euro 2008 qualifying games

belgium   -  finland        2.38   -   3.15
attractive looking odds on the home win. (2.38) in these high profile matches, i presume that all footballers involved are extremely motivated. whether or not their team, like belgium in this case, has lost the chance of qualifying, the players will do their utmost for their countries, and of course the players also want to give a good impression in these big games to impress on future employees.

in their last home game, belgium defeated serbia 3-2, but then they could not hold on to their 2-0 lead in kazakhstan. the match ended in a deserved 2-2 draw. m mpenza and vermaelen are out of this game, but w sonck, van damme and de man are all recalled to the belgian squad. only vermaelen played from the start in their last game.

recently i have spoken about lack of fire power in the finnish side. their last two matches have both ended in 0-0 draws, so i guess that i was right. for this fixture they only have  three strikers s kuqi, eremenko jr and j johansson available. forsell is out injured and litmanen has probably finished his successful career. anyway kuqi has mainly been a bench warmer for different english clubs these last  seasons and j johansson has been like his team, malmö, quite simply poor. eremenko is doing his daily job in the russian league. three midfielders are missing for this game, t tainio, j wiss and m heikkinen. tainio from tottenham. impeccable defence however, and their coach hodgson is mostly thinking defensively. if you want to bet on the 0-0 draw, i cannot argue, but i will back the home win. (2.38)

scotland   -  ukraine         2.10   -   3.75
scotland and scottish sides have been playing like men possessed lately. first scotland defeated france, then glasgow rangers did the same with lyon, not to forget that aberdeen knocked out a strong ukrainian side, dnipro, of the uefa cup. i almost forgot that celtic defeated milan last week. some conspiracy from above, or what? same old rangers, same old scotland, there are no ronaldos or kakas in their squads, only a bunch of honest, hard working footballers, but that has always been the case with scottish sides.

p hartley and g caldwell are out of this match, as well as the united star d fletcher. the derby striker kenny miller returns to the scottish squad. there are better individual players in the ukrainian side but this fact has not helped them much during this campaign. scotland are in pole position, while ukraine will not play in the championships next year.

shevchenko is not a starter for chelsea these days, but he played an outstanding game recently, when ukraine lost their home game with italy, 1-2, shevchenko and voronin up front i guess, and normally the scots would tremble. nesmachniy, chygrynskiy and milevskiy are all back in the ukraine squad.

conclusion  -  ukraine have the potential to overcome much stronger side than scotland. i do not care, scotland and scottish football are on a rare high at the moment, and they will get my support. (2.10)  the price was 2.30 when i intended to back the scots, but this 2.10 is quite frankly not good enough.

republic of ireland   -   germany         4.20   -   2.00
they say that germany need one additional point from this group to qualify for the euro 2008. i will bear that in mind, but surely the germans will go for the win, like they always do. since the world cup germany have continued what they started under klinsmann. fast offensive football and they are the best side in europe right now, although holland have the biggest potential, in my opinion.

ballack has not played in the german shirt for ages, and injuries have plagued the team lately but that as had no affect on the results at all   -  germany have kept on winning. this weekend apart from ballack, also m klose,  borowski, b schneider, r hilbert, pander, hitzlsperger and p lahm will be missing. t frings and c frits will be fit to play. kuranyi a certain starter up front, but who will join him? podolski or  m gomez!  frings and schweinsteiger are certain starters on the german midfield and they will be joined by 2 of odonkor, fritz, trochowski or s rolfes. mertesacker and metzelder will rule in defence. one worry in my opinion  -  j lehmann, who has not played for ages,  will stand between the sticks.

the nicest thing that i can say about this irish side is the fact that they are unbeaten in their home qualifiers. (3-1-0) the draw was against the czech republic, their only really strong home opponent so far. s carr and s ireland are out of this game, but their absence should not be any problem. robbie keane, the tottenham striker, can always be a threat, even for mertesacker and metzelder.  definitely x2!

romania   -   holland       3.20   -   2.50
the top fixture in group g. both sides are unbeaten with 6-2-0 after 8 games. they are not safe at all, despite their unbeaten run, with bulgaria threatening, just 2 points behind.

as i mentioned above, i consider holland as potentially the strongest side in europe. i said nothing about their coach van basten, but at least van nistelrooy is part of  van bastens plans these days. holland will be without 3 suspended players this time, melchiot, van persie and sneijder. kuyt is out injured and their keeper,  van der saar,  will also miss this match. sneijder and van persie, two of the best. robben is back in the dutch squad.

also romania have their absentees, contra, radoi, cocis, rosu, coman and zicu. maybe 2, 3 of these players would be in the starting line up, if fit.  back are ogararu, parashiv and bratu. key player as always  - mutu.

plenty of class players in the dutch squad, and they can handle the absence of sneijder and van persie. x2 in my opinion.

denmark   -   spain        2.80   -   2.60
another of one of my favourite sides, denmark, in a must win situation, while spain would be happy with a draw. in spain, denmark were beaten, 1-2, but they were down to 10 men for more than half the game. the feeling then was that denmark would not have lost the match, 11 to 11, but this you never really know. poulsen, the sevilla midfielder, makes a timely return for this game. he was shown the red card in the first encounter with sweden, the game that ended in a 3-3 draw, but sweden were given a 3-0 win by the uefa. no m jörgensen or d agger, both certain starters, when available. j d tomasson up front, with d rommedahl and j grönkjaer covering the flanks.

spain have lost their great striker d villa to an injury. f torres will be joined by l garcia, iniesta or tamudo in the front line. d silva is a major injury doubt. you always tend to think that spain will be winners when you check their squad, but then you will be reminded of all their disappointing displays, especially in away games.

they could not defeat iceland in their last away game, (1-1) they lost to n ireland, (2-3) and they offered absolutely nothing up in sweden. (0-2) denmark for this writer. (2.80)

croatia   -  israel         1.44   -   8.50
easy win or not, but home win it will be! (1.44) israel were quite pathetic against england, and it will not be easier for them in this match. three of the starters in the england match will be missing. their strong keeper aouate, ziv and their most capped player, benado. several others,  previous regulars,  have been omitted from their squad, like badir, katan and zandberg. latest news report that both idan tal and s toama have withdrawn from the squad. all in all, major problems for israel ahead of this fixture.

croatia come without petric, balaban and n kovac. the arsenal striker eduardo da silva will probably be joined by the hamburg striker olic up front. as i just said. home win. (1.44)

cyprus   -   wales       2.70   -   2.50
cyprus are a much improved football nation and no side can be certain of returning from the island with 3 points these days. the irish were 2-5 losers and germany only mustered a 1-1 draw, but ok, slovakia were 3-1 winners at cyprus.

cyprus welcome back a couple of previously injured players for this fixture. okkas, konstantinou and anoleftis are their offensive weapons. unfortunately they have lost the larissa midfielder alexandrou to an injury.

over the years r giggs was the player to watch in the welsh squad. today it is c bellamy. he masterminded their great last win away to slovakia, 5-2. bellamy is fit to play this game, but koumas will once again be on the sidelines. will these two never be fit to play at the same time? bellamy was regarded as a non starter in this match, and i thought of backing cyprus. with bellamy playing for wales, i will skip the cyprus bet, but what will i do instead? often over games, when cyprus play at home, and wales scoring 5 in slovakia. ok, the over bet!

armenia   -   serbia         8.50  -  1.45
armenia are far from harmless in their home games. in this quite strong group a, they are 1-2-1 in their home matches. their win was against poland and the two draws were with finland and portugal. armenia rely almost completely on players from the domestic league. one is playing for ajax and one in the russian first league.

serbia are winless in 3 qualifiers and they are under pressure ahead of this match. their defensive ace, the m united footballer, vidic, is out injured, krstajic as well, and a third defender, dragutinovic from sevilla, is suspended for this game. bisevac, new in defence and he will be joined by tosic, among others. zigic is playing again, but he has no top form. lazovic (or pantelic) will probably join zigic in the serbian frontline. croatia (1.44) i can see myself backing, but there is no way that i will be behind this 1.45 on the serbs! no bet!

slovenia   -   albania        1.60   -   6.90
the strongest albanian player, cana, is suspended for this match and this also applies to two of his colleagues. skela will be back to play.

the home side miss the sociedad footballer stevanovic. birsa, r koren, lavric, jokic and bilic are some of their best players, all available for this match. i cannot say that the odds on the home win (1.60) inspire me, but i trust slovenia to win this match.

iceland   -   latvia        2.15   -   3.45
two unbeaten group games from this icelandic side. they were a bit lucky in their last game, at home to n ireland, but then again they were so close to defeating spain before that. anyway, they have finally improved their game after a very lean period, to put it mildly. unfortunately their defensive anchor man, h hreidarsson, is out of this match, suspended. e gudjohnsen will be playing and their new star player, hallfredsson as well.

verpakovskis and pahars are still going forward for latvia, but i do not know if they are any good these days. latvia are 0-0-3 away from home, and the goals 0-4. one of their losses was away to lichtenstein.

no hreidarsson, but i nevertheless give iceland my support. (2.15)

i could include one big favourite on my personal betting list. a full strength greek side welcome bosnia/herzegovina and the odds on the home win are 1.33!