Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Euro 2008

I heard Owen Hargreaves say this week that he hoped England would get what they deserve in the qualification stages for the Euro 2008 competition. Well I bloody well hope we DON'T get what we deserve as I would actually still like to see us qualify.

When this lot was pulled out of the collective hat - Croatia, Russia, Israel, Macedonia, Estonia, Andorra and England - not many England supporters could have anticipated we would be reduced to supporting sodding Israel on 17th November in order for us to have an outside chance of qualifying. Hang on though - surely I dreamt that we failed to beat Macedonia at home last October?

I didn't????!!!!


Oh shit - we really are that bad.

On the same day as I was starting to put in place my travel plans for Austria I was sympathising with Reidksi over the fact that Scotland had managed to end up in the same group as Italy, France, Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania, though I did fancy they could get a draw against the Faroe Islands. And now there sits Scotland, second in a table that contains both the World Cup Finalists, with 'only' Italy to beat to ensure qualification. Respect!

Meanwhile a group of Austrian football fans calling themselves 'For the Love of Football' have launched a petition to get their own side (who automatically qualify as joint hosts) to pull out of the Finals. They complain that when the Austrian team are on the field "displays of true skill... occur about as frequently as meteorite impacts." Or also according to the guy I heard on the radio - "As frequently as an articulate comment from David Beckham." I like these guys already.


It's a Funny Old Game as I do not believe anyone has ever mentioned before.

5 comments:

Greg said...

The Austrians go up in my estimations. Someone else to support when England don't qualify, especially if Scotland falter at the end.

Anonymous said...

Do you believe recent rumors about Israel selling the match to Russia? About Roman Abramovich being involved?
http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/3773/did-roman-abramovich-buy-tonight-s-russia-vs-israel-game

J.J said...

Steg, mine too!

Jellydonot - hello! And I always love a good conspiracy theory - but wonder how much someone paided our own players to throw points away on our behalf with such gay abandon.

Reidski said...

Well, you're still in there, but not quite sure how. I'm sure I'm not the only person to question the belief that Russia only had to turn up to beat Israel. Russia have hardly been great shakes away from home (look at the Wembley drubbing) while Israel are quite handy at home and have been for some years.

J.J said...

I don't know how either Reidski. Still time to screw it up on Wednesday though.

Am really sorry about Scotland though. (Lots of hugs for you tomorrow night, and that's a promise!)