Europe: World Cup Qualifiers Round Up

England in a “mess”, Strachan on the brink, Romanians robbed (literally) in Astana, the unheralded Mattia Steffanelli plunges an Oslo TV studio into darkness and poor old Kosovo aren’t’ welcome in the Ukraine!!!

Well, it’s been an interesting six days of competition in the latest “week of football” as the second and third round of qualification matches in Europe for World Cup 2018 took place.

Extratime.ie’s Michael Hanley takes a look at the proceedings.

Well we’ll get this out of the way first, Group F hasn’t exactly set world alight so far. England hoping for a fresh start after their Icelandic nightmare in June lead the way on seven points with Lithuania and Slovenia two behind.

Gareth Southgate spoke of the “mess” he has inherited as his team labored to a scoreless draw in Slovenia.

Goals are certainly proving to be a problem for Southgate’s charges who had the outstanding Joe Hart to thank for ensuring they left Ljubljana on parity.

England have the disjointed look of a side who are under a third manager in the space of four games, their attacking trio of Alli, Lingard and Walcott unable to make inroads.

Rooney’s introduction 18 minutes from time did little to change the situation as an England side who have scored only 25 goals in 17 previous internationals including 6 against San Marino last September, couldn’t find the net.

Such is the lack of quality in the group however one would imagine that England should still be in pole position come next October. Lithuania ought to be happy with their start, unbeaten after three games, they followed up an opening day two all draw with Slovenia by taking the lead in lead in Hampden Park on Saturday night with a brilliant strike from Fiodor Cernych who plays with Jagiellonia Bia?ystok in the Polish Ekstraklassa.

They were undone by and 89th minute equalizer but rounded off the week on a high by defeating Malta 2-0 in Vilnius.

Slovenia who beat Slovakia 1-0 on Saturday will be happy with their point at home to Southgate’s men although on reflection it could be seen as two points dropped such were the chances that fell to the Slovenes.

We haven’t mentioned Scotland yet, things have certainly taken a nasty turn for Strachan’s charges since 13 June 2015 when they celebrated a draw at the Aviva that put them in pole position over Ireland for that coveted play-off spot for Euro 2016.

Things started ok, a 5-1 win in the Maltese humidity in September set them on their way but such was the desperation at how they went about their business in salvaging a point against Lithuania (although credit must be given for digging it out) there was a foreboding sense that a defeat in Trvara on Tuesday night could have dire consequences.

The manner as to how they were thumped 3-0 by a workmanlike Slovak side however has probably sealed Strachan’s fate, my guess is that a defeat at Wembley in November will give the SFA four months to find a replacement before March 2017 comes around, by then however the remaining games could merely be preparation for the Euro 2020 qualifiers.

Oliver Burke kept the bench warn on Tuesday, in a side crying out for a semblance of creativity this certainly was a questionable call.

Serbia have been enjoying themselves this last week, a routine 3-0 win in Chisinau was followed up by an Aleksandr Mitorvic double as he and Dusan Tadic led the Austrian defense a merry dense on a night of high drama in Belgrade that saw Serbia victorious by the odd goal in five.

There is something intriguing about watching a game from the Red Star stadium, memories of seeing the brilliant Red Star team conquer Europe from 1989 – 91 with names such as Sinisa Mihaijovic, Prosinecki and Darko Pancev come back.

Mihiajlovic would certainly be proud of the way Mitrovic wildly celebrates his goals in front of the masses as he would also be with the skill shown by Hamburg’s Filip Kostic on the wing.

The Serb defense still looks ragged, Nottingham Forest’s Vladimir Stoijkovic replacing Rajkovic in goal after the young man’s less than impressive performance against Ireland.

Austria, despite having two goals handed to them looked in poor shape post their draw with Wales.

Ireland sit top of the pile with the Serbs (that point in Belgrade is looking more and more valuable).

Wales who without Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen suddenly look very ordinary come next, France seems a long time ago now. Watching Serbia, you are always almost waiting for an implosion of some sorts to derail proceedings, however if they get a result in Cardiff in November this could be the start of something big for Muslin’s talented attacking side who contain some of the 2014 world u-20 world cup winning side.

Six points out of six from France who top Group A with Sweden on seven points. Deschamps has finally realized that Liverpool’s tormentor in the Europa League Final Kevin Gameiro is worth a start and he obliged with a brace as France began the week with a comfortable 4-1 victory at home to Bulgaria.

Deschamps certainly has a wonderful array of attacking options at his disposal, he retained faith with the Atletico Madrid combination of Greizemann and the aforementioned Gameiro for the trip to Amsterdam, one Paul Pogba strike was enough for a 1-0 win to keep France on course.

It’s life after Zlatan for Sweden, a 1-0 victory over Luxembourg followed by a 3-0 win in Stockholm over a Bulgarian side who have fallen on hard times sees them joint top, the Dutch are in third.

Two 6-0 wins over Andorra and the Faroes got Portugal off the mark in Group B, Switzerland lead the way though with a 100% record, having defeated the Portuguese on the opening night.

The Swiss needed a 90^th minute winner from Berlin’s Valentin Stocker to grind out a 3-2 win over Hungary in Budapest, they followed this up with a 2-1 win in Andorra to leave Vladimir Petkovic’s men sitting pretty.

The Faroe Islands followed up a draw with Hungary in Torshavn in September with a 2-0 away win over Latvia.

Lars Olsen’s side continue to defy the odds, Joan Edmundsson who plays with Odense in Denmark with the clincher.

Germany plough on in Group C.  A routine 3-0 (Muller x 2, Kroos) and 2-0 (Draxler, Khedeira) wins over the Czechs and Northern Ireland respectively.

Whilst Azerbaijan front the charge for second place. It was hard not to pay attention to proceedings in Oslo between Norway and San Marino.

Mattia Steffanelli’s 64^th minute equalizer was the first away goal San Marino have scored in fifteen years, cue disbelief in the Oslo based television studio who turned off the lights briefly in disgust. Steffanelli’s heroics aside the decline of the Norwegian team’s standing since qualifying for Euro 2000 has been graphic.

Whilst once occupying second place in the FIFA rankings and giving players like Tore Andre Flo, Oyvind Leonhardsson and Lars Bohinen to the Premier League, Norway currently sit at number 70 behind Trinidad and Tobago. An uninspiring loss in the Euro 2016 playoff to Hungary was followed up with defeats to Germany and Azerbaijan as this campaign took hold. There is hope though. The under-21s won a bronze medal at the 2013 European Under 21 Championships and several of these players have now taken the leap up to the national team. Omar Elabdellaoui (Olympiacos), Joshua King (Bournemouth) and Havard Nordtveit (West Ham) have all become mainstays in the senior squad. 

Northern Ireland were outclassed in Hannover; Azerbaijan arrive to Belfast in November.

Group E looks intriguing with a three-way joust between Poland, Montenegro and Romania taking hold.

Montenegro who hammered Kazakstan 5-0 on Friday followed up with a quite brilliant 1-0 win in Copenhagen with a goal of high quality from Fatos Beticaj of Dynamo Moscow. Inspired by Stevan Jovetic, now at Inter, Montenegro played brilliant counter attacking football to seal the win, they sit top with Poland who beat Denmark 3-2 and Armenia 2-1 in Warsaw.

Lewandowski plundered a hat trick against the hapless Danes for whom the home defeat against Montenegro was a huge blow.

The Romanian players had their hotel burgled in Astana before drawing 0-0 with the locals on Monday night, a bad result for Romania who dominated proceedings after enjoying a 5-0 away win in Armenia earlier in the week, Poland travel to Bucharest on November 11^th.

Spain and Italy lead the way in Group G on seven points.

The Euro 2012 finalists shared the spoils in Turin on Thursday night however the real dramatics were kept for Skopje on Sunday as Ciro Immobile’s injury time winner dug out a 3-2 victory for the Azzuri over Macedonia and the timeless Goran Pandev.

After Andrea Belotti’s opener (the first Torino player to score for Italy in 35 years, two goals in a minute had the Balkan side 2-1 ahead. Immobile’s brace though keeps Ventura’s side on course.

Israel enjoyed a good week, Brighton’s Tomer Hemed amongst the goals as the beat Macedonia and Liechtenstein, they merely lead the also rans though in their pursuit of the big two.

Belgium and Greece top group H on nine points each, Benteke on the mark after six seconds over a helpless Gibraltar. Greece are undergoing a revival of sorts although it must be stated that the victories have come over Gibraltar, Estonia and Cyprus.

Group I saw a quite remarkable situation where Ukraine refused to play Kosovo at home as they do not recognize their statehood for fear of offending the Serbs.

The game was played in deserted stadium in Krakow where Yarmelenko inspired his charges to a 3-0 win. Post a bright start in Finland it’s a been a tough couple of days for Kosovo who were beaten 6-0 by Croatia in a “home” game played in Albania as Pristina is deemed not suitable.

This is an intriguing group with Iceland and Croatia leading the way from Ukraine.

Turkey despite only taking one point from the week (2-2 in Istanbul vs Ukraine) are a lively side also and with brilliant attacking players like Dortmund’s Emre Mor and Hakan Cahanoglu will figure.