Turkey have had two brilliant results in their opening qualifiers - won 4-2 against Netherlands and 3-0 away to Norway, the two teams they’ll be competing against for the automatic qualifying position.
Feel sorry for Haaland. Will be one of the best players to never play in a WC, unless something drastically changes in Norway.
Tbf I haven’t seen a worse pool of players in their history. Their front 3 tonight play for Preston Luton and WBA. The days of Prem Irish 11 are long gone.
Ireland have a poor selection of players BUT no way are they as bad as Kenny is making them. As a manager of a smaller international country you have to find a way of getting results
Said it the other day, Luxembourg arent the shite "minnows" that they used to be anymore
Granted they're not fantastic either, and this will be a shock result for the Republic but Luxembourg have learnt how to win games not just through the Nations League but have started getting respectable points in World Cup / Euro Qualifiers too.
Its a sign of how International Football is ever changing and is partly why they shouldnt change the format of the Qualifiers so the likes of England / Germany dont have to face the San Marino's or Andorra's of Europe
Back in the 80s we beat Turkey 8-0 and beat Iceland 6-1 in our first meeting just twelve years before they knocked us out of Euro 2016 so its a good sign that International teams can seriously improve if they put the effort in behind the scenes
Ireland have a poor selection of players BUT no way are they as bad as Kenny is making them. As a manager of a smaller international country you have to find a way of getting results
Ireland used to have a decent side and nearly always be in contention for qualifying, now they're just a dreadful side made up of average Championship players.
But @ForeverAddickted is right, Luxembourg are not the mugs that we beat 9-0 about 30 years ago. Just looking through their squad they have players at Mainz, Young boys, Dynamo Kiev, Standard Liege, Nacional. They have a few players playing in the Luxembourg league but aside from that all their players are in respectable leagues around Europe.
What is the point in San Marino playing international football??
They started off as the worst international football team in the world & it's gone downhill from there over the years!!
They aren't the worst team despite what the world rankings say. They would put someone like Guam to the sword, the problem is they don't get to play these really poor Pacific teams so they just rack up loses to the powerful European teams and end up bottom of the rankings.
Also failed to score in 8 of those 10 games. Pretty pathetic really given that in those 10 games they've played Finland twice, Wales twice, Slovakia (conceded 2 to Malta last night), Bulgaria and Luxembourg.
Ireland used to have a decent side and nearly always be in contention for qualifying, now they're just a dreadful side made up of average Championship players.
But @ForeverAddickted is right, Luxembourg are not the mugs that we beat 9-0 about 30 years ago. Just looking through their squad they have players at Mainz, Young boys, Dynamo Kiev, Standard Liege, Nacional. They have a few players playing in the Luxembourg league but aside from that all their players are in respectable leagues around Europe.
Even their League teams are doing better these days, knocking out Rangers and scaring the shite out of AC Milan in the Europa League a few years ago - Under the Nations League / Euros format I wont be surprised to see them reach a Finals soon
They got promoted from League D last season and almost got into League B this time round - People might mock the Nations League as being a tin pot trophy but Luxembourg are an example of how its actually working.
Play more games against teams at the level you're at and you learn to win, rather than learn how to park the bus.
Vast sums of money and international workers in Luxembourg too. They're going to have a far bigger pool of potential players than they've been used to
Whereas San Marino are very selective in terms of who can get a passport, so straight away are hopping on one leg trying to compete with everyone else in Europe who can rely on imports from the Caribbean | Africa | South America because they can hand out passports after just a few years of residency etc.
Comments
- Lopes
- Cédric Soares
- José
- Rúben Dias
- Cancelo
- Bruno Fernandes
- Danilo
- Oliveira
- Bernardo Silva
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Jota
That line up is quite frightening. Clearly Serbia aren't that frightened though.Republic of Ireland 0-1 Luxembourg
That is only Luxembourg's fourth away victory ever in World Cup or European Championship qualifiers. In 125 games.
Four wins, 10 draws, 111 defeats.
Their last such win was over a decade ago, 2-1 against Switzerland in September 2008
Granted they're not fantastic either, and this will be a shock result for the Republic but Luxembourg have learnt how to win games not just through the Nations League but have started getting respectable points in World Cup / Euro Qualifiers too.
Its a sign of how International Football is ever changing and is partly why they shouldnt change the format of the Qualifiers so the likes of England / Germany dont have to face the San Marino's or Andorra's of Europe
Back in the 80s we beat Turkey 8-0 and beat Iceland 6-1 in our first meeting just twelve years before they knocked us out of Euro 2016 so its a good sign that International teams can seriously improve if they put the effort in behind the scenes
But @ForeverAddickted is right, Luxembourg are not the mugs that we beat 9-0 about 30 years ago. Just looking through their squad they have players at Mainz, Young boys, Dynamo Kiev, Standard Liege, Nacional. They have a few players playing in the Luxembourg league but aside from that all their players are in respectable leagues around Europe.
They got promoted from League D last season and almost got into League B this time round - People might mock the Nations League as being a tin pot trophy but Luxembourg are an example of how its actually working.
Play more games against teams at the level you're at and you learn to win, rather than learn how to park the bus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino_nationality_law