Euro 2008 qualifying

shahz_nerazzurri said:

Its true, Euro 2008 will loose a lot of glamor with out England. Half the fun of any major tournament is to see England crashing out of it, and their media crying about it. But I am willing to miss out on this fun, by seeing England not making it to Euro 2008 in the first place.

Funny thing is Abrahimovic has promised each and every Russian player 100,000 pounds, if Russia manages to qualify. Bet Lampard, Terry and the Cole sisters wont be too happy about it.

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I may have read this post a couple of days late...but it certainly made my day

I surely don't mind England not qualifying to save a million reams of paper from being wasted on them

panucci saves us :star:

and israel losing to russia, wtf. Come on russia dont let us down now

Even as an italia fan I can say Scotland deserved to win that game. The foul that resulted in Panucci's goal should have been a free kick to Scotland clearly. Scotland controlled the entire second half. It could have easily been 3-1 Scotland, they just were very unlucky and the poor call cost them.

how can u say that when italia were robbed of di natales gol by a wrong offside and scotlands gol was shown to be offside

mikepugs said:

Even as an italia fan I can say Scotland deserved to win that game. The foul that resulted in Panucci's goal should have been a free kick to Scotland clearly. Scotland controlled the entire second half. It could have easily been 3-1 Scotland, they just were very unlucky and the poor call cost them.

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???
Sorry but i think u forgot that scottlands goal was out of an offside position and also italy was dissalowed a goal for offside wich acctually was none.
Ofcourse the Freekick wich resulted in the 2:1 should not have been given but still i think it was a deserved win.

What happened to the other games and to the status of Great England

Either way it was a good game. Both sides missed golden chances; Scotland had a tap in driven wide and Italy had the free kick Toni drew late headed by Panucci from feet out go just on the wrong side of the bar from the backside corner.

It really could have gone either way on chances, but to me Scotland strung together some beautiful passing plays and possessed the ball really well in the second half.

I don't get how their equalizer was offside when it seemed like the shooter was in front of Ferguson and he was also behind the two defenders, the rebound just came right to him.

There were a lot of controversial calls by the referees though, it could have been a very different game.

russia equalise... come on lets see england out

What the hell is Norway doing? You can't lose against Turkey on your home ground.

Katie said:

russia equalise... come on lets see england out

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aren't you from England?

scottish/english/italiana

spent most of my first 5 yrs in italia. Plus my mind is italian

F * C K

ah well england will make clowns out of themselves at the euro. Stil a chance they dont go through.

At least bella Italia go through

70' FYR Macedonia 1-0 (0-0) Croatia

****ing great Why do they really need to mess my bet up?

Scotland vs Italy


Luca Toni and Christian Panucci earned Italy's dramatic first ever victory in Scotland to qualify for Euro 2008!

This was Italy's fourth visit to Scottish soil and they had never won, managing just two draws and a defeat. The first encounter was a 1-0 result on November 9, 1965, followed by a 0-0 in November 1992 and a 1-1 on September 3, 2005.

Group B hung in the balance in Glasgow, as a win would automatically qualify Scotland, while defeat would see Italy and France through to Euro 2008. A draw would put the Azzurri in the driving seat ahead of their final game against the Faroe Islands on Wednesday, while Scotland would have to hope Ukraine beat France.

Donadoni picked a 4-3-3 system with Mauro Camoranesi and Antonio Di Natale flanking Luca Toni, while Christian Panucci was chosen ahead of Massimo Oddo at right-back. The Scots opted for a solid midfield and just James McFadden upfront.

There was driving rain over Glasgow as Italy debuted their new white away strip. The team wore black armbands in honour of Gabriele Sandri, the Lazio fan accidentally shot dead by police last week.

The Azzurri could not have asked for a better start! After 69 seconds Antonio Di Natale carried on a Gianluca Zambrotta throw-in for Luca Toni to fire into the near top corner from six yards with the outside of his right foot.

Italy hit the back of the net for a second time, but it was disallowed for an incorrect offside position. Toni, Camoranesi and Di Natale combined as a series of ricochets finally saw Di Natale blast in from six yards, but the linesman disallowed the goal for offside. Replays show the Udinese star was kept in play by the Scottish defence when Gordon parried Massimo Ambrosini's effort into his path.

A Scots counter from Hutton earned a free kick from Zambrotta on the edge of the box. McFadden's effort took a double deflection and although Buffon managed to parry the first shot from McCulloch, he could do nothing on the follow-up. However, replays suggest Ferguson was offside and the incorrect decision was made by the same linesman who ruled out Italy's goal in the first half.

Chiellini's first touch let him down in front of goal, but he earned a free kick near the corner flag. Pirlo chipped up the ball for Panucci's splendid looping header across the face of goal to beat Gordon in the final minute!

Scotland: Gordon; Hutton, Weir, McManus, Naysmith; Hartley; Brown (Miller 74), Ferguson, Fletcher, McCulloch (Boyd 92); McFadden

Italy: Buffon; Panucci, Cannavaro, Barzagli, Zambrotta; Pirlo, Gattuso (De Rossi 86), Ambrosini; Camoranesi (Chiellini 83), Toni, Di Natale (Iaquinta 67)

Ref: Mejuto Gonzalez (Spa)

The Scotland-Italy match was incredibly tense, one of the better games I've gotten to watch. The ball was always moving and it only started to lag after Italy scored the goal.

I'm disappointed, I think Scotland deserved to have qualified instead of France. Nonetheless it was fun to watch.

Swden are playing pretty crap shit disubrution to ibra ...spain such a classy side

lagerback is the biggest idiot loser ever. how many damn times does he have to play svensson over kallstrom before he gets the idea that svensson sucks. seriously, it must be 3-4 times hes done this now and it has cost sweden. a starter for Lyon or one for elfsborg. who would you choose?