Hope you don't mind me making this thread for the games tomorrow. If the Italians on here want their own match thread tomorrow, then go ahead and close the thread.

From bbc.co.uk:

-------------------------------------

Italy are the runaway leaders of Group Five and they can stretch their lead over second-placed Norway in Oslo.

But the Italians go into the game without playmaker Francesco Totti, who has been dropped by Marcello Lippi.

Scotland hope to win their first game of the qualifying stage when they entertain Moldova at Hampden Park.

Slovenia are currently level on points with Norway and they could take advantage if the Norwegians slip up when they travel to Belarus.

------------------------------------

So, must win games for Scotland to keep our extremely faint hopes alive against Moldova and Belarus. Moldova though aren't the best but... neither are we. :( At least it was a more organised performance in the San Siro, that's the only encouragement we can take from the campaign so far! :$

The Italians no doubt will piss the group as they're doing just now. Norway away is never easy though! Still fancy them to come away with a good 3 points.

Slovenia and Belarus... difficult to call actually, but I'll go with Slovenia 2-1.

We are going to win tomorrow, 2-1. Carew and Riise with the goals for us.
Have a good feeling about this match, we have only lost one match since Hareide took over in January 2004. which was against Italy :p :D :(

Haha, is that Harald Brattbakk in your sig? :D

He was so amazingly bad for Celtic (H)(Y)

When he scored against them in the CL, it was dynamite. :D

Yes, it is! :p
Brattbakk is a legend in Trondheim and in Norwegian football, he is the most scoring player of all time in the Norwegian premier division with 160 goals (H)

Oh God. :|:|

Don't you have Robbie Winters and Charlie Miller at Brann Bergen? How have they done?

hey dont forget about cato guntveit!! :D
--
im confident about tommorow i'll say 3-0.

im just preyin for the italians to do the business in norway but i think it'll be 1-1 :(

and i'll guess belarus will beat slovenia 1-0 but im hoping for a draw :lui:

Oh God. :|:|

Don't you have Robbie Winters and Charlie Miller at Brann Bergen? How have they done?
Average. They play well sometimes (esp. Winters), but I do not know so much about them.



But got go now..:p

I can see the Norway-Italy game ending in a draw, but I hope it's a 2-0 or 3-1 win for italy :P

Vieri and Cassano could be starting up front

(anyone have starting 11's?)

oops nvm i got it.

-------------------Buffon--------------
--Bonera---Materazzi---Cannavaro----Grosso----
------------------Pirlo------------------------
-----Camoranesi------De Rossi-------Zambrotta---
----------------Vieri--------Cassano----------



Norway(Sorry i have no idea what side of the field they play on so positioning may not be accurate):

------------------Myhre------------------------
---Bergdolmo----Hagen------Lundekvam------Riise
-----------Andresen----------Haestad------------
------Solli---------Iversen-----------Pedersen ----
------------------Carew------------------------

http://www.figc.it/english/primo_piano_03/primo_piano_03.htm

No predictions, but Vieri will score.


That is a prediction.


anyway...Lippi has the press breathing down his neck after he left out Del Piero and more importantly Totti out of the squad.

I can't believe De Rossi, Pirlo, Camoranesi, Vieri and Cassano will all start ! And then Chiellini might start as well ! That is the most attacking lineup i've ever seen Lippi or any Italian coach field in recent times.

Bonera and Materazzi at the back worry me.

Should be a good game. A draw is what I predict.


PS: Why wasn't Iaquinta called up ?

That is a prediction.


anyway...Lippi has the press breathing down his neck after he left out Del Piero and more importantly Totti out of the squad.

I can't believe De Rossi, Pirlo, Camoranesi, Vieri and Cassano will all start ! And then Chiellini might start as well ! That is the most attacking lineup i've ever seen Lippi or any Italian coach field in recent times.

Bonera and Materazzi at the back worry me.

Should be a good game. A draw is what I predict.


PS: Why wasn't Iaquinta called up ?

he was called up, he will probably be on the bench with Toni

oo.. In that case i'd be tempted to start him over Bobo.

Bring on Slovenia




and then Scotland. We will take them both and then Norway might as well line-up for the taking. :hump: .



Alexander's at the gates! Wooooooooo. :jap: :ewan: :(

we shoudl've had 3 points against Belarus in the home game, if it wasnt for the dumb referees. what kind of ref calls back a red card and a penalty after consulting the linesman who didnt even see **** from his perspective. i hope there's payback tomorrow, and i hope the refs **** over Belarus this time.

I think that scotland will win, with a McFadden double :O

Bring on Slovenia




and then Scotland. We will take them both and then Norway might as well line-up for the taking. :hump: .



Alexander's at the gates! Wooooooooo. :jap: :ewan: :(


MTZ Ripo are amazing. Vladimir Romanov! (H)(Y)

Belarus U21 - Slovenia U21 1-2
40' [0-1] Birsa (pen.)
45' [0-2] Robnik
72' [1-2] Afanasjev

Scotland U21 - Moldova U21 0-0

Norway U21 - Italy U21 1-0
78' [1-0] Riise



Wouldn't mind the same tomorrow (H)

MTZ Ripo are amazing. Vladimir Romanov! (H)(Y)
Nah, their attitude is bad. Some rich guy bought them and started buying out players, not the first time you heard of such a situtation lately! But my friend in Belarus went to play for them in pre-season and then play in some tournaments. After 2 month he quit, because he told me that they act like they are Real Madrid and that they are the best players in the world. That wasn't very smart though, because now at 16 he could have been earning hundreds of dollars a month, which is a hell of a lot. Even teachers in there get like 30 dollars a month. Damn school later kept him from playing for another club and now he lost a lot of form, which is very very hard to get when you play at such a high level.

I predict a 1-0 victory for norway over Italy
Norway semse to do good against "big" fotball nations"

Morten Gamst Pedersen with a amazing freekick!

(H)

Scotland run really badly this time. I don't even think Scotland can be in the runner up position in the group. Perhaps, in EURO 2008 campaign, Scotland would be better.

well, my predictions:
Norway - Italy 0:0
Scotland - Moldova 1:0
Belarus - Slovenia 1:2

Things aren't looking good for Italy: Materazzi might play :| :|

Nah, their attitude is bad. Some rich guy bought them and started buying out players, not the first time you heard of such a situtation lately! But my friend in Belarus went to play for them in pre-season and then play in some tournaments. After 2 month he quit, because he told me that they act like they are Real Madrid and that they are the best players in the world. That wasn't very smart though, because now at 16 he could have been earning hundreds of dollars a month, which is a hell of a lot. Even teachers in there get like 30 dollars a month. Damn school later kept him from playing for another club and now he lost a lot of form, which is very very hard to get when you play at such a high level.

Maxi, their owner Vladimir Romanov has bought my club Hearts if you didn't realise. :$

So they act arrogant? Apparently, I heard when Ripo won the Belarussian cup recently, Romanov announced that all the team players would have the chance to play for Hearts. Which is fine by me, cause I'm sure they're better than our duff players. :$

Are there any Ripo players in the NT? If so, how much quality do they have?

p.s. Tell your friend if he still wants to play, I'm starting up a futsal team. :D

Help?, your friend isnt very intelligent ey? a footballer, what else can you expect ;).

One match already finnished

Scotland - Moldova 2-0
53' [1-0] C. Dailly
89' [2-0] J. McFadden

Help?, your friend isnt very intelligent ey? a footballer, what else can you expect ;).
hehe. Well he got fed up with their attitude and wanted to get into another club. The only reason he got into MTZ in the first place is because his amateur team is training right outside of the MTZ stadium. That's how i got to see Steaua play in UEFA cup, when i was there for 2 month :rockman: . He just had a choice between either staying in school for 1 more year and then going into college or dropping out of school and forgetting about college. Because there is no soccer academies and you have to train 5 days a week, sometimes even twice in 1 day to stay on form. But now he finished his year and he can have 2 years in school that are not important, kind of like extra years to prepare for college and then 2 extra years of the draft time, since he got a note from the doctor that he is mentally challenged and crap like that (it was hilarious when he was going through the medical examination process, he would make up things that people like that would have to be in mental institution forever, the only reason they believed him is because his parents had a close friend a doctor, so he added a few things too). But now he is training with another team, their reserve side and could be promoted to the first team soon.


Jambo: i totally forgot that Romanov bought Hearts! I will suppor them now in Scotland :) , at least Romanov is not like Abramovich. He owns a big agriculture machine factory and doesn't steal money from people, plus he at least put a lot of money back into the country, unlike Roman who went to spend it on some london club.
BTW no, there is no MTZ players in the national team at the moment. They are not even doing that well in the league right now, 3rd last, but then again last years champs Dinamo Minsk are 4th last.


First result of the day:
Scotland 2-0 Moldova

Jambo: i totally forgot that Romanov bought Hearts! I will suppor them now in Scotland :) , at least Romanov is not like Abramovich. He owns a big agriculture machine factory and doesn't steal money from people, plus he at least put a lot of money back into the country, unlike Roman who went to spend it on some london club.
BTW no, there is no MTZ players in the national team at the moment. They

Right now there's been a great deal of silence from Romanov and the Hearts board. Hopefully something happens soon because right now we're managerless and nobody has a clue about what players we will sign over the summer.
Agricultural machine factory? Well, it's a lot different from UKIO Bankas which the papers here say he owns... heh. Seriously though, would he invest large amounts of money in Hearts as he says he would? He said he'd invest his own funds, but we're very sceptical over him. The fact he hardly ever seems to be in Scotland is certainly worrying.

By the way, 3 Hearts players should be starting in Minsk on Wednesday, it could have been 4 but Paul Hartley picked up a yellow card today and will miss the game.

hearts v belarus :(

the 5th force (H)

**** game from what i saw, we didnt take our chances. both teams sucked, but i saw like 20 minutes of the match :).

Paul Hartley picked up a yellow card today and will miss the game.


:(

Just back from hampden. Well we won, but the performance was poor. After we scored they started to come forward more and get a few shots. I'm surprised they didn't equalise tbh. Faddy got a lucky goal at the end (fired straight at the keeper but it took a deflection) but the result flattered us. I think we missed quashie in midfield and with hartley out of midweek we'll be struggling I reckon. Oh aye fletcher played shiit too. If we play like that against belarus we'll probably lose :(

O well 3 points anyway but we need to beat belarus to have any chance of qualifying (not that I think for one minute that we'll be in Germany this time next year, but as the Liverpool fans will tell you, stranger things have happened :p)

Belarus - Slovenia 1-1
16' [0-1] N. Ceh
19' [1-1] V. Belkevich


Norway - Italy 0-0 HT. Norway played best in the first half, but Italy had the biggest chance. Very few chances and quite boring so far.

injury time, 3 mins, still 0-0 italy-norway


12' (2T ) Toni per Vieri (Ita)
23' (2T ) Iaquinta per Cassano (Ita)
33' (2T ) Diana per Materazzi (Ita)

vieri and materazzi went out injured.

diana is playing left mid with zambro at right back, bonera in the centre of defence with canna, apparently pirlo and de rossi are useless in midfield.

Norway - Italy 0-0

Table
1 Italy 13
2 Norway 9
3 Slovenia 9
4 Belarus 6
5 Scotland 5
6 Moldova 2


Second half was just as the first one. Norway played best, Italy with the biggest chances. Disappointing match.

full time, 0-0.


:nape: :rolleyes:

-------------------------------

Marcello Lippi's Italy side is closer to the 2006 World Cup after earning a point in Norway, though there are injuries for two Inter stars.

Coach Lippi took a brave decision when opting to leave out Francesco Totti and Alessandro Del Piero, but he lost Alberto Gilardino to injury, Gennaro Gattuso to suspension and Alessandro Nesta was given compassionate leave.

This forged a new striking partnership between Antonio Cassano and Christian Vieri, while Palermo's Fabio Grosso took the left-back role, pushing Gianluca Zambrotta further up the field. Former Roma hitman John Carew lined up for Norway in the driving rain in Oslo as first took on second in qualifying Group 5.

An early defensive error went unpunished thanks to a tight offside flag, then at the other end the Norwegian goalkeeper rushed off his line to close down Mauro German Camoranesi as he latched on to Vieri's through ball.

The first real danger came after six minutes, as Carew was allowed a free header on John Arne Riise's cross which dipped on to the roof of the net.

The Scandinavians were pushing hard in the early stages and Buffon ran out to kick clear from Iversen, then a Gamst-Pedersen strike was deflected out for a corner kick.

A scuffle broke out at the 10th minute when Buffon clattered into Gamst-Pedersen as he went to pluck a cross out of the air. The Juventus goalkeeper fell heavily on to his back and seemed to believe it was a very late foul, but the situation was quickly brought under control.

Vieri's ambitious long-range effort was smothered, but a Fabio Cannavaro intervention proved decisive on Iversen. Gamst-Pedersen hacked down Camoranesi with an extremely late two-footed challenge as the tension rose in Oslo, but there was no yellow card.

Vieri failed to make the most of a defensive error that had left him clear on goal, as he hesitated and tried to dribble round the last man. Cassano's first real move came after 24 minutes, but after some great build-up his cross for Vieri was too long.

Liverpool midfielder Riise was booked for a crunching challenge on Camoranesi as the Italo-Argentine was running towards the box. The resulting free kick was scuffed over the bar by Grosso.

There was a fine team move just before the break, as Vieri and Cassano exchanged backheels, but Camoranesi's final strike was deflected out for a corner.

Moments later, Riise and Haestad drilled powerful shots just wide of the near post on the counter-attack. A weak Cassano effort was easily gathered, but the Roma starlet's pass then failed to reach Vieri through a sea of legs.

Norway started the second half with a bang, as Carew's angled drive whistled past the far post within 20 seconds of the opening whistle.

Former Roma flop Carew was again dangerous soon after, as his rising shot went close from a tight angle.

Yet Vieri's strike was even more impressive, as he took advantage of a defensive error on Cassano's intelligent flick and a dipping finish from just inside the box was inches over the bar.

There was bad news when Vieri pulled up with a suspected thigh strain on 55 minutes, which will probably rule him out of Inter's Coppa Italia Final against Roma. He made way for Palermo centre-forward Luca Toni.

Camoranesi was brought down by Gamst-Pedersen on the edge of the box after he had tricked his way past two Norwegian defenders and Andrea Pirlo's free kick was plucked out of the air.

The Scandinavians were rather more accurate at the other end, as a set-piece was touched on for Carew's curling effort and Buffon was at full stretch to beat it away.

Lippi made a tactical substitution when replacing the disappointing Cassano with Udinese striker Vincenzo Iaquinta. He combined with Toni on the counter-attack only for the final ball to be wasteful.

Riise thumped a free kick from 33 metres that was smothered with some difficulty by Buffon, as chances were increasingly created only from set-pieces.

Another Inter player pulled up with a thigh problem, as Marco Materazzi limped off to be replaced by Sampdoria's Aimo Diana, pushing Zambrotta back into a defensive role.

Italy had a great chance with 10 minutes remaining, as Toni sprung the offside trap on Pirlo's through ball and his relatively central finish was controlled by Myhre.

Riise blasted another hopeful effort from the edge of the box, but neither goalkeeper really had a tough save to make.

Deep into stoppages, Riise's brave diving header prevented Iaquinta from getting on the end of a promising cross from six yards.

Norway: Myhre; Bergdolmo, Hagen, Lundekvarm, Riise; Andresen, Haestad; Solli (Karadas 71), Gamst-Pedersen, Iversen (Johnsen 84); Carew

Italy: Buffon; Bonera, Cannavaro, Materazzi (Diana 79), Grosso; Camoranesi, Pirlo, De Rossi, Zambrotta; Vieri (Toni 56), Cassano (Iaquinta 69)

Ref: Mejuto Gonzalez (Spa)

Bah. Could have done with an Italian favour there.

Oh well, make-or-break game Wednesday. Don't expect feck all though.

Right now there's been a great deal of silence from Romanov and the Hearts board. Hopefully something happens soon because right now we're managerless and nobody has a clue about what players we will sign over the summer.
Agricultural machine factory? Well, it's a lot different from UKIO Bankas which the papers here say he owns... heh. Seriously though, would he invest large amounts of money in Hearts as he says he would? He said he'd invest his own funds, but we're very sceptical over him. The fact he hardly ever seems to be in Scotland is certainly worrying.

By the way, 3 Hearts players should be starting in Minsk on Wednesday, it could have been 4 but Paul Hartley picked up a yellow card today and will miss the game.
Romanov owns a lot of factories in different countries. UKIO Bankas is a bank in Lithuania, his home country that he owns. MTZ Ripo is translated as Minski Tractorni Zavod Ripo, which is Minsk Tractor Factory Ripo. That's his company in Belarus. You shouldn't worry about him buying Hearts in a way like that loser Glazer. Romanov grew up working very hard and he has lots of companies to run in a lot of countries and he makes money by all his work. That's why you can't expect him to always be in Scotland and watch every Hearts game, like Abramovich sits in London and watches every Chelsea game. The difference is, that Abramovich gets people to steal money for him, so that all he has to do is give a fat paycheck which is nothing compared to what his people get for him. That's why he doesn't have to go any where, while Romanov doesn't do that crap, he travels a lot and works hard to make income and doesn't screw his own people over. So the reason why he is in Scotland rarely is because he actually has work to do, unlike Abramovich. As for the club being screwed over, don't worry, he would have found something else if Vladimir would have wanted to buy a club and sell everything to get something. It's not gonna happen, Romanov wants to keep ALL his companies improving and Hearts is pretty big for him, especially that it could bring a great income. So you shouldn't worry about him, you should worry about him not asking Yuri Puntus to come to Hearts as a manager. Puntus is the reason why MTZ won the Belarussian Cup and he also proved by being succesful with the Belarus Under -21 team. If you don't remember he got them to the Under-21 EURO's last year and he beat the winners Italy in the first game, tied a second game, which should have been won, but then lost the third game 2-1 to a crap refering for giving 2 red cards out of nowhere, 1 of them was in the 15th minute to the main forward, 2 minutes before the red card, that forward gave Belarus a 1-0 lead.





I guess the result with Slovenia is ok, would have been better if we won, but Norway tied too, so all we need is to beat Scotland and we will be second in the group :rockman: for the time being.

Nice to hear that Vieri got some match playing time with Cassano. Perhaps we'll see more of this in the future.

That tidbit aside all I can say is: DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT. 2 More Inter players have gone down with injury and things are looking grim with the Coppa Italia Final fast approaching. Injuries and International Callups have really hurt the side and a lot of players will be absent. Hopefully these 2 can make it back, especially Vieri for the 2nd leg where Adriano will be absent.

Cheers Help?, I'm sure Yuri Puntus has been considered by the board, along with Valdas Ivanauskas formerly from FBK Kaunas. However, Romanov said he'd try to bring in a "big name".... Valdas Ivanauskas has 16 letters, that counts right? :(

25 bucks richer thanks to Italy's tie (Y)(H)

Norway-italy was a boring game!
Norway had the most possession but as always they have problems finding the net!
I surly hope Ole is joining the NT when he is fit,we sure miss his quality in front of goal!
There is one player who was playing great yesterday,Kristoffer Hæstad.
the 21 year old got his full debut yesterday and was man of the match in my wiew.
just wonder when we will see him in the EPL :rolleyes:

http://img257.echo.cx/img257/631/ktistoferhstad194276c2gs.jpg

Italy won't do any good under Lippi.

Norway-italy was a boring game!
Norway had the most possession but as always they have problems finding the net!
I surly hope Ole is joining the NT when he is fit,we sure miss his quality in front of goal!
There is one player who was playing great yesterday,Kristoffer Hæstad.
the 21 year old got his full debut yesterday and was man of the match in my wiew.
just wonder when we will see him in the EPL :rolleyes:

Hæstad was amazing, it's a long time since I saw someone run so much and almost always won the ball. If he can continue to play like he has done this season he will probably be sold quite soon.

Oh my God i can't believe it the Scots have won a football match :O

Hæstad was amazing, it's a long time since I saw someone run so much and almost always won the ball. If he can continue to play like he has done this season he will probably be sold quite soon.
Yeah, Hæstad was amazing. He gave the Italians no time to play their football and was a big part of the game. If it hadn't been for him, I think Italy would have won. He was clearly Man of the Match.

Oh my God i can't believe it the Scots have won a football match :O

Come back when Lincoln can win a play-off. ;)