2014 WC QUAL UEFA GRP A - CRO - SER - BEL - SCO - MAC - WAL

Euro 2024, World Cup 2026, etc.
paddymcp
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Post by paddymcp »

This is no doubt one of the tightest groups.

Macedonia are the only side you could say are definetly a level or two below but even then they are a respectable team and teams will have to fight hard to beat them.

Between Belgium, Croatia, Serbia, Scotland & Wales the differences are minimal.

Not any team is of the top level in Europe but are a level or two below and all games will be decided by the odd goal and a bit of luck.

I see a lot of draws in this group so the teams that can put together a couple of decent tight wins together will secure the top 2 positions.
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Malko
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Post by Malko »

This time, it's for belgium. Like Lyonnais said, not ponly the friendly vs France, but also the 4-2 win vs Holland were great.
Allez les Diables Rouges.
paddymcp
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Post by paddymcp »

Friendly results aren't of too much signifcance in my opinion. Competitive matches are all that matters and Belgium's have been average recently including the last campaign which included all these supposed superstars.
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Post by patje13 »

Like most say: it will be an interesting group to follow, and in the end, most of us expect Croatia and Belgium.

I really hope Belgium can perform after so many yours.

Signs look promising. Players are more mature and they turn into key players in major leagues. Last year, four of them became player of the year: Kompany (England), Vertonghen (Netherlands), Mirallas (Greece) and Hazard (France). Not the smallest leagues in Europe in my opinion. They won against the Netherlands and got good results against England and France.

And the only thing they lacked, fighting spirit and team cohesion, are the best qualities of the new coach, Wilmots (our last player with prestige).

I guess Croatia and Belgium will battle it out, but all the other teams in the group can cause a big surprise. Looking forward to it !
paddymcp
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Post by paddymcp »

patje13 wrote:Like most say: it will be an interesting group to follow, and in the end, most of us expect Croatia and Belgium.

I really hope Belgium can perform after so many yours.

Signs look promising. Players are more mature and they turn into key players in major leagues. Last year, four of them became player of the year: Kompany (England), Vertonghen (Netherlands), Mirallas (Greece) and Hazard (France). Not the smallest leagues in Europe in my opinion. They won against the Netherlands and got good results against England and France.

And the only thing they lacked, fighting spirit and team cohesion, are the best qualities of the new coach, Wilmots (our last player with prestige).

I guess Croatia and Belgium will battle it out, but all the other teams in the group can cause a big surprise. Looking forward to it !

Thats the thing. Wales/Scotland/Serbia beating Croatia or Belgium isn't really a surprise.

Scotland have 90% of their squad playing in my opinion the best and most demanding league in the world in the English Premier League and shouldn't be looked at as major underdogs.

I certainly fancy us to pick up 6 points in the first round of games at home against Serbia and Macedonia.
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Post by lucky luke »

Croatia has changed coach and atmosphere arround team is not great any more. New coach Igor Štimac is not popular in Croatia at all. I am affraid we will miss another world cup :cry:

we will know better after first two matches
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Post by zender »

lucky luke wrote:. I am affraid we will miss another world cup :cry:
I can live with that :D :D

Nah I hope for an interesting group.
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Post by naaba »

The Belgian team is now evaluated at 285.450.000 euros on TransferMarkt (but I don't understand why they evaluate Witsel at 25.000.000 whereas he was just transferred for 40.000.000).

In this group, we clearly have the largest amount of individuals with players such as

- Thibaut Courtois : young goalkeeper who ended champion of Belgium for his first ever season, directly transferred to Chelsea for 9 millions and loaned to Atlético Madrid. They finished 5th in Liga, the 4th best defense and won Europa League by conceeding 12 goals in 19 matches. He also won European Supercup by winning against his... employer

- Vincent Kompany : captain and champion with Manchester City, best player of the last Premier League season

- Thomas Vermaelen : coming from Ajax and now captain of Arsenal, and always able to score goals. With Kompany, it is said they form one if not the best central defense in the world.

- Jan Vertonghen : best player of the last Eredivisie, pillar of the Ajax defense since the departure of Vermaelen. Now in Tottenham after a transfer fee of 12 millions !

- Marouane Fellaini : Everton's superstar, a routine of the Premier League, who arrived for a 20 millions fee (bonus included). At every mercato, we always wonder why he remains in Everton...

- Eden Hazard (in a row : 2 times best young player in Ligue 1 and 2 times best player in Ligue 1 + no need to remind his Chelsea's debut).

- Axel Witsel : only one year in Benfica, now in Zenit St. Petersburg in exchange of 40 millions !

I could add Kevin Mirallas (now in Everton, champion and best player of the last season in Greece), Romelu Lukaku (still young but very promising despite difficulties in Chelsea), Moussa Dembélé (scoring in his first match for Tottenham), Dries Mertens (dynamite in PSV), Toby Alderweireld (former partner of Vertonghen in Ajax defense), Nicolas Lombaerts (pillar in Zenit St. Petersburg for many years already), Steven Defour (Porto), Kevin De Bruyne (bought by Chelsea, loaned to Werder Bremen), Simon Mignolet (Sunderland's goalkeeper), Christian Benteke (just arrived in Aston Villa), Daniel Van Buyten (old but still in Bayern), ...

So everybody believes that the time has come for Belgium to shine again ! The only fear is that we fail miserably as we did during the last 10 years... and this time because of too much pressure on our squad.
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Malko
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Post by Malko »

naaba, exact ! Now let's hope with all these individual players it will be an excellent team ! allez les Diables Rouges!
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Post by agram »

croatia-macedonia 1-0.....

it was tough as expected, but difference between 9th and 97th team in the world shoud be more than one goal...

croatia played very bad, and with this poor quality of game we will not win in belgium on tuesday, we may even loose the game
:( :( :(
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Post by Michael S Collins »

Belgium off to a flier against Wales admittedly.

Now to see how Scotland do tomorrow v Serbia.
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Post by naaba »

Belgium won 0-2 in Wales.

No magic in the match but they just did the job, only a fear on a distant shot from Bale greatly saved by Courtois.

We hope that a bigger opponent (Croatia) will reveal the talent in the squad as a team, not as players (7 players on the field play in Premier League + the goalkeeper who is employed by Chelsea).
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nikola_belgrade
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Post by nikola_belgrade »

Michael S Collins wrote:Now to see how Scotland do tomorrow v Serbia.
Apparently, someone from our coaching staff forgot drawn tactic for the match after training in Glasgow! And now media debating was it on purpose or not. :rollfloor:
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Post by zender »

I am going to try to catch the Scottish game today, haven't seen them play in ages.

Now I'll await the game on Tuesday against Croatia, a good thing for the Belgians has been the fact that they didn't have to go to deep in their energy reservoir after the red card for Wales it pretty much became a training match.
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Stojanovic Milos
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Post by Stojanovic Milos »

Good ball controll by my team but only one good chance. Draw is fair result.
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