Rediscovering International Football
Mar 25th, 2019 by 'holic
Where were we? Oh yes, the Euro/African Nations Cup qualifiers and the Gunners competing in them. I’ve had a two screen set-up for most of the weekend. For someone who claims to be uninterested in the international game I have watched a lot of football this weekend.
Two second-half goals from Zuber and Zakaria were enough to secure the points in Georgia. I was late to this one but just in time to see Granit Xhaka earn a pointless yellow card and show a degree of petulance he needs to eradicate from his game. Stephan Lichtsteiner, like Xhaka, completed the ninety minutes. The experienced defender was quoted as saying he would like to extend his contract at The Arsenal if he can get a guarantee of more minutes in the lead up to the Euros. That’s him gone this summer then.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored an added-time penalty for Armenia but sadly for him and his colleagues it was only a consolation. Bosnia Herzegovina were already two to the good through Krunic and Milosovic.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed out on scoring for Gabon as they drew 1-1 at Burundi. That draw meant that Burundi have qualified for the finals of the tournament for the first time, and Gabon have missed out. Something of a bonus for The Arsenal, if not Aubameyang himself. Mohammed Elneny also featured in the tournament as Egypt too drew 1-1 with Niger.
British interest in the Sunday fixtures centred on Northern Ireland and Scotland. The latter got back on track with a less than impressive 2-0 win in San Marino. They had a great start when McLean’s brave header from Fraser’s cross. That should have been a platform for a bigger win but instead they had to wait until a quarter of an hour remaining before Russell added the second. The travelling tartan army were far from impressed.
Northern Ireland completed an excellent weekend by defeated Belarus, for whom Alex Hleb is still starting, 2-1. Evans header on the half hour put them ahead but within minutes they were hauled back by a Stasevich deflected equaliser. Just as a draw was looming Magennis was in the right place at the right time to win it.
So to England tonight in Montenegro. If they were expecting another stroll in the park they got a rude awakening when Vesovic opened the scoring in the 17th minute. The Legia Warsaw player wriggled through the defence and curled a beautiful shot inside the far post. It was their first attempt at goal and very much against the run of play. It took just twelve minutes for Keane to power in a header from Barkley’s free-kick and make amends for his part in the opener.
Barkley then applied the final touch to deny Hudson-Odoi a goal on his impressive first start. In a little over twenty minutes England had turned the tables on their hosts. Montenegro tried to step it up after the break but Barkley’s second strike following some determined approach play by Sterling gave England a two goal cushion. A fourth was added when the previously unseen Kane (did he come on for someone and I missed it?) managed to mis-control a wonderful Sterling assist into the net.
Provider turned goalscorer with ten minutes remaining. Henderson (yes, Henderson!) played him in superbly and Sterling finished with some style. Another five goal performance from England in this break. The performance again warranted it.
With apologies to my many readers from elsewhere, and thank you for coming back so often, my take on watching England is again swinging back to one of enthusiastic support. It’s been some time as you know.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with something quite different. Until then, have a good one ‘holics.
14 Responses to “Rediscovering International Football”
Boom!
I quite enjoyed the World Cup, although that may have been influenced by the fact that for the last three games we had taken a family villa in Rhodes and the four of us watched the football in a lively bar with a great atmosphere. Before that I was firmly of the view that club football came before international. Turgid performances, entitled players etc.
But I have to say I have loved these last two performances, watched on my sofa. Sparkling football, committed performances, young players. Great stuff and well done Gareth Southgate.
Best since Sir Bobby’s team.
Bit harsh on our ex-junior Kane there Holic! He took a sitter very well. His hold-up play is massively improved . I wouldn’t have any other Spuds in the team. Hopefully ESR and Saka will make the finals!
The Premier League is clearly the strongest league and it has had huge benefits for our club and international football.
Thank you, you know who.??
Sp@rs, with nine, have lost three more league matches this season than Arsenal. For the arithmetically inclined that is a 50% greater number of losses. Just saying.
Things are looking up for
England it seems. And they have
Danny Welbeck to come back
this year.
I’ve had a two screen set-up for most of the weekend.
http://ofah.net/images/2-tvs-grandad.jpg
We appear to have won a game.
A few players in international games
– hopefully all and sundry are back
sound for training on Thursday
There used to be a lot of hype about the England teams but they would disappoint more often than not but this new team is living up to the hype. They are playing and winning matches convincingly. Sterling’s improvement is astonishing and he has added consistency and confidence to his play. Arteta has something to do with his improvement, I feel.
Cant wait for club football to resume this weekend though, sadly, we have to wait till Monday evening for our match.
Now they say the busses are going to be articulate, but thank the powers that be, I have never been addressed by one.
In December or so Miguel Almiron came up as a possible Arsenal signing from MLS but there seemed to be little interest presumably because so few MLS players have made much impact in European football. Newcastle signed him in January and in four appearances (including two wins and a draw) he has played an important role in their rise from near the relegation places to their current position, 13th in the table. It will be interesting to see how he plays against Arsenal on Monday.
TJ-Jules rules
No Jah?
Yes Jah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBpvZCX9psk
and Silly Second-Yella
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>