INFO : Turkey - Netherlands 15 Oct 2013, 20:00 The Dutch will be looking for victory in Turkey, but home team coach Terim will be demanding the same from his players This is a typical must-win game for Turkey - a draw or loss would mean they are out of contention. Their coach Fatih Terim - under whose guidance the Turks got back on the track and among the living, with a chance to win the second place for additional qualifiers - knows this. While Terim is aware that they must win here, there will be no rushing forward, as the mighty Netherlands stand on the opposite side, led by fantastic Robin Van Persie. Terim thinks that this game can easily go in either direction and that his players will give everything they can on the pitch, and if they dont win, they shouldnt be crushed by the nations criticism. Terims plan is clear: take off the pressure and crank up the players as much as you can, and this is what the Emperor does best. - Of course we want to win and get into the second round. In line with that goal, we have prepared well and worked on our tactics - Terim said. He has taken the pressure off his players by sending a message with a careful choice of words to the Turkey fans: - If we win, well celebrate, that is clear, but it wont be the end of the world for us, just like it wont be the end of the world if we lose. It will be a match that can go either way. There is no need to waste words on the opponents strength, and as for Turkeys lineup, its easily possible for Burak Yilmaz to stay on the bench and for St Etiennes Mevlut Erdinc to play in the attack with Umut Bulut, but we still doubt this will happen as Yilmaz is one of Terims favorite players, and he also scored against Estonia. Ahead of the match against Hungary, the Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal uttered a sentence that makes the entire Istanbul tremble today: - In my opinion, Romania have the biggest chance to end up second because theyre not facing us. Hungarys disaster is enough of a testament to the Netherlands power - eight goals in their net and an instant dismissal of coach Egervari. The 8-1 win earned the Dutch the status of the most efficient team in these qualifiers with 32 goals, while Robin Persie is the top scorer with 11 of his own. Another disheartening fact for Turkey is that the Netherlands havent lost a world cup qualifier for 12 years. In addition, Van Gaal has announced their strongest lineup, even though Van Persies appearance was in question already ahead of the Hungary match due to a heel injury, and he still isnt fully fit. Roma midfielder Strootman had some trouble with his ankle in the last training session, and it is very likely that Norwich player Leroy Fer will replace him. - I find it absolutely ridiculous that anyone even mentions our lax approach when its clear that were coming to Turkey with our best team and with a plan to play at the highest level. Everyone who wants to make some money should bet on Romania being second because we intend to beat Turkey - Van Gaal reiterated at the press conference in Istanbul, and the Dutch media claim that only three players are safe in the starting eleven for the World Cup - Van Persie, Robben and Strootman. Everyone else is in a fierce contention to prove themselves to Van Gaal, and its especially crowded in the midfield, with the likes of Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Wijnaldum, De Jong, Schaars, De Guzman, Maher and Fer fighting for a spot, and each one of them is extremely motivated. Relaxed, yet motivated Netherlands are definitely the favorites against under-pressure Turkey, even though the odds are set up differently, counting on the away team not to give their best effort. Thats what the Hungarians thought last Friday... Sweden - Germany 15 Oct 2013, 20:45 The hosts will have to do without their biggest weapon, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic is suspended for the match. Sweden coach has admitted that it will be a lot harder to play without him Sweden, with their 20 point haul, can play hosts for this final qualifying game without any pressure whatsoever. Last weeks win over Austria, or turnaround to be more correct, cemented their second place finish in the group. Todays opponents Germany are five points in front, and as Sweden cant overtake them, they have nothing to play for but prestige. Besides that, the hosts will be missing one important player, or it might be better to say crucial foward. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, their biggest star, is suspended for the match. First choice keeper Isaksson and defender Lustig have missed the last training session due to injury, and they probably wont play today. - We have some doubts regarding the starting 11, and I still havent made a final decision. We will miss Zlatan, hes a world class player. We can play the same as we have we played so far, but without him it will be a lot harder - coach Erik Hamren said, before commenting on the match against the heavily favoured German side: - We went into the matches against Germany in Berlin and Austria on Friday a bit too cautiously. However, I would be naive if I thought that we will see more of the ball than Germany today. Germany secured top spot in the group with a convincing win against Ireland. They have won every match but one, the amazing draw against Sweden, when they were 4-0 up, only for the game to finish 4-4. Low had this to say about todays game: - We dont want to experiment too much in our final qualifying match. The team are on a good run and we want to keep it going. We dont want to get even for the Berlin game, thats water under the bridge for us. The players have learned from that experience, and thats the most important thing. They will still be missing almost all of their Dortmund contigent, and forwards Klose and Gomez as well, but Schweinsteiger is ready to make his 100th national team appearance: - I am very pleased for Bastian, who has improved immensely as a player over the course of his career. Now hes a real cornerstone of this team and a leader. All I can say is that he deserves every minute he has played for the Elf - said Low, who will also be in charge of the German team for the 100th time: - I never thought it would come to this. Its an impressive number, but I must say I didnt expect this. Low is about to sign a new contract, which would run until 2016, so it seems that the German FA are going to place their trust in him for another qualifying cycle. Israel - Northern Ireland 15 Oct 2013, 19:00 For many reasons, neither Israel nor Northern Ireland managed to do what they intended in these qualifications. A win in the last match would be at least a bit of a consolation After a draw in Portugal which they reached at the end of the match with a goal by Ben Basat who returned to the team after an injury, the Israelis could only despair for losing four points in the matches against the outsiders Azerbaijan. If they did that properly, they would still be in a race for World Championship. This way they are only left with a bitter taste of realization that they missed the chance of complicating the situation. - I think there is no point in celebrating this one point because I cannot shake off the impression that we could have won. In general, when we analyze the entire qualifications, we can regret we missed to take the second place of the group. In the first half we respected the Portuguese too much and we were playing under pressure. At halftime I told the boys to just enjoy the game and in the second half we looked like I would want us to look all the time - said the selector Eli Guttmann after the match against Portugal and the president of the Association Avi Luzon added: - I am proud at the way we played the second half as well as the result we made. We were not far from winning in the final minutes. I am inviting fans to come and support us in great numbers against Northern Ireland. The forward Damari is out for this evenings match because of an injury. He played in Lisbon for the last ten minutes or so and his absence is the only news in the lineup compared to Portugal match. There shouldnt be any doubt about the motivation of Guttmanns ranks. They will surely do everything in their power to end the qualifications with a win in front of their fans. Northern Ireland had absolutely no reasons for joy on Friday. After Luxembourg last month, they were defeated by the aforementioned Azerbaijan and practically no one remembers the great win against Russia in August anymore. The selector Michael ONeill is aware the situation is not great: - We learned yet another lesson, the players really made it hard for themselves in this cycle. I will not try to make stuff up and say we improved significantly, we are moving forward with tiny steps, but on the way we also make some steps in the wrong direction, like the one in Baku. We played several good matches, however the results are what matters and they were bad. There is no sense in running away from that fact. Despite all that, it seems ONeills job is not in danger, allegedly negotiations are currently going on about his cooperation with the national team for the next two years. If the players are asked, there are no doubts, they would all like to keep him in the team. - I think we all enjoyed working with Michael, although the results were disappointing. We are frustrated mainly because of the feeling we didnt get what we deserved with our performance. But I would say we are on the right track, let us hope the experience we gained in this cycle will aid us in the oncoming qualifications for Euro - said the captain of the team Steven Davis and pointed out it really matters a lot to them to improve their impression in Tel Aviv: - We definitely wouldnt want to end this story with a new loss. We know it will be difficult in Israel, they are a good team and they are very dangerous in the offense but we want to win against them to have something we can build our optimism on for the future. They will have to do that without the help of center backs Evans and McAuley and midfielder Norwood who have to serve suspensions. The midfielder Brunt and forward Paterson had minor health issues for the past few days but they should be good to appear. Lithuania - Bosnia & Herzegovina 15 Oct 2013, 19:00 The Kaunas stadium can hold 10.000 spectators, but it will be too small to receive all the fans of Bosnia and Herzegovina who arrived to Lithuania from all the continents, in order to witness a historic win and Bosnias first participation in the World Championship Bosnian humor is often unsurpassed, so the preview of a match that has every chance of becoming historic should begin in a similar manner. -This town is just like Zenica, only without the smoke. There are so many Bosnian people here. The town is called Kaunas, located in the middle of Lithuanian green forests. When it comes to sport, it is renowned due to basketball and the club Zalgiris. However, no one will have any interest about the Lithuanians today, not in basketball, nor in football. Namely, the Lithuanian national team should be only an extra in Bosnia and Herzegovinas endeavor of all endeavors in order to qualify for their first World Championship in history. The stadium called Steponas Darius ir Stasys Girenas stadionas can hold 10 000 viewers, and chances are that many will be left out in front of it. Bosnia and Herzegovinas supporters arrived to Kaunas from all Bosnian towns, even from those where people typically root for Croatia or Serbia, such as Mostar and Banja Luka, as well as from all of the continents. They bought all the tickets they could find, so Safet Susics team will have a spectacular support from the stands. This will be a big advantage for the away team, but although the match has no significance to the home team score-wise, they are expecting the match in a good form and in good spirit. A lot of people claim that the Greeks sent over a money bag as additional motivation, but in the qualifications, Lithuania turned out to be a serious opponent to everyone except to Bosnia and Herzegovina, who defeated them with a 3-0 score in Zenica. The Lithuanians recorded two draws with the Slovaks, and the Greeks achieved two minimal wins against them. After last months defeat in the match against Latvia, they replaced the Hungarian strategist Laszlo Csaba, and the team was taken over by his assistant, Pankratjevas, who achieved two wins without a single goal received against Liechtenstein and Latvia, in Fridays match which ended with a 2-0 score. Due to injury, the home team will have to do without the midfielder Novikovas. Pankratjevas made significant rotations, but he kept the 4-4-2 formation. All in all, Lithuania have played against Bosnia five times in the qualifications, and they won only once, in 1998, in their first encounter. Eight years ago, they played in the capital Vilnius, and Bosnia won 1-0, via Sergej Barbarez goal. -The match against Latvia was very important to us, because there is a lot of neighbors rivalry and we wanted a rematch for the defeat in Riga. We were well-prepared for the match, and we carried out the coachs tactical ideas. The result was a valuable one, and we showed a beautiful, offensively-orientated football, which we also want to show in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina -said the Lithuanian midfielder Mindaugas Kalonas, and the home teams biggest advantage is the complete absence of pressure. They could use the pressure and possible nervousness of the away team, if they dont start the match in a desired manner. Bosnia and Herzegovinas coach, Safet Susic, filled Ciro Blazevics shoes and inherited his winning legacy. However, both of them got stuck in the additional qualifications against Portugal. Two years ago in Paris, Susic had a similar match as this one against Lithuania, and his team had a 1-0 lead. However, in the final minutes of the match, a controversial penalty shot took France to the European Championship, and Bosnia on Cristiano Ronaldos path. This time, everything fell into place, the opponents reputation is far from great, and a win would earn them first place and a ticket to Brazil. Nevertheless, Susic knows that, nowadays, theres no such thing as an easy win and the psychological pressure is hard to withstand. He can count on all players, except from the right back Mensur Mujdza, and it is expected that the starting eleven will be the same as on Friday, when they crushed Lichtensteins defense in 30 minutes in Zenica, and then they spared their strengths for Kaunas. -The Lithuanians will probably play an open game, they are without pressure and they want to win. And thats the way they played the last match against Latvia. I doubt that Lithuania is a team that will close up and wait in order not to lose the match. In the match against Latvia, at certain moments they had only 3 players in the back line. I saw an offensively-oriented team, they run a lot and have a new coach. Many players want to assert themselves. They already started preparing for the 2016 EP Qualifications -Safet Susic shows respect for the home team, but he believes that they have to dash for the win from the first minute. -Everything is on our side. The motivation, quality, supporters, we only have to put in more effort into it than ever before. Some of our players are not completely ready, but a feisty game and a lot of running can make up for everything. They have to stay focused on the fact that a win will take us to Brazil -said the away teams coach, who doesnt compare the match with the one in Paris, two years ago. -This match is nothing like the one in France. France were the favorites then. We didnt have big expectations in that encounter. This will be a completely different match. I repeat, we have respect for every opponent we face, but we know our goals, and our goal is to win -says Susic, admitting that this is the top point of his career as a coach. -There we important matches during my career as a player, like the one against Bulgaria in Split, but when it comes to my coaching career, this is definitely the most important match. I have no reason to change the starting eleven, but we have to be prepared for anything. That includes the possibility of receiving the first goal. We have to play out game -concludes Safet Susic, while in his locker room theres tension as well as optimism. Everyone can hardly wait for the match to start. All eyes will be focused on the offensive duo Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic. They will be shadowed by the defense, so there will also be space for other players, Zvijezdan Misimovic and Miralem Pjanic, who can also hit the net from the background. -We played nine matches, but this will be the most difficult one, because its the last one and it decides our fate. Lithuania will be a dangerous opponent, but will be even more dangerous. There is no room for calculations, we are aiming for a win and well do the best we can. No one claims that were not under pressure due to the fact that were so close to our goal, but we still have to achieve it. There is pressure every time, in every match, in Athens, Zilina, and at Bilino Polje. But it wont be a problem in Kaunas. We know that everything depends on us, and well have a great support from our fans. And we want to give them a reason to be joyful about -said Vedad Ibisevic, a forward who, with 7 goals, currently holds the third place on the qualifications top-scorers list, alongside the German Mesut Ozil. Edin Dzeko scored ten goals, one goal less than the Hollander Robin van Persie. -A win is all that matters, let whoever has the chance score the goal. Its important to score at the right time, so we can fulfill our dream, and the dreams of our fans. We wont have an easy task, it was never easy, but we are prepared to do our best -said Edin Dzeko, before the high-significance match where therell be no room for calculations.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 11:02:12 +0000