2008 Euro Qualifying: Winners & Losers
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by Foolsgold
Winner: Gareth Barry
In the shadow of a hobble-footed Steven Gerrard, the Aston Villa stepped up to set-up to goals and insure that England live to fight another day.
Loser: Portugal
With Christiano Ronaldo putting them up 2-1 in the 73rd minute, it looked as if the Portuguese were going to move into second in the group and cruise to qualification, but a 87th minute equalizer ruined their party.
Winner: Finland
The Finns gave themselves a great opportunity to qualify by pulling off the draw at Serbia. With two home fixtures and a trip to Belgium left, they could be one of the suprise guests at next year's Euro.
Loser: Chris Baird
His own goal against Latvia, cost Northern Ireland the match and quite possibly their shot at playing in the Euro next summer.
Winner: Real Madrid stars
Wesley Sneijder and Ruud Van Nistelrooy each scored in Holland's 2-0 win over Bulgaria and move into second place of their group while Sergio Ramos was instrumental in helping ten man Spain salvage a point against Iceland.
Loser: Xabi Alonso
Relegated to the bench for the past year, the Liverpool midfielder finally got his chance to start against Iceland and what does he do? He gets a red card 20 minutes into the match and basically makes it impossible for Spain to take a much needed three points.
Winner: Poland
A late equalizer from Jacek Krzynówek stole a point from group favorite and home side Portugal in what could very well end up the match that wins them qualification.
Loser: Liverpool players
Voronin's Ukraine side could only manage an embarassing draw at Georgia, Xabi was sent off and Torres couldn't find the net for Spain, Gerrard may have helped his team win, but he may have also re-aggravated his foot injury as he hobbled of the field with twenty minutes to go in the match
Winner: Steffen Iversen
The Norwegian striker scored the only goal of the match against Moldova, pushing his country into third place in their group.
Loser: Serbia
The Serbs had a golden opportunity to move into second in their group, but could only manage a scoreless draw with Finland.
Originally posted here
