1) Is it too early to be optimistic for England’s next generation?
The average age of Roy Hodgson’s starting line-up against France was 24 years and 113 days. That is the youngest it has been under Hodgson and the numbers fell again in the second half when Jack Butland replaced Joe Hart in goal. Dele Alli is 19 and Ross Barkley is still a few weeks from turning 22, the same age as Butland, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane. Eric Dier is another 21-year-old and there is at least a vibrancy about the squad when Hodgson is emboldened enough to go this way. Hodgson’s record suggests he will want a more experienced team in Euro 2016 but there are increasingly signs that England’s next generation is a cause for optimism. Daniel Taylor
• Match report: England 2-0 France
• Five talking points from Wembley Stadium
2) The Euro 2016 qualifiers delivered more than they promised
It would take admirable casuistry to suggest that the play-offs were a quality-laden postscript to the group stage. None of the four ties will linger too long in the memory and the worry is, of course, that the same may be said for far too much of what is on offer next summer. But the qualifiers as a whole were good fun – unless you spent most of it watching England coast through Group E, perhaps – and threw up enough engaging stories to ensure that the draw for the finals, on 12 December, ought to sustain our interest for a further six months.
Uefa will feel satisfied to see Albania, Iceland, Wales and Northern Ireland qualify without the need for a play-off and all four certainly provided their share of memorable moments; it will also be heartened to see Austria emerge from years of dullness to look an attractive prospect and on a broader level all areas of the continent will be well represented when millions of supporters converge upon France next June. That these fresh faces have performed so well will raise hopes that the depth of talent in Europe might justify the tournament’s first 24-strong edition; all eyes now will be on whoever draws out the balls in Paris next month and the wish must be that the final draw has the right mixture of novelty and meetings between age-old foes to keep everyone talking. Nick Ames
3) Republic of Ireland must now tend to neglected domestic league
The downside to the Republic of Ireland’s qualification for Euro 2016 is that it risks masking the rottenness of football administration and development in the country. John Delaney is one of the highest paid association chiefs in the world despite the League of Ireland being largely neglected and the country’s coaching strategy being shamefully skimpy. The Scottish leagues may be going through a tough time but their clubs still enjoy relatively vibrant support and most
of their young players do not necessarily have to emigrate to prosper. If
places at the European Championship finals were intended to reward the
health of countries’ football scenes, Scotland would deserve to go to Euro
2016 far more than Ireland. Paul Doyle
• O’Neill has forged Republic of Ireland into a lean, green machine
4) The finals will be a better tournament with Ibrahimovic there
At the final whistle in Copenhagen, Zlatan Ibrahimovic sunk to his knees and looked to the skies, seemingly thanking someone up there for taking him and Sweden to the European Championship. Seconds later he was at the bottom of a pile of team-mates thanking him for taking them to France. Because it was all about Ibra, as it has been the whole qualifying campaign. He scored 11 goals in total, as many as the whole Denmark team, including three in the two play-off legs. His second on Tuesday night was a wonderfully executed free-kick from 20 yards out, curled around the wall, leaving Kasper Schmeichel no chance. Ibra deserves to be there, even if you were left with the feeling that the Danes had gifted this tie to the Swedes.
It was a meek and miserable way for Morten Olsen to leave his post after 15 years in charge. The Danes offered precious little in the first leg and, apart from the opening 20 minutes and the last 10 minutes, carried very little threat at home either. There was consternation at Parken – and a few boos – as Olsen replaced his only striker (Nicklas Bendtner) with another striker (Morten Rasmussen). As one Danish journalist tweeted: “We need to score at least two goals and Olsen takes off a striker for another striker – we can play from now until the Euros start and still not score”. In the end they did score two to draw 2-2 on the night but it was far too late to threaten the Swedes. Denmark will have to regroup. Sweden go to the Euros as a one-man team but they won’t mind because that one man is pretty special. Marcus Christenson
• Match report: Denmark 2-2 Sweden (Sweden win 4-3 on aggregate
5) Hungary go through but praise must be qualified
Hungary’s achievement in reaching their first European Championship since 1972 should not be scoffed at but does provoke somewhat mixed feelings. They deserved to beat Norway (even if the Scandinavians might still have made hay with a Solskjaer or an Iversen on the end of their countless crosses) and the temptation would be to strain for hints that an exciting new generation might be emerging from a country whose name still evokes a certain degree of romance.
Yet even if the Puskas Academy is now producing one or two national team players – such as the unlikely first-leg hero Laszlo Kleinheisler – the truth is slightly less thrilling. Hungary would not have been near the finals in its previous 16-team format and those who sat through much of a turgid Group F, a sextet eventually topped by Northern Ireland, will not be particularly enthusiastic for much more of this next summer. They are the perfect example of an unremarkable team that has benefited from Michel Platini’s decision to expand the tournament and, in fairness to them, it simply feels like a shame that any praise aimed in their direction feels as if it needs to be qualified. You expect that Hungary or one of their equivalents will need to pull off a shock or two in France if any of this is to feel worth it in terms of the tournament itself. Then again, the joyous scenes in Budapest at the final whistle – and the poignant coincidence of the former national team goalkeeper Marton Fulop’s death on the day of the first game – may just serve as a reminder that success has meaning, however it is served up. NA
• Match report: Hungary 2-1 Norway (Hungary win 2-1 on aggregate)
6) Ukraine’s wing pair now have the chance to shine in France
It was pretty mucky at times in Maribor, and only put beyond doubt when Andriy Yarmolenko joined a counterattack to score in the seventh minute of stoppage time, but Ukraine merited their progress against a limited Slovenia and became the final team to qualify for next summer’s tournament.
Ukraine were knocked out of Euro 2012, which they co-hosted, in the group stage but did at least provide one feelgood moment in a veteran Andriy Shevchenko’s double to defeat Sweden. Manning the wings back then were Yarmolenko and the Sevilla winger Yevhen Konoplyanka; both were well-rated prospects but now, at 26, they are far better players and it would not be a huge stretch to suggest that they, along with Ibrahimovic, are the only competitors of world class potential in the four teams that have progressed through the play-offs. If you believe the rumours, Yarmolenko may have left Dynamo Kyiv for Chelsea by next summer; regardless, the tournament should be better for the pair’s presence and Ukraine’s performances during their two single-goal defeats to Spain suggested that they should at least have enough spark to cause the best a flutter or two. NA
• Match report: Slovenia 1-1 Ukraine (Ukraine win 3-1 on aggregate)
7) Qatar’s form raises prospect of an early World Cup bow
Qatar’s footballing development is based on a wish to thrill the home crowds – if that is not a misnomer – at the 2022 World Cup but the odds on their providing a snapshot rather sooner are shortening rapidly. José Daniel Carreño’s side are the first to have qualified for the decisive third round of the labyrinthine Asian qualifying competition for Russia 2018 and has been in utterly ruthless form. A caveat to their 27-goal haul in Group C should be that 15 of them came at home against Bhutan, but several of the continent’s traditional leading lights have struggled to put minnows away convincingly and the manner of Qatar’s advancement suggests they may be capable of a genuine tilt at arriving on the world stage four years ahead of schedule.
It owes more than a little to a core of naturalised players whose influence has been unarguable. Among them is Mohammed Muntari, a towering 21-year-old born in Ghana who scored his latest international goal in Tuesday’s 3-0 away win over the Bhutanese and will probably soon be worthy of a better standard of play than is available in the Qatari league with Lekywiya. Qatar’s methods provoke more questions than answers but their improvement suggests something is stirring in the Gulf and it will be enough to make whoever they face in the third round sit uncomfortably. Four teams, perhaps five, of the remaining 12 will reach Russia and none of the established powers will want to suffer a similar fate to Qatar’s group rivals China, whose goalless draw with Hong Kong means their own hopes of going through are hanging by a thread. NA
8) However you contextualise it, Syria’s form is remarkable
The direness of the situation in Syria is such that it would probably be facile to wax lyrical about the healing power of sport just now but, however you want to put it in context, the national team’s performance in these qualifiers has been something to behold. A goal deep into added time by Omar Khribin gave them a 2-1 win in Singapore and was celebrated wildly; it strengthened their hold on second spot in Group E and, even if they are beaten to first place by the incumbents Japan, they are very well positioned to reach the next stage as one of the best runners-up.
It is some achievement that Syria’s team have kept on going; the local league has somehow struggled on, now confined to Damascus, but footballers have not been immune to the bloody and life-altering situations faced by millions in the country and the fact that the coach, Fajr Ibrahim, has been able to field a side for six qualifiers seems noteworthy enough. The current squad is largely Iraq-based and in Khribin, a 21-year-old second striker who has scored five times in these qualifiers, they have an exceptional talent who may well be set for bigger things. Syria – whose Under-17s made an equally remarkable appearance at last month’s World Cup in Chile – will be rank outsiders if they do make it through to the third round, but uniting behind a common cause can do unusual things to a group of sportsmen.
It would be remiss at this point to ignore that, in their press conference before the Singapore game, the cause chosen by Ibrahim and the midfielder Osama Omari was that of the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in support of whom they wore specially-made T-shirts. The background to whatever Syria’s team do in the coming months will be complex and tragic, but in football terms alone they are creating quite a story. NA
9) Argentina begin digging themselves out of a hole
A World Cup without Argentina would be near-unthinkable – indeed there has been no such prospect since 1970 – but the prospect would have loomed somewhat larger if Gerardo Martino and company had fallen to a perfectly plausible defeat in Colombia on Tuesday night. They had taken only two points from their first three games but avoided falling behind any further thanks to Lucas Biglia’s 20th minute goal, showing good character to hold on thereafter amid heavy Colombian pressure. They still have Lionel Messi to return and will need him for an unrelenting fixture list that next takes them to Chile. This is shaping up to be one of the tighter editions of a brutal Conmebol qualifying tournament and any team that can string a few wins together – as a hugely impressive Ecuador have managed to do by taking 12 points from 12 – will save themselves the prospect of a hair-raising final few matches. Argentina travel to Quito on the final matchday, two years from now – plenty can, and will, change in that time but they may hope their opponents are home and hosed by then. NA
10) African off-field toils do the game a disservice yet again
It was hard not to feel wearied when hearing that Kenya, their charter flight to Cape Verde delayed due to an argument about payment for the journey, arrived in Praia – four time zones away from Nairobi – just five hours before kick-off in their World Cup qualifying second leg. Kenya are managed by Bobby Williamson, formerly of Kilmarnock, Hibernian and Plymouth Argyle, and had defeated their fancied opponents 1-0 in the first game. Seeing the job through would still have been a tall order but you have to give yourselves a chance and one can only imagine Williamson’s exasperation at seeing his careful preparations derailed on the tarmac by a bizarre situation that culminated – for unclear reasons – in the arrest of the Kenyan FA head Sam Nyamweya. Kenya lost 2-0 and they were not the worst offenders either: Chad, who had laudably beaten Egypt 1-0 in their first leg and are now coached by Rigobert Song, touched down in Alexandria three hours before the return match began and entered the stadium 30 minutes before kick-off. That they conceded twice in the first 10 minutes says everything necessary about what good their preparation did them.
There are sometimes mitigating factors at play – resources are slim for many associations and it can seem a miracle that these cross-continent journeys take place at all – but all too often the progress of African teams is stymied by incompetence, corruption and rank bad administration. It is not always easy to broach, and perhaps even less to hear, but the days when such tales were treated an endearing antidote to the sheen of European football need to end if countries such as Kenya (population 44 million) are to challenge the established order. At present, suggestions that African football is on the right course to attaining the depth it requires are all too easily rebutted. NA
