Willempie wrote on 10/05/10 at 13:18:14:


No.

Next Tuesday it's time for one of most important games in group E. Holland-Sweden, and with van der Vaart instead of de Jong I guess the home team will be aiming to play attacking football instead of aggressive football. 

Last encounter some years ago was 0-0 and the dutchies won on penalties. :( But that was during Lagerbäck's "safety first" era. Since then Sweden has a new coach and a new set-up plus some more technical players than last time - so, this will be the first real test of the new era. 

Hopefully, it will be a game worth watching and 2-2 a likely result, but a 3-2 home win is of course not unlikely either.. :/

Are there any other interesting games in the other groups to look forward to?

I don't want to blame Henry. But Belarus winning a game isn't nearly as surprising as Cyprus scoring 4 goals to draw away to Portugal! WOW!

Meanwhile, Defoe scored a hattrick.  Why couldn't he do that about a month ago?

This week the first qualifying games start off! :)

[b]Group A:[/b] Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan

[b]Group B:[/b] Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, FYR Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra

[b]Group C:[/b] Italy, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faeroe Islands

[b]Group D:[/b] France, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania

[b]Group E:[/b] Holland, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino

[b]Group F:[/b] Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta

[b]Group G:[/b] England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales, Montenegro

[b]Group H:[/b] Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland

[b]Group I:[/b] Spain, Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania, Liechtenstein

Co-hosts Poland and Ukraine are already clear, which leaves 14 vacancies to fill, 9 group winners plus the best runner up go through directly. The other 2nds will play each other for the last four places.


It will be interesting to see if France and Italy will bounce back after their World Cup disasters. And since Sweden and Holland is in the same group, I hope all the best Dutch players have retired after the disappointing final. ;) 

Though, we have Ibra back in the team again and a new manager with a more attacking philosophy, so we might have a shot at taking the place anyway, though Dutchland is certainly the group favourite.