7th August
It is an international football week, with qualifying fixtures for Euro 2016 taking place. I'm largely disinterested in international football outside of the big tournaments but we're heading towards the business end now. Wales have not qualified for a European Championships or World Cup for 57 years and were denied qualification yesterday by Israel who held them to a 0-0 draw. Wales need a solitary win from their last two fixtures (one of which is against Andorra) to end the best part of 60 years of hurt. I'll be interested to see how they do next summer. They're a well organised side who seem to grind out tight encounters, occasionally thanks to a solitary world class talent in Gareth Bale.
Northern Ireland's task was the same, beat Hungary to qualify for next year's showpiece in France. A largely uneventful match burst into life in the last 20 minutes, with a goalkeeping clanger and a curious red card putting the Irish on the backfoot. An injury time poacher's equaliser from journeyman Kyle Lafferty gave them a precious point that keeps them in a strong position to qualify from their remaining fixtures. It is curious how international football occasionally makes heroes of unheralded players like Lafferty. Jonathan Walters, now unwanted at Stoke, intervened to help the Republic of Ireland despatch Georgia 1-0.
England qualified on Saturday courtesy of a 6-0 victory away to San Marino, where Wayne Rooney scored his 49th international goal to draw level with the great Sir Bobby Charlton as joint top goalscorer for England. There are many people who would have you believe that Rooney is an overrated player who failed to fulfil his potential. I suspect history might be a bit kinder to a player who will almost certainly end his career as England's top goalscorer of all time and will probably userp Charlton again to achieve the same with Manchester United (requiring 17 more goals to do so).
Yet again, I've accumulated information that could easily be found elsewhere and called it a blog. Ha ha!
Northern Ireland's task was the same, beat Hungary to qualify for next year's showpiece in France. A largely uneventful match burst into life in the last 20 minutes, with a goalkeeping clanger and a curious red card putting the Irish on the backfoot. An injury time poacher's equaliser from journeyman Kyle Lafferty gave them a precious point that keeps them in a strong position to qualify from their remaining fixtures. It is curious how international football occasionally makes heroes of unheralded players like Lafferty. Jonathan Walters, now unwanted at Stoke, intervened to help the Republic of Ireland despatch Georgia 1-0.
England qualified on Saturday courtesy of a 6-0 victory away to San Marino, where Wayne Rooney scored his 49th international goal to draw level with the great Sir Bobby Charlton as joint top goalscorer for England. There are many people who would have you believe that Rooney is an overrated player who failed to fulfil his potential. I suspect history might be a bit kinder to a player who will almost certainly end his career as England's top goalscorer of all time and will probably userp Charlton again to achieve the same with Manchester United (requiring 17 more goals to do so).
Yet again, I've accumulated information that could easily be found elsewhere and called it a blog. Ha ha!
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