« Gas Companies In, Oil Companies Out | No Rest » |
Planning My Next Trip Abroad
Arrived back in Belfast from Prague last night to the news of the European Championships 2008 qualifying draw, with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Northern Ireland drew Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia and Lichtenstein, which could be interesting.
Follow up:
The Spain trip is obviously the glamour match in the series, especially given our history playing there, and hopefully should attract large numbers of away fans. Hopefully I'll even be able to scrape together enough cash to make the trip myself (get clicking those Google ads, eh?). Lawrie Sanchez thinks we can pick up points against the Spanish at Windsor Park too.
Lichtenstein should be 6 points, and both Iceland and Latvia are beatable on good days. However, Northern Ireland are known for playing up on big occasions and to assume those points were in the bag would be premature. The matches will definitely be interesting. Denmark and Sweden will be tougher, but perhaps that flair for big occasions (like England?) will come to the fore.
After having time to digest the draw, Sanchez claims to be confident that Northern Ireland can perform well in these qualifiers - let's hope he's right. I just can't help noticing that a lot of what he spoke to the BBC about was about what a wonderful time the team/supporters will have off the pitch. In saying that you can't really blame him for being realistic - we're not Brazil after all.
Meanwhile the Republic (who drew Wales among others) and England both look like they have a good shot at qualifying. Shame!