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Euro 2004 qualifiers show England's true colours
Forget the defeat to Brazil in the World Cup. Forget the poor performance against Macedonia and the humiliating loss to Australia only two months ago, England are back on track after defeating top ten side Turkey 2-0 in Euro 2004 qualifiers on Wednesday.
The win puts England on the top of the group 7 ladder. An ordinary first half saw the teams go to the break at 0-0. However once they returned England piled on the preassure with Darius Vassell scoring on 75 minutes. David Beckham certified the victory from the penalty spot two minutes into injury time.
In other matches, France survived an early scare from Israel after the former world champions went down a goal after only a minute. Omri Afek put Israel in front which shocked the visitors into action. David Trezeguet (22nd minute) and Zinedine Zidane (45th minute) brought France back into the lead by halftime though. The second period was tight but France were able to maintain their lead and take three points.
Dave's World Cup has a pet team which we'll follow through their campaign to get a victory. San Marino have never been a real threat to many European nations and probably won't ever be. However I've decided to follow this minnow located within Italy. Wednesday they took on world cup participants Poland who came away from the match 5-0 victors. Marcin Kuzba (54', 90+3'), Miroslaw Szymkowiak (4'), Kamil Kosowski (26') and Bartosz Karwan (81') found the net for Poland. San Marino coach Giampaolo Mazza was content with the loss saying that history has shown that to be the average margin between the two sides.
San Marino may not be a great side but here at Dave's World Cup, you'll be sure to find out about all matches involving the worlds smallest nation. Their next blockbuster match is away to Latvia on April 30.
Other Euro 2004 results:
Group 1:
[b]Slovenia 4[/b] - Cyprus 1
Group 2:
[b]Norway 2[/b] - Luxembourg 0
[b]Bosnia-Herzgovina 2[/b] - Denmark 0
Group 3:
[b]Czech Republic 4[/b] - Austria 0
[b]Netherlands 2[/b] - Moldova 1
Group 4:
[b]Sweden 2[/b] - Hungary 1
Group 5:
[b]Lithuania 1[/b] - Scotland 0
Group 6:
[b]Greece 2[/b] - Northern Ireland 0
[b]Spain 3[/b] - Armenia 0
Group 7:
[b]Slovakia 4[/b] - Leichtenstein 0
Group 8:
[b]Croatia 2[/b] - Andorra 0
Estonia 0 - Bulgaria 0
Group 10:
Albania 0 - Republic of Ireland 0
Georgia 0 - Switzerland 0
posted 4 April 2003 |
