International Football thread

[mikesiva]

Benteke scores after 7 seconds.

Fastest ever goal in a competitive international.

Can a game against Gibraltar be classed as competitive

I really struggle to see why teams like Gibraltar are able to play in the group stages...teams with a certain ranking should go through an elimination stage, as they do in the Concacaf World Cup qualifying.

[mikesiva]

I presume San Marino play the 'big boys' in an effort they will improve, but sitting back and getting hammered doesn't help.

My point exactly...they sit back and get hammered, because they play nobody but the big boys, and have no confidence. It's like expecting Bangladesh to improve as a Test cricket nation by playing India all the time....

IMHO, the Europe World Cup qualifying should be either six groups of seven, or seven groups of six only. The teams ranked outside the top 90 should play a league among themselves. That would make it 13 or 14 teams to play a league to choose two or three teams to play with the big boys. My preliminary league would include Andorra, San Marino, Malta, Liechtenstein, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Belarus, Finland and Latvia. Three teams from this group would advance to the real qualifiers, and if there are any good teams among them, such as Georgia, then the cream would rise to the top....

But watching farcical matches such as England vs a lacking-in-self-confidence San Marino is a cynical money-spinning waste of everyone's time....

This is something I said last year...and I would throw Gibraltar into this group.

[Aidan11]

Especially with European countries ever growing.


I think the in qualifying for the 1966 WC tournament some teams were only in groups of 3.

[Aidan11]

IF England do badly I wonder how many of our fickle press turn on Southgate saying he was wrong to drop Rooney.

[yuppie]

IF England do badly I wonder how many of our fickle press turn on Southgate saying he was wrong to drop Rooney.

He is damned if he does, damned if he dosent.

[Gingerfinch]

IF England do badly I wonder how many of our fickle press turn on Southgate saying he was wrong to drop Rooney.

He is damned if he does, damned if he dosent.

I think he's in a good position. We are in a pretty low state at present, what with the Euro performance, and the Big Sam scandal. A few decent, hard working performances and results is all we want after this year.

[yuppie]

The England game is being shown live on Swedish TV. Result.

[andy]

putting myself through the pain of watching this for some reason...hate ITV's coverage!

[mikesiva]

The way the English media go on and on about rooney you would think his career was as good as messi.

Dier with some rubbish defending.

[yuppie]

Hart did well there.

Englands defense does not look solid.

[sussexpob]

Great backpass that!

[Aidan11]

Nearly went behind there.

[yuppie]

Great backpass that!

Best get Rooney back into that position quickly.

[Gingerfinch]

You just know Rooney will come on and score.

[yuppie]

Dier is not having a great game so far.