2008 Euro qualifying Group A match previews: Portugal vs Poland & Serbia vs Finland
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by Foolsgold
Portugal vs Poland, Saturday, 1600 est Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Lisbon
Cristiano Ronaldo and Euzebiusz "Ebi" Smolarek don't have a lot in common. True, they are both attacking midfielders named after famous people, Ronaldo after Ronald Reagan and ironically Smolarek after Portuguese great, Eusébio. They also both like to party, though Cristiano prefers hookers and Ebi is a pot man, but what do expect from young, rich footballers?
Then you have the fact that they are both top goal scorers in their Euro qualifying Group with Ronaldo leading at six and Smolarek tied for second with four, but that's where the similarities end. Unfortunately these differences will reveal their ugly heads when the two face off on Saturday. On one side, you'll have the 22-year-old near World Class winger with a seemingly endless amount of weapons at his sides including Simão Sabrosa, Ricardo Quaresma, Hélder Postiga, Nuno Gomes, João Moutinho, and Deco, while on the other, a decent Polish striker with Gregory Rasiak?
In other words, there is only two ways Poland will get points from this match, they'll either have to hope Portugal won't show up, which is not unlikely, or they will have to play ten men behind the ball and try to dictate the pace of the game by slowing everything down. Leading the group by 2 over Finland and 4 over the third place Portuguese, a 0-0 tie here will do wonders for the Poles. Especially when you consider that two of their remaining four matches after this one are home ties against Kazakhstan and Belgium.
I guess the real question is will they be able to keep Portugal out of the net? Well, since Ronaldo hasn't played competitive football since mid-August due to a red card against Portsmouth and the subsequent automatic three match ban that goes with it, I'm going to say he'll be pretty damn pumped to take the pitch. In fact, I would not be surprised to see him score a brace here and once one goal shakes the back of the net, the floodgates should open up. I like Portugal here, 3-1, even without Ricardo Carvalho there to anchor the defense.
Serbia vs Finland, Saturday, 1415 est FK Crvena Zvezda - Belgrade
Finland has been somewhat of a surprise so far as they sit second in the group with 17 points, two better than favorite Portugal. The thing is though, they've yet to play Christiano Ronaldo and company, so that's a potential six point swing. With that in mind, they need to get all the points they can from their other three remaining fixtures, including this match at Serbia.
The Serbs though will be approaching this match with only one thing on their mind, winning. If they can beat the Finns, they will be tied with them in group points but ahead of them on goal difference with a crucial game-in-hand. If you look at their remaining schedule after this match: at Portugal, at Armenia, at Azerbaijan, then home against Kazakhstan and Poland, three points here puts them in the driver's seat to advance.
As for the match, this is Finland's most experienced squad ever, but that could be just a nice way of saying they're a bunch of old men. They will be without their captain, Jari Litmanen, who is also their most capped and has scored the most goals in their history, but let's be honest here, Litmanen hasn't been great since the late 90's so that really isn't much of a blow. They still have Sami Hyypia, who at 33 is experiencing a resurgence in his club career at Liverpool, to anchor a solid defense and compliment a decent attack which includes strikers Jonatan Johansson, Alexei Eremenko, Birmingham City's Mikael Forssell, left winger Joonas Kolkka, and ever versatile midfielder, Teemu Tainio.
On the other side of the ball, the Serbs will have their best defender in Nemanja Vidić, their best midfielder in Dejan Stanković, and their best striker in Nikola Žigić, all of whom are exceptional talents. To make matters worse for the Finns, as I mentioned before, Serbia is playing at home and will be very motivated to get a win here to make qualifying a near after-thought. I just don't see anything other than a win for the Serbs, 2-0.
(If you enjoyed this, I'll be posting previews for all the group matches on my site all day tomorrow. Cheers.)
