-back Scott Sutter who recently played Champions League football for Young Boys Berne against boyhood heroes Tottenham Hotspur, hopes now to upset his favorite national team. "Switzerland has become my home," the 24-year-old said. "However, it is doubly special to be in the squad to face the nation where I was born and grew up."
Elsewhere in Group G, Bulgaria who have not won in five, will be hoping for improvement after their 4-0 battering at Wembley, when they take on Montenegro. It’s the debut campaign for the Montenegrins in the European Championships having made their bow last Friday by narrowly defeating Wales in Podgorica.
Group C
The two sides met in Sofia once previously almost exactly a year ago in World Cup qualifying, the Bulgarians running out winners by 4-1. Seeking revenge, Europe’s newest member nation will again be without their 20 year-old playmaker Stefan Jovetic, who scored their goal that afternoon in Sofia, He’s likely to be out until February after recently damaging a knee in Fiorentina training.
Serbia’s disappointment at not progressing out of the group stage in South Africa after defeating Germany will only be tempered by another successful qualifying campaign.
Having travelled north to defeat the Faroes in their Group C opener, it should be a much hotter atmosphere closer to home for match 2, when they take on another of the former Yugoslav republics, Slovenia, in Belgrade. The Slovenes, themselves, thought they had qualified for the knock-out stages in Africa, only to be thwarted by Landon Donovan’s late, late goal for the USA against Algeria.
But a similar shock was experienced on Friday evening in Maribor, when Northern Ireland hit them with a sucker-punch winner with 20 minutes left. Slovenia had dominated most of the proceedings, and hardly deserved to lose, but with no points yet on the board, it makes avoiding defeat against Serbia all the more important.
All four previous games between Slovenia and Yugoslavia/Serbia & Montenegro have each ended in score draws, most notably a memorable 3-3 at the 2000 Euro Finals in Charleroi, Belgium. Technically this is the first meeting between Serbia and Slovenis as independent states.
Looking as nervous as a kitten, Italy’s first win in eight matches brought relief to new coach Cesare Prandelli, in his second game in charge. His team however had a scare in the 31st min when Palermo ‘keeper Salvatore Sirigu’s error allowed Segei Senjov to put Estonia into an unlikely lead.
And it could have been worse, Sander Puri’s powerful shot from distance just after the restart struck Sirigu’s cross-bar. But the Azzurri regrouped to turn the game on it’s head on the hour mark through Antonio Cassano (60) and Leonardo Bonucci (63) who each scored from Pirlo corners.
They should still be too good for Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands, comprehensively beaten by Serbia at the weekend, and who has not managed to avoid defeat in their last 15 competitive games on the road.
Group A
There are three matches scheduled in Group A, with the pick being the clash between in Istanbul where Belgium are the visitors.
Guus Hiddink’s Turkey made a solid start in the world’s largest land-locked country on Friday, hitting three without replay against Kazakhstan, who has now failed to find the net in any of their three meetings. Turkey included Bursapor captain Omer Erdogan in their starting line-up, his first cap at the age of 33.
The Turks will face a much stiffer challenge when they take the Belgians who lost narrowly to resurgent Germany in Brussels, Miroslav Klose’s 53rd international goal (102 caps) proving significant. It was the seventh meeting of the sides since German reunification, and the Belgians are yet to avoid defeat.
Georges Leekens’ men, in his second spell in charge of the national team, really need to take something from the game in Istanbul, or elimination could be staring them in the face very early into the campaign. They’ve never lost in three visits to Turkey, but current away form is troubling for the Belgians. During their most recent WC qualifying campaign, they lost in Armenia, Estonia, Bosnia and Spain, the latter by 5-0. For Turkey not to break their Belgian duck, the visitors on Tuesday must find some road form, and quickly.
Also in this Group, Austria and Germany would appear to have straightforward tasks at home to former Soviet Republics, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan respectively.
In Salzburg, Austria and Kazakhstan meet for the first-ever time. The Austrians yielded some good home results in their last World Cup qualifying campaign, beating France, Romania, Lithuania and the Faroes, and losing only to Serbia, and will expect to get off to a winning start. Kazakhstan can point only to wins over the likes of Andorra (twice), Oman and Estonia in their last 20 outings.
It would be a massive shock if Azerbaijan were to come away from Cologne with much less than a heavy defeat. Their only victory in the last 16 competitive games came in Vaduz against Liechtenstein. A year ago almost to the day in a WC qualifier the same Germany – Azerbaijan fixture resulted in a 4-0 romp for the hosts.
Group B
Group B’s top game on Tuesday sees Slovakia travel to Moscow to take on Russia. Games between the countries in the past have been close with one win apiece, and 3 ties.
Dick Advocaat’s Russia had little trouble in disposing of Andorra in their first game thanks to Pavel Pogrebnyak’s brace, but Slovakia were forced to wait for Filip Kolosko’s winning goal a minute into added time in Bratislava against Macedonia. The Macedonians reduced to 10 men in the 85th minute through Vance Sikov’s red-card for time-wasting would have registered and eighth game without defeat had they hung on.
Like Macedonia, Armenia will consider themselves a little unlucky in losing their opening encounter to a late Keith Fahey goal against Giovanni Trappatoni’s Ireland in Yerevan.
Macedonia will be favored in Skopje on Tuesday however, Armenia having lost each of their last seven competitive games on the road.
Andorra has lost 25 matches in a row, and has not won in their last 40. It should be a comfortable evening at home for the Republic of Ireland then. The visitors played in Dublin in 2001 respectably losing 3-1, and would probably settle for the same outcome.
Ireland’s only defeat in their last 16 competitive games was decided by Nicolas Anelka’s solitary goal for France in the World Cup Play-off first-leg in Dublin last November, so it’s difficult to see an upset in this one.
Group D
In Group D, France continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, and there could be another story brewing.
There could be easier tests for Les Bleus in light of current troubles than a visit to Sarajevo to meet Safet Susic’s Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Despite being fairly inconsistent, the Bosnians were good enough to finish second behind Spain in the recent World Cup qualifying, narrowly losing the chance to go to the finals at the hands of the much more experienced Portuguese in the two-legged Play-off.
France and new coach Laurent Blanc is desperate to put a chronic run of one win (v Costa Rica in a Paris friendly) in ten games, including the last four successive defeats, behind them. Part of that disastrous run included the most dismal World Cup Finals campaign of all the competing nations in South Africa.
The defeat by Belarus at the weekend was probably more than most French fans could stomach. France are currently at low ebb and could hardly get any worse, but have they yet hit rock bottom? With a dangerous task in prospect in Sarajevo only a brave man would confidently predict a French success.
Group D, Tuesday, also sees the triumphant Belarus take on a Romanian side which failed to deliver against Albania, a country they had defeated in every one of their previous 10 meetings dating back to 1949. Belarus will break more new ground should they win in Minsk on Tuesday. They’ve never avoided defeat against Romania whom they have met twice before.
Albania will be confident of following up the point they plundered in Bucharest with a victory in Tirana over Luxembourg. The Grand Duchy has failed to pierce the Albanian rearguard in three previous attempts. Bogdan Stancu’s goal for Romania on Friday was the first conceded by Albania in 6 games, five of which resulted in 1-0 victories, so it seems unlikely that Luxembourg will break their non-scoring run in games between the nations. Luxembourg has failed to win any of their last 15 games, and was three down in 16 minutes before Bosnia took their foot of the pedal on Friday.
Greece, winners in 2004, will be disappointed not to have secured a winning start in Group F against Georgia, and their second outing against Croatia looks even more difficult. Fresh from 3-0 victory in Riga, Croatia will be aiming to defeat the Greeks on home soil for the first time. The two previous encounters have each finished all square.
Also in the same group, Georgia and Israel meet in Tibilisi for the first time in a competitive fixture, although in four previous friendly meetings dating back to 2004, the Israelis have two wins and a loss.
Without a competitive victory for 3 years, Georgia almost halted that run on Friday, after Aleksander Iashvili gave them a 3rd min lead against Greece in Piraeus, but the Georgians were unable to hold on and the game finished all square.
Malta’s first competitive goal on the road for over 3 years failed to unsettle the Israelis who won 3-1. Yossi Benayoun did the damage with a hat-trick in Tel Aviv. The Chelsea man also had a goal disallowed after 75 seconds.
Malta will be hoping they can win a competitive fixture for the first time in 4 years when they take on Latvia in Valetta. On Friday, the Latvians left Europe’s most capped player Vitalijs Astafjevs (now 163 caps) on the bench and failed to shine, losing at home for the first time in five, to Slaven Bilic’s Croatia who were always comfortable. It’s been all downhill for the Baltic nation since they surprisingly managed to qualify for the Euros in 2004.
A Maltese victory would perhaps not be that much of a surprise - the nations have met 3 times in friendlies, twice in Valetta and once in Riga, and each time the result has gone with home advantage.
Group H
In Group H, the vastly contrasting styles of Norway and Portugal should provide an interesting evening in Oslo. Despite not losing, the Portuguese won’t be happy after conceding 4 goals in a competitive match for the first time in over 18 years. They’ll certainly look at the draw with Cyprus as two points dropped, rather than one gained. For the island nation, it represented one of their best results in history and the first time they’d scored and avoided defeat on Portuguese soil on their fifth visit. It was also the first time they’d ever scored 4 goals away from home in a competitive fixture.
Norway successfully came back from a half-time deficit to see off Iceland in Reykjavik, but they will have to break new ground if they are to double their points tally to 6. Portugal has never lost to the Norwegian’s in 8 meetings, which have yielded 6 wins.
Elsewhere in Group H, Iceland, minus the omitted Eidar Gudjohnsen, is already facing an uphill battle after that loss in Reykjavik to their Nordic neighbours. Now they must try salvage something from a fixture that has been unkind in the past. In eight previous trips to face Denmark they have lost every one, and in 17 meetings between the nations, the Icelandic team has managed to avoid defeat only 3 times, each of those games finishing scoreless in Reykjavik.
The Danes will be looking to put a disappointing World Cup Finals performance behind them, and should have too much for their visitors.
The Czech Republic will want to get their Group I campaign underway with a win when they play their opening qualifier in Olomouc on Tuesday. Lithuania is the visitor. The Baltic state began with a dour scoreless draw with Scotland a few days ago and won’t relish visiting opponents against whom they have lost all four previous meetings between the countries.
Scotland may feel they could have come away from Friday’s opening game against Lithuania with more than a point, but they should collect the maximum three, at Hampden Park on Tuesday. Liechtenstein has not won in their last 21 games and begun at the weekend, with a 0-4 defeat at the hands of World Champions Spain for whom Fernando Torres scored twice.
Group E
Finally in Group E, Sweden, having just recorded their sixth successive defeat of Hungary, thanks to the first international goals of AZ Alkmaar’s Pontus Wernbloom, will fully expect another maximum points-haul when San Marino visits Stockholm. Sweden’s opponents have not scored in nine, last avoided defeat 35 games ago against Lichtenstein in 2004, and frankly offered little resistance in losing 0-5 to World Cup Finalists Holland on Friday. They’ve met before in Euro qualifying for the 2004 Finals, Sweden running out winners, 5-0 and 6-0.
Hungary have lost their last 5 and haven’t won in 7, but will be hopeful of breaking that run against improving Moldova, who has lost only once in their last 5. The countries have met 5 times (Hungary two wins, Moldova one) including in the last Euro qualifying series where they shared victories. The Moldovans will be quietly confident of taking something from Budapest after making a winning start against Finland in Chisnau. But they did play against 10 men for most of that game after Sami Hyppia’s 36th minute dismissal. It proved their first competitive win in over three years, the last coming against . . . . . . . . Hungary.
Its 28 matches since Holland lost in regulation time and 20 since they lost in regulation time in a competitive fixture, laying aside extra time defeats by Russia (last Euros) and Spain (World Cup Final). They had no problem dispatching a poor San Marino on Friday and will expect to build on that by doubling the new campaign’s points tally by seeing off Finland in Rotterdam.
The Finns have an abysmal record against the Dutch winning just one of twelve encounters, which was way back in 1950. They’ve tied twice since then, but the Dutch have won 7 of the last 8 meetings dating back to 1974.
