ANDORRA BITE THE DUST

 

 

(Image taken from Soccernet)

 

The World Cup is over and so now it's on to the 2008 European Championship qualifiers. I started the last ECQ campain as a guy living in South Bank University Halls of Residence, and wound up bailed back to my parent's place before the campaign finished. Turkey were the only decent side we faced back then and thanks to the emerging Wayne Rooney, we handled them pretty smoothly, though Sven's men should have done better in the matches against smaller fry.

And talking about small fry, rewind back to Easter 2000. I'm returning from a holiday in Spain and my Dad points out of the plane window at a small patch of land surrounded by mountains and says "I think that's Andorra down there". Which pretty much says it all. Andorra have only been playing competitive football since the start of the Euro 2000 qualifiers and their only win so far was a 1-0 win in a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Macedonia.

Yet Steve McLaren was worried that with limited-to-no actual football skills available, this bunch of part timers might actually try hacking their way through our opening game at Old Trafford - not an implausible claim. Anyway, the main changes from the Greece game were in defence, with the back four including Phil Neville at right back and Wes Brown alongside John Terry in central defence.

Well McLaren needn't have worried about the visiting side, the Three Lions were soon munching through them as if they were a plate of chorizo and sure enough in the 5th minute Defoe set up Crouch for the opener. Gerrard then decided if Andorra were going to be shredded then it should be done with some class and in the 13th minute scorced the ball into the set from a tight angle after an Ashley Cole set up before setting up Defoe in the 38th minute. Well Andorra can't have expected much better.

Defoe opened up the second half by picking up a 47th minute Neville header and slotting it in. Andorra started to get desperate in their tackling but there was nothing the men in white couldn't handle and so Aaron Lennon came on for Neville and the Spurs winger was always going to have a field day against this sort of opposition. He gave Crouch the ball in the box in the 67th minute. 5-0. Other than goalie Jesus Alvarez Koldo, Andorra came out of this with no credit whatsoever, probably the easiest competitive win we'll get for a while.

That puts England top of group E due to having the best goal difference in the group. In other words, a better goal difference than Israel and Macedonia, who have both recorded 1-0 wins over Estonia at the Le Coq Arena in Tallinn.

As for the other British sides, well Scotland start their qualifying campaign top of Group B with a +3 goal difference over third place France after beating the Faroe Islands 6-0 at Celtic Park. Darren Fletcher and James McFadden got the first two goals, then Kris Boyd scored from the spot, Kenny Miller did likewise, Boyd his a second and Hibs's Gary O'Connor finished the visitors off. Great start for the Scots, particularly as Italy slipped up against Lithuania. France are still breathing down the Tartan Army's necks though.

Wales didn't do so well though, they got beaten 2-1 by the Czech Republic in Tepliche. Jablonec striker David Lafata did the damage, scoring either side of an own goal scored by Reggina defender Martin Jiranek. Maybe they can claim a solid performance but John Toshack's crew won't get to the finals with results like that, they're left fifth in Group E

Elsewhere in that group, the Republic of Ireland got beaten 1-0 by Germany in Stuttgart with Lucas Podolski hitting the winner after the Irish failed to take advantage of a nervy German start. The Irish have a better chance of bouncing back from their dissapointment than the Welsh but for the time being they're still in sixth behind the Dragons on goals scored, both British Isles sides are three points behind second place Czech Republic.

Finally, in Group F, Northern Ireland got battered 3-0 by Iceland of all sides in Windor Park with Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldson, Herrman Hreldarrson and Eidar Gudjonnsonn getting the goals, the Chelsea man in particular giving Northern Ireland nightmares and leaving them languished in sixth while Iceland hold the second qualifying spot.

Now let's see if Macedonia can put their money where their mouth is mid week.

Click here to visit the football archive

Comments get emailed here

Click here to return to sports homepage

Click here to return to Matt G's homepage