International Break Wrap-Up: Olic, Simunic and Petric do their part to sink/help England
By: Jan | November 21st, 2007The story of this European matchday must be England’s defeat at home against Croatia. After Israel threw them a massive lifeline on Saturday with their victory over Russia, it has now been Croatia who returned a similar favour to the Russians. Three Bundesliga based players left their mark on this memorable match.
Ivica Olic (Hamburger SV)
Ivica Olic made it 2-0 for Croatia and had a couple of other chances to decide the match afterwards.
Josip ‘Joe’ Simunic (Hertha BSC Berlin)
He brought England back into the game after the slightest of shirt pulls resulted in a penalty, which Frank Lampard converted to make it 2-1.
Mladen Petric (Borussia Dortmund)
Dortmund’s best buy of the summer for sure. It was Petric who broke England’s neck shortly after coming on as a substitute.
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Comments
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Ha Ha. England deserves to lose. Throughout qualifying they were amongst the worst teams in the group. The English didn’t deserve the favor that Israel handed them and I’m happy to see that they lost. Also, everyone is blaming the manager. Don’t blame the manager, blame the players. To be earning the large salaries that they do, they should be performing at higher levels internationally. The premiership is indeed one of the best and most competitive in the world, but obviously it’s not because of English players.
Posted from
United States
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I will say this much. Croatian manager Bilic said he had renewed faith in the game after the Israel-Russia match and would bring the same attitude to this game. And he did. And you have to have a lot of respect for Croatia for playing to win. We’ve seen two of these type of games now in a week, where teams with nothing to play for have played for the win (and won). Long may the trend continue, after watching the shame of Germany playing for draws to ensure a 2nd seed (imho).
Posted from
United States -
Germany are a third seed now. The draw put them in the third pot, a defeat could have even relegated them to fourth. As the results of the last two qualifying campaigns are used for the seeding, Germany’s results always counted twice due to the missing World Cup qualifiers. I wonder what kept them from simply sticking to the FIFA ranking?
The performance of Germany was definitely lacklustre. As was Holland’s game against Belarus which they eventually lost. I’m not sure both teams deliberately played this way, or whether upcoming league matches on Saturday and the fact that both teams were already qualified played a role as well. Borowski, Klose and Gomez all had good chances to take the lead and Rolfes could have broken the deadlock in the 90th minute. Germany could still end up in a group with France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Posted from
Germany -
“Deserve”? This is sport. Those who “deserve” to qualify are those at the top of their group at the end of qualification, no matter how amazing or abysmal their performance has been. There is no “justice”, there are just points.
I don’t think being seeded third is the end of the world, unless of course we end up in a group with Holland, Italy, and France, always a possibility (although a remote one). Holland is the only dangerous one in the first group (unless Greece pulls a shocker again); and we know we can beat Croatia, Tschechien, and Sweden (as long as we don’t fuck up). Italy’s a bit of a worry; so is France below us; but in good news if Spain continues playing the way they’ve been lately they’re going to be dangerous, and we can’t draw them.
Posted from
United States -
As an Englishman based in Germany I was deeply saddened not only by the failure of England to qualify but also the behavior of some Croatian supporters in the pub were I watched the game.
Their excitement at seeing England not qualify was matched by the coach Bilic on the sidelines. I could not understand it. Why would they be so pleased to have knocked England out? More to the point why were they bothered about the result when they had already qualified?
Don’t get me wrong, this is nothing against the Croatian team. I enjoy their style of play and the fact they kept going forward even though the result did not matter to them was creditable. However, the nationalism bordering on jingoism was horrible to see and either these people do not understand football or a just plain nasty!
Posted from
Germany -
Maybe being the one small nation that knocks a traditional football power out was enough? And the booing of their national anthem + pre-match arrogance towards the Croatian national team from the English camp may have motivated them even more?
Maybe Croats just love revelling in Schadenfreude. Or as you say, they are just plain nasty.
Anyway, depending on what happens now, this qualifying campaign could help England renovate their national game. They just need the right manager to do so.
Posted from
Germany -
The Schadenfreude was delicious. I was rooting against England just for fun. England seem to think they can turn in lackluster displays and we’ll accept their crappy half-assing because they are entitled to a place. It’s annoying to watch.
Moreover if the English fans are only going to watch if their boys get to play with the ball, then don’t let the door hit your tushies on the way out.
Posted from
United States
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