World Cup Qualifiers Thread, 7th and 8th September

[Duty281]

Russia v Northern Ireland (16:00)
Kazakhstan v Republic of Ireland (17:00)
Moldova v England (19:45)
Wales v Belgium (19:45)
Scotland v Serbia (15:00, Saturday)

Predictions:

Russia 3-1 NI
Kazakhstan 0-3 ROI
Moldova 0-4 England
Wales 1-3 Belgium
Scotland 1-1 Serbia

[Duty281]

Russia v NI just started, it's Fabio Capello's competitive debut as Russian manager. And it appears that Fabio's a bit arrogant:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2199454/Fabio-Capello-dismisses-Northern-Ireland-Russia-World-Cup-qualifier.html

[Liam]

Russia vs NI: 3-0
Kazakhstan vs ROI: 1-2
Moldova vs England: 0-2
Wales vs Belgium: 0-2
Scotland vs Serbia: 1-1

[Duty281]

1-0 Russia.

[Duty281]

Russia have beaten NI 2-0. That leaves NI with it all to do in a group which also contains Portugal. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan have taken a shock 1-0 lead over ROI.

[Duty281]

England team tonight:

Hart, Johnson, Terry, Lescott, Baines, Milner, Gerrard, Cleverley, Lampard, Oxlade, Defoe.

4-0 England!

[Pot Hale]

Ireland down 1-0 for 88 minutes. Get a penalty. 1-1. One minute later, another goal. 2-1.

Jammy, jammy, jammy.

[Duty281]

Would you believe it? Republic of Ireland have scored in the 89th and the 90th minute to turn defeat into victory. 2-1 the final score.

[JamesLincs]

delighted as they are in my accumulator lol.

i mean no disrespect to northern ireland but they can forget about qualification.

[mystiroakey]

Oh come on- In mine as well. get in there.

Come on england. We want a 4-0 min

[mystiroakey]

I also need england and wales to win., Good odds on wales- 3.5-1. I honestly think they are gonna be to much for belgium tonight.

[mystiroakey]

Great start and its 0-1 to england

[JamesLincs]

YEEEEESSSSSS YEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!! the world cups ours!!

[mystiroakey]

do our players actually care. have they been watching the olympics??

Havent seen our players give this much in the first qualfier before.

[mystiroakey]

good second goal.

[JamesLincs]

missed it, was sat on toilet, then missed the third writing this

[JamesLincs]

ah typical defoe finish

[Henman Bill]

This looks like a weak Moldova side to me. Question is whether England really want to expend the energy. They could get 6 or 7 here if they really wanted, often in these types of games though teams just pass it around and do nothing all second half, since the match as a contest is over.

[mystiroakey]

its only modlova- but we look a different team. No tell a lie- we actually look like a team for once!! continued on from that decent friendly the other day,

[JamesLincs]

we should not forget that hodgson is still unbeaten, is this his 8th game?

[Henman Bill]

playing well but don't see any evidence of real change that could impact matches against top teams

[mystiroakey]

playing well is the only change i suppose you need to worry about. The fact is we have been pressing to win the ball back, we have been running around 100% all game. I havent seen that type of play for donkies years. Could we beat a top top side- No idea. Dont really care. However the lads are playing the way they normally do week in week out for there clubs. And that is all i ask!

[Duty281]

I see Wales are 1-0 down at HT, gonna be very tough with only 10 men. As for England, it was all over in the 3rd minute. If we don't doze off, we should aim for 6+ here as our superior fitness levels kick in. And did anyone hear this? Luxembourg went 1-0 up against Portugal in the 13th minute and held the lead for a quarter of an hour before Ronaldo equalised.

[mystiroakey]

ar welll- wales are gonna kill my muliplier

[JamesLincs]

only portugal letting me down atm.

[JamesLincs]

luxemburg btw duty

[mystiroakey]

england chilling out, shame but understandable

[JamesLincs]

guess who scored hollands goal?

[JamesLincs]

think it would of gone in anyway

[JamesLincs]

walcott continues to show why he isnt a winger

[Duty281]

Routine win for England. 5-0 as well, good for the GD. The real game comes on Tuesday at home to Ukraine. And in the other game in England's Group H, Montenegro and Poland drew 2-2 which is also good for England.

[mystiroakey]

getting ukraine,poland and montengro is like getting the same team 6 times!!

[Crimey]

Glen Johnson had another good game for England as well.

[JamesLincs]

lol you seem desperate for praise for johnson crimey or you said it as if you were shocked

[Crimey]

I think people are ridiculously unfair on Glen Johnson who was one of England's best players at Euro 2012 and isn't the unreliable full back that he was in his early days.

Although he was very poor in the Arsenal game last weekend to be fair.

[Duty281]

Italy could only manage a 2-2 draw away to Bulgaria, I make that the shock result of yesterday. Poor Italy, it's all gone wrong since they beat Germany.

[Guest]

This looks like a weak Moldova side to me.

When has it been any different, embarrasing side ranked so low there behind nations such as St. Vincent and the Grenadines & Suriname. You can't read anything into that performance, you can't even learn anything from that match. If anything games likes this just extend the international careers of players like Lampard. We will win the group with ease just like under Capello and then as soon as the opposition quality jumps onto the next level our 'apparently' great players and team look inferior and end up losing. Same old story. It's not being negative it's called the reality. Disagree if you want.

Had to laugh when Walcott's shocking technical ability to dribble with a ball was evident for everyone to see. Luckily, we ended up scoring about ten seconds later and then Townsend's appaling commentary praised Walcott for his creativity.....haha! Bring on Ukraine.

[Ent]

Lescott and Johnson looked full of errors even against this level of opposition.

[Guest]

I think people are ridiculously unfair on Glen Johnson who was one of England's best players at Euro 2012 and isn't the unreliable full back that he was in his early days.

Although he was very poor in the Arsenal game last weekend to be fair.

He's not allowed to be poor at all Crimey. Being a Liverpool player and all that....

[Gregers]

Lescott and Johnson looked full of errors even against this level of opposition.

United blinkers on by any chance?

Both played well last night I thought.

[Liam]

2 of my predictions right so far, after the welsh result we desperately need a draw between Serbia and the scots today.

[Ent]

Lescott and Johnson looked full of errors even against this level of opposition.

United blinkers on by any chance?

Both played well last night I thought.

Not really they made 3 or 4 errors each against amateur standard players.

Scotland should have had 2 red cards already

[Duty281]

0-0 it finished between Scotland and Serbia. The home support were booing Scotland off but what do they expect? Scotland are an average team with an average manager. Teams like Serbia are on Scotland's level.

[Guest]

From what I saw Scotland played okay but didn't watch the whole match though.

[Crimey]

I would have thought a draw against Serbia is a decent result, Serbia qualified for the last World Cup when Scotland didn't.

I think they're probably booing the way the team plays rather than the actual result.

[Liam]

Perfect result for Wales, need to get at least 4 points from next 2 games, away to serbia and home to scotland.

[Dass]

Booing the poor management, team selection and negativity in a game we are hoping to win.

[Kay Fabe]

I would have thought a draw against Serbia is a decent result, Serbia qualified for the last World Cup when Scotland didn't.

I think they're probably booing the way the team plays rather than the actual result.

It's not a decent result, Serbia aren't a good team, that'll be proven over the course of this group, they'll finish 4th/5th, the fans where booing because the scoreline was predictable from well before kick-off, I put two bets on today 0-0 and 1-1, utterly predictable

Poor manager with a poor team selection and when he made his substitutions it was was like for like and far too late in the day to make a real difference

[Kay Fabe]

I reckon we'll need 17 points to stand a chance in this group, 5 wins and 2 draws, today was going to have to be a win, now we need to go away from home and beat someone

[Guest]

Gaff, how long before they cut their losses with Levien?

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