Wednesday's Euro 2004 qualifiers

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Israel 1/20 Draw 7/1 Malta 20/1 16:00:00
Andorra 50/1 Draw 7/1 Bulgaria 1/50 16:30:00
Moldova 11/8 Draw 9/4 Belarus 6/4 17:00:00
Russia 4/5 Draw 9/4 Switzerland 11/4 17:00:00
Denmark 8/11 Draw 11/5 Romania 10/3 18:15:00
Faroe Islands 7/4 Draw 9/4 Lithuania 6/5 18:30:00
Albania 11/8 Draw 9/4 Georgia 6/4 19:00:00
Latvia 6/4 Draw 9/4 Hungary 11/8 19:00:00
Luxembourg 16/1 Draw 5/1 Bosnia 1/10 19:00:00
Belgium 6/5 Draw 9/4 Croatia 7/4 19:15:00
Czech Rep 6/4 Draw 21/10 Holland 6/4 19:15:00
Poland 11/8 Draw 9/4 Sweden 6/4 19:15:00
Germany 2/7 Draw 7/2 Scotland 7/1 19:45:00
Serbia/Montenegro 11/4 Draw 11/5 Italy 5/6 19:45:00
Wales 8/13 Draw 9/4 Finland 4/1 19:45:00
England 1/100 Draw 7/1 Liechtenstein 100/1 20:00:00
N Ireland 10/11 Draw 11/5 Armenia 5/2 20:00:00
Slovakia 8/15 Draw 5/2 FYR Macedonia 9/2 20:15:00
Spain 1/4 Draw 4/1 Ukraine 7/1 20:45:00

from uefa.com

Group 1
France, the holders, need just a point against Slovenia in Ljubljana on Wednesday to win the group, but even if that proves beyond them, Jacques Santini’s men will be confident of getting what they need from their final game at home to Israel. Slovenia, meanwhile, can theoretically still either win the group or be eliminated but their most likely fate is second place. They need just a point against either France or Cyprus to make sure. To win the group they would have to win both games and hope France lose at home to Israel. For Slovenia to be eliminated, they would have to lose twice and Israel would have to beat both Malta and France.

Group 2
Victory for Denmark over Romania at the Parken stadium on Wednesday will take them through to Portugal, but a draw would only be enough to guarantee a play-off place. Defeat, meanwhile, could open the way for Romania to win the group – only a Danish victory in their last match, away to Bosnia-Herzegovina, could then stop Anghel Iordanescu’s side. But Bosnia, too, could also win the group: assuming they win in Luxembourg on Wednesday and Denmark fail to win, that last match in Zenica will be decisive. Norway, meanwhile, will have to hope results go their way if they are to clinch a play-off spot.

Group 3
Only the Czech Republic and the Netherlands remain in contention and they meet on Wednesday in Prague. Victory for either side there will win the group and consign the losers to the play-offs. A goalless draw would mean the Czechs going to Austria for their final match knowing that a win would still take them through; a 1-1 draw would still be enough for the Czechs, as long as the Dutch do not go on a scoring spree in their final game at home to Moldova; a 2-2 draw or more would mean the Dutch just have to beat Moldova to go through.

Group 4
Sweden will win the group on Wednesday if they overcome Poland in Chorzów, and a draw will be enough for the Swedes if Latvia and Hungary also draw in Riga, leaving Latvia, Hungary and the Poles to fight it out for second place. Defeat for Sweden on Wednesday would mean at least three of these teams going into the final round of matches – when Poland visit Hungary and Latvia go to Sweden – with at least a play-off place to play for.

Group 5
With Iceland not playing this week, the group will go to the wire regardless of Wednesday’s result between Germany and Scotland. Nevertheless, with a home game against Lithuania still to come, victory for Scotland at the Westfalenstadion would put them in pole position; victory for Germany would mean a win at home to Iceland in their last match would take the 1996 winners through.

Group 6
Leaders Greece can secure their ticket to Portugal if they beat Northern Ireland on 11 October. Should the Greeks only draw against Sammy McIlroy's goal-shy team, Spain could claim the automatic qualification spot with victory against Armenia on the same day, providing they beat Ukraine on Wednesday night. A win in Spain for Ukraine would open the door to the play-offs for them should Spain fail to beat Armenia.

Group 7
All eyes will be on Istanbul where Turkey take on England in the final round of fixtures next month. Both sides are assured of a place in the play-offs but the group will be decided in the Sükrü Saraçoglu stadium regardless of whether or not England win their game in hand against Liechtenstein on Wednesday. Turkey, whose only defeat of the campaign came at the hands of the English, currently lead the group by two points.

Group 8
Belgium must beat Croatia at home on Wednesday to stay in the hunt. Failure to do so will end the Belgians' dreams of travelling to Portugal next summer and set up Croatia's home game with leaders Bulgaria next month as the group decider. However, if Belgium beat Croatia on Wednesday, Bulgaria can secure their automatic passage to Portugal by beating Andorra on the same night.

Group 9
Italy's comprehensive victory against Wales on Saturday enabled them to leapfrog their opponents at the summit. If Italy win their remaining games in Serbia and Montenegro and at home against Azerbaijan, they will qualify. Should the Italians drop any points, Wales can reclaim top spot with home wins against Finland and Serbia and Montenegro. Both of those sides are still hoping for a play-off place. Finland would need to beat Wales by at least a two-goal margin in the Millennium Stadium on Wednesday to have a chance of finishing above the Welsh. Only then could Serbia and Montenegro qualify, but they would have to garner a point from the visiting Italians on the same night before defeating Wales next month to finish in second spot.

Group 10
Switzerland could be celebrating securing a place in next summer's tournament if they beat Russia away from home on Wednesday. A draw would ensure the Swiss of a play-off place but give the Republic of Ireland a chance to claim automatic qualification by winning when the sides meet in Basel next month. Three points from Russia's final two games would only be enough for a play-off berth should Ireland lose in Switzerland next month. If Switzerland's final two games both end in draws, Russia can reach the play-offs by beating Georgia in their final game. If Russia win their last two fixtures, Switzerland's home game with the Republic of Ireland will decide the standings. The Swiss would top the group with victory, while a draw would secure them a play-off spot but an away win would put Ireland in second position.

On first view, I will be doing a Germany/Spain double in matches which these teams must win. Large stake double, and not much analysis needed. Germany v Scotland for me is the same as the Italy v Wales game. Yes, Scotland did win 1-0 in Bremen 4 years ago, but that was a friendly. Voller has threatened to quit if they do not win. Spain must win otherwise Greece win the group.

My other bet will be Finland at 4/1 to beat a suspension hit Welsh side. Things are falling apart for the Welsh, with successive defeats to Serbia and Italy. Now they face a Finnish side who can still make a playoff spot with a 2 goal victory in Cardiff. Missing key players such as Bellamy, Savage and Delaney and without Gabbidon too I think they could struggle to finish second now.

Serbia look massively overpriced to beat Italy at 11/4 (there's probably better available). The Italians have gone bersurk after their 4-0 win against Wales, but so often we have seen a good Italian performance followed by a poor one. I will be backing the 1X, as the Serbians still have an outside chance of making the playoffs.

Looking at the fixtures od wednesday, these games do interest me :

The Spain/Germany double is certainly worth a shot, because both teams simply have to win and i would be very surprised if they won't win, only thing that worries me is the current form of Germany... Also i have not yet been able to forgive the Spaniards for that N-Ireland disaster

The Czech Republic to beat Holland at home and claim the first spot in the group. Holland, winning without much glance against Austria this weekend, still has big internal problems with players disliking eachother, critiscism from the press and public and without spirit... They will be under immense pressure in Prague and I don't think there will be one dutch player to lead them in such circumstances. To me this holland squad is like a heavily damaged ship that will finally sink this wednesday.

Denmark looks very tempting too, but I'll wait untill Da Hannahah comments this one.

How about Czech v Netherlands over 2.5 goals. The Dutch have to win this game and they must use attack style at the beginning of the match. Whilst this attacking style may give Czech space to do counter attack and score

:p

[Footie Addict]

Any thoughts - I think we should start plotting early here, I find international footie is one of the cases were other peoples thought opinions ad team news is especially useful.

For my part an initial galnce at the matches I find the following nice;

Slovakia vs Macedonia

Slovakia (I think) already won away to Macedonia, and though they can't qualify, will want to please their home fans. Having beaten Macedonia in Skopje and giving England a good run for their money in Brataslava, they should be too strong for Macedonia, especailly when you consider Macedonia's poor away form, they couldn't even beat Leichtenstein in Vaduz.

Spain vs Ukraine

Ukraine were awful vs Northern Ireland - I watched the whole, match and they never looked like making the breakthrough. Spain cannot affor to lose this match afetr they squandered pints vs Northern Ireland and Greece. Spain are in good form and thumped Portugal, albeit in a friendly at the weekend 3-0. Shevchenko was out for the Ukraine vs Northern Ireland - anyone know if he is out this time round? Still think that Spain will win, Ukraine's results have not been good especially away from home.

My head also tells me Northen Ireland to win 1-0 vs Armenia, but they cannot ever be trusted, I'd say they have hit 1x2 punters harder that any other team in memory. The Spain result put some of my more cavilier friends out of te punting buisness permanently.

Well, Ql, not much to say so far. Except this...

The squad is complete with the exception of the injured Bogelund, who wouldnt start anyway. That does not mean, however, that all players are in top shape...

Jon Dahl Tomasson and Martin Laursen are both getting little if any match practise these days in Milan, and while Laursen so far copes quite well with that, Tomasson looked very much affected by it when Denmark played club side AGF in a friendly last week. Gronkjaer was also very poor, which is possibly even worse as he has been our saving grace in recent qual games. He does, however, play regularly or Chelsea and does have tendency to raise his game for big matches.

Ebbe Sand hasnt scored in a gazzilion Bundeliga games straight now, and is now on the bench in Schalke. He scored both goals v. AGF, but the opposition was.... well....

Dennis Rommedahl - probably set to start on the bench as Gronkjaer and Jorgensen take the starting positions on the wings - was booed in Aarhus and is frustrated that the Danes dont want him in the national team. He does well for PSV, but his passing is often appauling when playing for Denmark.

Wieghorst is set to start in midfield next to the most important player by a mile for Denmark, Thomas Gravesen, as Christian Poulsen slowly slides further away from the team.

Niclas Jensen - has he played yet for Dortmund?? I dont think so.....

Helweg, however, seems to be nearing the starting line up in Inter, which is good, and Sorensen has been good so far for Villa. Finally, captain Henriksen should still be a key man in Pana.

So - a mixture of good and bad shape in there, but a lot of missing match practise. Confidence is pretty good, though, and due to the high respect for Bosnia here (they beat us in Parken), I am certain the team will do their utmost to settle the qualification issue here and now and avoid having to go to Bosnia for a result.

Unfortunately, the other team has this guy Mutu.......

Traditionally, we will win this type of game and I am sure we have a good chance, but hold on to your cash till I have some more info.

I agree germany should win, however there form is pretty poor and Scotland are always capable of holding teams, interestingly our main defence will be back with pressley (not a bad defender) back from suspension playing alongside Hearts teammate Webster, as well a Dailly (crap IMO -but usually plays well fopr Scotland!!) both back with loads of experience. Also ex Dortmund player paul lambert could be back and playing on his home ground.

Ok maybe a bit of favouritism but I would not be surprised to see a 0-0, 1-1 here. NO bet for me.
Hopefully seeing as Crawford is supsended they give Shaun Maloney his chance ?

ok ok, I'm biased here but I'll try to be as objective as possible


Belgium can only live with a win on wednesday, then we level on points with Croatia. Still Croatia will hold the second place due to the crashing of Belgium in Croatia some months ago(4-0)
Now Belgium needs to win 5-0( yeah right) or we need the help of the already qualified Bulgaria to get a win/draw from Croatia, while we demolish Estonia.

Anyways, the situation doesn't look bright but the players and the staff didn't lose hope. In fact since the 4-0 defeat in Croatia we're much stronger and should be able to win wednesday. The team is complete, so is Croatia but according to the press they aren't to keen to come to Brussels. There were rumours of some problems between players and coach but i don't know if they're true.

I fancy belgium here by one or two goals, odds are friendly but I should hold on till tomorrow and await the final team news.

i was thinking of doing france, germany and italy......france are a good price (4/5 in one place i saw)...they need a point to qualify and i think theyll stroll to victory....italy are a good price too...but you could be right about how good theyll play...

what do yee think?

[Luso]

I reckon Moldova @ 2.38 to win at home to Belarus is a great price.

Moldova have proved pretty solid at home with a 1-0 home win over Austria earlier in the campaign and only losing 2-1 at home to Holland.

Belarus have been pretty poor so far, especially away from home and could only scrape a 2-1 win at home to Moldova. I think the Moldovans could get revenge here and at nice odds too

If Ukraine will play again without Sheva and Rebrov, they won't have any chance to get something good in Spain, and moreover Spanish have a lot more of motivations for this match: they have to win in order to get the first place in the group, while Ukraine has no hopes for Portugal. Prices at around 1,30 are pretty good.

But best pick at all is Italy at around 1,90 to win in Serbia;sure, it will be a tough match, but Serbian will be missing key players as Mihajlovic and Stankovic, who could have been very helpful as they know very well Italian football. Italy is without Totti, true, but they demonstrated last saturday that they can change skin quite easily and play 4-4-2 without Totti as the 4-3-1-2 with Totti with the same results. Inzaghi is in a great shape, and the same for Del Piero, Vieri, Nesta, Buffon, Zambrotta, Perrotta and Camoranesi.
I see that someone suggested that Italy is not able to play two good matches in a row, but don't forget that our 2003 record is 7W-0D-0L..I think that means something about Italy's strenght and motivation. There's a great hype around the team, players really want to win in order to secure the ticket for Portugal avoiding the playoffs, and they are going to play at their best. They're alla experienced, so I don't think they will suffer too much the hell of Maracanà stadium in Belgrado.
To me, pick 2.

What do you think Kojic?

Well,intresting match.And when our team is involved,it has to be always dramatic!But sure "away win" in Belgrade?Don't be so sure!
Mihajlovic is out(suspension),but nothing important.Stefanovic(Portsmouth),Djordjevic(Partiz an),Krstajic(Werder) are in very good form and they can replace him without any problems.Like you said,Stankovic is out(yellow cards).This is a little problem,but Djordjevic(Olympiakos) has showed that he can replace him.Vukic(Shakhtar) is suspended too ,but also nothing important.Sasa Ilic(Partizan's captain) is in superb form,and he is much better solution anyway.Kovacevic(Sociedad) won't play,but Milosevic(Celta) is in good form and he will jump in starting eleven,with Kezman.Nobody even mention missing players.Atmosphere is fantastic,and everybody will give 100%.New(old) face in national team is Danijel Ljuboja(Strasbourg).
This will be much,much different match for Italy.Simply WE have to win here!Our football asotiation has confirmed that "Maracana" is going to be full,that means around 55000 fans.And atmosphere on the stadium will be a very important fact.Many times Red Star showed a superb play,even they have been in a very bad form.And only thanks to atmosphere on the stadium.Of course,Italy can win,but simply we can't give to much respect for them in this situation.Red Star didn't lose on this stadium in last 7-8 years,and many famous names has been here,like Barcelona,K'lautern,Celta,Leverkusen,Dinamo Kiev,Lazio,Chievo,Metz,...And our national team lose very rarely here.Anyway,I can't sugest anything here.Personaly,I'm with Home win@3.70!All players are 100% ready!It will be,what has to be!

[Marek76]

basing on the fact that a few key players will be missing in the Welsh squad on Wednesday the odds for a draw or an away win look interesting, 3.4 and 4.0 respectively. i know that the chances for Finland to reach play-off spot are just theoretical but maybe?
what do you guys reckon?

Hi. Couple of things about Finlands motivation to this game. We know that our chances are minimal but we have one another thing going on here too, we want easier opponents in the next qualifications Now days there is always couple of too tough opponents in our pool, so we are looking far to the future, we want easier group in the next qualifications So we must have good results out of these last games even there were no real chance to this tournament. I´m pretty sure that our side is doing everything they can, but is that enough is different story...
Our playmaker Litmanen is not gonna play but I dont know how big difference that makes, he is not best in his defence-wise and against welsh we need hard physical play specially when away game. IMO Väyrynen and Tainio can do the job in the midfield.
According Muurinen all the other players are fit, ready and hungry. Only Tihinen have minor problem but nothing serious.
We remember well our home defeat to Wales, it was good game but we werent tactically ready then, we did control the game but Wales did show how play tactically wise, hard defence and counter-attacks.
I couldnt find the opening line-up yet, but here is my quess...

Niemi
Pasanen Tihinen Hyypiä Saarinen
Nurmela Tainio Väyrynen Kopteff
Kolkka Forssell

All good players IMO. Draw could be close, but I´m hoping like crazeeee-man that our guys bring all the tree points; God knows we need them

thanks Green Moose. I'm going to definitely have a little dabble on Finland


Mark Pembridge was injured during the early part of last night's game and eventually limped off to be replaced by Andy Johnson so has to be a concern for Wednesday.

Reports suggest that neither Danny Gabbidon or Andy Melville or Kit Symons will make it on Wednesday.
Many believe that the injury problems in the defence were a major contributory factor to Wales' comprehensive defeat by Italy.

This has been further compounded by 3 players being suspended after picking up yellow cards last night. Although everyone is essential to the team given the injury list these suspensions are going to cause Mark Hughes a major headache.

Those on suspensions are:- Robbie Savage, Craig Bellamy and Mark Delaney.

Mark Hughes has in fact been left with very little room to manouvre. Adrian Williams was overlooked for the Italy game but would appear to have to be included on Wednesday. Rhys Weston could be recalled. Robert Earnshaw and Andy Johnson could also start. Gary Speed and Simon Davies were required to play in different positions for the Azerbaijan game but it is more likely that Mark Hughes will try and make as little disruption as possible.

Reports say that "The silence was deafening" at the airport last night as the team returned. There is reported to be a very subdued atmosphere at the team hotel this morning. It has also been reported that Mark Hughes angrily laid into the team for the first time since he took over after their second half collapse against Italy.

Some bookies offer Livchtenstein + 5 in England v Liechtenstein match

Anyone knows how many time did Britain win more than 5 goals in past 10 years ?

Wales - Finland 2@4.70
This is what I've said before! Wales is scared after these defeats and they can blow up everything.I'm very impressed with Finland,and with play like in Belgrade,this is going to finish with 2:0 win or even more for them.They haven't any problems to make a scoring chances.

But who cares for this result,if S&M lose against Italy!

whats does everyone think about this game?....

are france worth a gamble at 4/6?.....

[Snowman]

No!

France need only one point from the last two matches, the other one is home to Israel, its very likely that the Slovenians can manage not to lose. They are a tough team that can defend if they want to, and they will be more than extatically happy not to lose to France.

This match is pretty much a Friendly.