One of the best ever comedy open-goal misses from Scotland’s Chris Iwelumo just now. Make sure you watch it later. Scott Brown’s having a great game and made a forceful run forward before turning and playing a little reverse ball to the left back Naysmith who was sprinting on a diagonal run into the box.
Naysmith literally rolled it across the goal and the keeper was completely out of the game as he’d come out to the near post. Iwelumo was literally standing 2 yards out and it was harder to miss but he dangled a leg out and unbelievably prodded it wide. From 2 yards out and the cross wasn’t fizzed at him either - it was rolled nicely across for him to tap in, or not. It was ridiculous. Still 0-0 but Scotland really need to win after losing in Macedonia already.
This is the how close he was to goal and the ball’s on its way wide:
This is a summary shot. That’s Gary Naysmith at the top of the picture after rolling the ball across. You can partially see the keeper on the ground at the near post and he’s completely out of the game. Iwelumo was onside as he was in line with Naysmith when he crossed it and had stepped forward to meet the ball. You can see the way his foot and body angle is shaped that he’s connecting with it all wrong and he somehow directed it wide. It was his debut too!
Look at his face. The kind of miss that can end careers:
Only half watching it but England are back to being shit and are drawing 0-0 with Kazakhstan at half time.
Here’s Iwelumo’s miss. Commentary from Davie Provan’s funny - I don’t think he initially realises he actually missed and seems to be wondering what it’s been disallowed for. Only when he sees the replay does he cop on that the clown missed it:
Bulgaria-Italy is live on Setanta Ireland later. Should be a decent game as well as giving us pointers as to the standard we’ll be facing later in the group. Italy are expected to give a debut to Pepe of Udinese as one of the wide attackers in a 4-3-3. Di Natale is expected to play on the other flank and Toni and Gilardino are battling out for the central role. Bulgaria are sweating on the fitness of Martin Petrov, who’s been injured for the last few weeks.
Realistically Ireland are probably aiming for second place in the group, so an away win for the Italians (probable group toppers) would have to be good for us.
england 2 or 3 nil @ home against a weaker team is usually a good bet - dancing babys sidekick is a big fan of this bet - even now at 1-0 you could green up
[quote=“padjo”]Whats the best result from an Irish perspective?
A draw or a win for either side?
Realistically Ireland are probably aiming for second place in the group, so an away win for the Italians (probable group toppers) would have to be good for us.[/quote]
What’s the story with these groups in terms of qualification again? Is it 2nd place teams into play-offs? If so, I suppose it’s probably best for us if Italy beat everyone else and we aim to nestle in behind them.
Quality stuff at Wembley. Kazakhstan pulled a goal back after a sloppy Ashley Cole backpass and now the crowd’s booing his every touch. They’re not booing Lampard yet but give them time.
I’d be satisfied with that as neither of these sides are mugs and we had the advantage of playing our away tie to Georgia in Germany. I reckon they’ll be very competitive at home throughout the group. Cyprus took the lead midway through the second half and Georgia equalised soon after. It’s two tough away games for Cyprus in 4 days so hopefully we’ll benefit from being fresh and well rested on Wednesday night.
Been a tight enough game between our two main rivals for the group. Both seem a little more offensive at start of second half. Berbatov reminds me a bit of Viduka with his laziness. If best eight second place teams qualify for play offs how is this judged with some groups having more teams in them?
Italy are controlling things but creating little while Bulgaria aren’t showing much ambition to get forward and support Berbatov, who’s on his own up front. It seems they’re happy enough to settle for a home point and take their chances against the other teams in the group. I’m off to look for Romania-France on Justin TV.
