ENGLAND END SWEDISH JINX, IRISH THROUGH TO EUROS

 

 

The last time we faced Sweden was during our 2006 World Cup Group B campaign when Sven Goran Erricsson was the gaffer and we drew 2-2 at the RheinEnergie Stadion - a result that saw both sides through to the knockout stages. For the last time we beat the Swedes though you still have to go way back to 1968, Alf Ramsey was the manager and Martin Peters, Bobby Charlton and Roger Hunt hit the net in a smooth win at Wembley. Our record against Sweden is a wierd one, in theory they are not one of the football world's biggest nations but they have proven impossible for us to beat over the years and have humiliated us on occasion.

Fastforward to the present day and we had just beaten the world and European champions - how the hell were we meant to follow that? Fabio's solution was to overhaul the team, bring some old faces back in and give some more new faces a chance. The Swedes, like us had qualified for Euro 2012 and came to Wembley with a side that looked solid enough. Fabio replied by sending England out in a 4-3-3. Spurs Kyle Walker made his debut at right back, Terry(captain) and Cahil in central defence, Baines left back. Barry and Jones were alongside Everton's Jack Rodwell in midfield with Rodwell making his first international start. Up front saw a first international start for Fulham assasin Bobby Zamora alongside Walcott and Downing.

The early stages of the match proved to be reasonably solid from an England perspective with the Three Lions seemingly having the edge in a match that was played in front of a surprisingly low crowd and had an anti-climatic air to it. Still, in the 22nd minute Downing crossed to Barry though the ball was in fact headed in by Daniel Majstorovic. Still, while Sweden had their uses at the other end, we showed that we were capable of playing with a degree of smoothness and came in at half time still with the lead. So far a solid enough performance from what was most certainly a very experimental team but Fabio's experiments seem to be working at the moment.

Still, Fabio overhauled the team at half time including bringing on a new goalie but it wasn't long before England were obviously switching to cruise control, and the Swedes didn't look capable of doing much about it. As the match went on more fresh legs were brought on and this wasn't exactly looking like the greatest second half of all time though Sebastien Larsson made us dodge a bullet in the latter stages and the Swedes had one last chance before the end but still, we came away with the win. Two friendlies against credible opposition with experimental lineups, two wins. Nothing to complain about from where I'm sitting at least.

In the meantime, the Republic of Ireland had more serious business to deal with. They'd already beaten Estonia 4-0 at the Le Coq Arena, and with that, their gaffer Geovanni Trappatoni claimed that "the cat is in the bag but it is still open". After that kind of scorelilne I'd have thought that the bag would be closed and the cat had only a remote chance of scratching it's way out with it's claws but still, I suppose the cat does have claws and this Euro 2012 playoff second leg match at the Aviva Stadium still had to be played. Dunne and O'Shea in central defence, Duff right mid, Wolves' Stephen Hunt left mid, Keane and Doyle up front for what looked to be a straightforward encounter.

The men in green were in no mood to hang around however credit where credit was due, the Estonians held firm to start with and started to get their act together but what they came up with was nothing that the home side couldn't handle. There were concerns though that they were taking things slightly too easilly but then in the 31st minute they took the lead when Duff sent over a corner which Doyle sent towards the goalie before Ward tapped in the rebound. The Estonians had a decent opportunity for an equaliser late on in the half but failed to take it. So far, so good for the Irish who were 45 minutes away from their first major tournament for a decade!

Estonia weren't done yet though and came at the Irish early in the second half, breaking through in the 57th minute when Konstantin Vassiljev moved through the Irish defence then let rip a scorcher that drew the match level. The Irish had their chances to regain the lead but they were nothing the visitors couldn't hanndle and likewise the Estonians weren't able to turn the match round either, the last few minutes were very much played on cruise control with the Irish settling for a draw. Of course though, that draw did them very nicely indeed. The result of the first leg meant that they won the tie 5-1 on aggregate and with that they were off to POLUKR!

Elsewhere, Croatoia drew 0-0 with Turkey at the Stadion Maksimir which was fine by the Croats who thanks to their win in the first leg, won the tie 3-0 on aggregate. Montenegro lost 1-0 to the Czech Republic at the Stadion Pod Goricom which seculered the Czechs trip to POLUKR. Portugal then beat Bosnia 6-2 at the Estadio da Luz with the home side making easy work of their Balkan opponents from the start and securing their spot in POLUKR. Bottom line, of the four teams I predicted to win the playoff ties all four of them made it through. Not often I have a perfect run of predictions and congraulations to them all - should certainly be a strong tournament.

So, here are the teams that have qualified for Euro 2012:

Poland

Ukraine

Germany

Russia

Italy

France

Netherlands

Greece

England

Denmark

Spain

Sweden

Croatia

Republic of Ireland

Czech Republic

Portugal

Out of the 16 teams that I originally predicted would get to play in POLUKR, thirteen made it through. I'd underestimated the Bosnians and Danes which put paid to the Romanians' and Norwegians' chances(though I wasn't dead cert about the Norwegians). Turkey simply found themselves victims of an isane playoff draw.

Bottom line is though, England and one other British Isles side are going to POLUKR! Not so bad!

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