By Habeeb Akinfegbe
Belgium's national team have participated in three quadrennial major football competitions. They appeared in the end stages of twelve FIFA World Cups and four UEFA European Football Championships, and featured at three Olympic football tournaments including the 1920 Olympic tournament which they won. Other notable performances are victories over four reigning world champions—West Germany, Brazil, Argentina and France—between 1954 and 2002. Belgium has longstanding football rivalries with its Dutch neighbours, the so-called Low Countries derby, and its French counterparts, having played both teams nearly every year from 1905 to 1967. The squad has been known as the Red Devils since 1906, and its supporters' group is named 1895.
The first period lasted from the 1980s to the early 1990s, with the team finishing as runners-up at Euro 1980 and fourth in the 1986 World Cup. With the second golden generation, which emerged under guidance of Marc Wilmots in the early 2010s, Belgium topped the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in November 2015. With four successful qualification campaigns out of thirteen, Belgium's performance in the European Championship does not match their World Cup record. Belgium has hosted or co-hosted the event twice; they were chosen to host the 1972 European Football Championship from three candidates, and they hosted UEFA Euro 2000 with the Netherlands. At Euro 1972, Belgium finished third after losing 1–2 against West Germany and beating Hungary 2–1. The team's best continental result is their second place at the Euro 1980 in Italy. By finishing first in their group, Belgium reached the final, in which they faced West Germany. Horst Hrubesch scored first for the West German side, but René Vandereycken equalised courtesy of a penalty. Two minutes before the regular playing time ended, Hrubesch scored again, to deny Belgium a first UEFA European Championship. At Euro 1984, in their last and decisive group match against Denmark, the Belgian team took a 0–2 lead, but the Danes won the match 3–2. Sixteen years later, Belgium automatically reappeared at UEFA's national team tournament as co-hosts. After winning the Euro 2000 opener against Sweden 2–1, two 2–0 losses against eventual runners-up Italy and Turkey eliminated the Belgians from the tournament by the end of the group stage.
The Italian national football team represents Italy in association football and is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy. Italy is one of the most successful national teams in the history of the World Cup, having won four titles (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006) and appearing in two finals (1970, 1994), reaching a third place (1990) and a fourth place (1978). In 1938 they became the first team to defend their previous World Cup tournament victory and due to the outbreak of World War II retained the title for a record 16 years. They have also won a European championship (1968), as well as appearing in two other finals (2000, 2012), one Olympic football tournament (1936) and two Central European International Cups. Italy's highest finish at the Confederations Cup was in 2013, when the squad achieved a third-place finish. The team is known as Gli Azzurri
from the traditional colour of Italian national teams and athletes
representing Italy. In its first two matches, the Italian national team
wore white shirts with shorts from the club of each player; the azure
shirts were introduced in the third match; (azzurro, in Italian) comes from the "Azzurro Savoia" (Savoy Blue), the colour traditionally linked to the royal dynasty which unified Italy in 1861, and maintained in the official standard of the Italian President.
The primary training ground is at the FIGC headquarters in Coverciano, Florence, and the team plays their home matches at various stadiums throughout Italy. In 1968, the Azzurri won their first major competition since the 1938 World Cup, beating Yugoslavia in Rome for the European Championship title. The match holds the distinction of being the only European Championship or World Cup final to go to a replay. After extra time the final ended in a 1–1 draw, and in the days before penalty shootouts, the rules required the match to be replayed a few days later. Italy won the replay 2–0 (with goals from Riva and Anastasi) to take the trophy. In the 1970 World Cup, exploiting the performances of European champions' players like Giacinto Facchetti, Rivera and Riva and with a new center-forward Roberto Boninsegna, the team were able to come back to a World Cup final match after 32 years of desolation. They reached this result after one of the most famous match in football history: Italy vs. West Germany 4–3, which is known as the "Game of the Century". Although they were defeated by the Brazilians in the final. The cycle of international successes ended in the 1974 World Cup, being eliminated by Lato's Polish team in the first round. In the Euro 2000, another shootout decided Italy's fate but this time in their favour when defeating the co-hosts the Netherlands in the semi final. Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo saved one penalty during the match and two in the shootout, while the Dutch players missed one other penalty during the match and one during the shootout with a rate of one penalty scored out of six attempts. Emerging star Francesco Totti scored his penalty with a cucchiaio (spoon) chip. Italy finished the tournament as runners-up, losing the final 2–1 against France (to a golden goal in extra time) after conceding les Bleus equalising goal just 30 seconds before the expected end of injury time (93rd minute). After the defeat, coach Dino Zoff resigned in protest after being criticized by Milan president and politician Silvio Berlusconi. A three-way five point tie in the group stage of the 2004 European Championship left Italy as the "odd man out", as they failed to qualify for the quarter finals after finishing behind Denmark and Sweden on the basis of number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams. Italy's winning goal scored during stoppage time giving them a 2–1 victory over Bulgaria by Antonio Cassano proved futile, ending the team's tournament. The successful former Juventus manager Antonio Conte was selected to replace Cesare Prandelli as coach after the 2014 World Cup. Conte's debut as manager was against 2014 World Cup semi-finalists the Netherlands, in which Italy won 2–0. Italy's first defeat under Conte came ten games in to his empowerment from a 1–0 international friendly loss against Portugal on 16 June 2015. On 10 October 2015, Italy qualified for Euro 2016, courtesy of a 3–1 win over Azerbaijan. Three days later, with a 2–1 win over Norway, Italy topped their Euro 2016 qualifying group with 24 points; four points clear of second placed Croatia. However, with a similar fate to the 2014 World Cup group stage draw, Italy were not top seeded into the first pot. This had Italy see a draw with Belgium, Sweden, and Ireland in Group E. On 4 April 2016 it was announced that Conte would step down as Italy coach after UEFA Euro 2016 to become first team head coach of English club Chelsea at the start of the 2016–17 Premier League season.
Under the guidance of Jack Charlton, Ireland enjoyed its most successful era, reaching their highest FIFA ranking ever which was 6th in the world in August 1993, and qualifying for UEFA Euro 1988 in their first appearance at the UEFA European Championship, reaching the quarterfinals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in their first ever appearance at the finals, and making the last 16 at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Charlton's successor Mick McCarthy lost out on the next two major tournaments but ultimately qualified for the 2002 World Cup, making it to the last 16. Under Giovanni Trapattoni, the team narrowly lost out on qualification for the 2010 World Cup during a controversial play-off, but went on to qualify for UEFA Euro 2012. The team failed to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil which marked the end of Giovanni Trapattoni's tenure as manager. Ireland also fell to a record low FIFA ranking of 59th. The team fell further to a record low of 70th in June 2014. For the next Euro qualifying campaign under manager Martin O'Neill, Ireland finished third behind Germany and Poland, but went on to qualify for Euro 2016 after a 3–1 aggregate win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-offs. In 1964 Ireland reached the quarter finals of qualifying for the European Championship. Ireland did not qualify for a European Championship until the 1988 UEFA European Championship. On 12 June 1988 in Stuttgart the Irish football team took to the pitch in its first match at a major championship finals competition. Ray Houghton of Liverpool FC scored the only goal of the match as Ireland recorded a memorable and historic victory. Ireland took on the former Soviet Union next and took the lead late in the first half via a spectacular volley from Liverpool's Ronnie Whelan. Unfortunately for both Whelan and Ireland the lead was cancelled out midway through the second half by Oleh Protasov as the match ended in a 1–1 draw. In their final match the Netherlands won 1–0 and the Irish were heading home. It was not until 2011 were Ireland clinched a place at UEFA Euro 2012 with 5–1 aggregate victory over Estonia. Ireland lost all 3 games and conceded 9 goals which was Ireland's worst performance in a major tournament to date.
Sweden made their first World Cup appearance in 1934. Sweden has made eleven World Cup appearances and five appearances in the European Championships. They finished second in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, and third in both 1950 and 1994. Sweden's accomplishments also include a gold medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics, and bronze medals in 1924 and 1952. They reached the semi-finals in UEFA Euro 1992.
Traditionally, Sweden are rivals with neighbours Denmark, Norway and Finland but through the years a rivalry with England has also developed. Sweden's captain is Zlatan Ibrahimović with Andreas Isaksson as vice captain. As the host of the 1992 European Championship, Sweden played in their
first European Championship tournament. They were drawn in the group
with Denmark, France and England. Sweden managed to advance as group
winners ahead of the eventual champions Denmark. In the semi-finals
following the group stage Sweden were eliminated by Germany 2–3. The
place in the semi-final is Sweden's best result in a European
Championship to date. Sweden qualified impressively for this tournament, winning all games
except the away game against England (0–0) and conceding only one goal.
The finals however, were a great disappointment. Sweden lost their
opening game against the host Belgium 1–2. Johan Mjällby scored the goal for Sweden in the 53rd minute after a mess-up by the Belgian goalkeeper Filip De Wilde while Belgium won via goals from Bart Goor in the 43rd minute and Emile Mpenza in the 46th one. Then Sweden played 0–0 against Turkey and lost 2–1 to Italy. The goal was scored by Henrik Larsson while Italy won via goals from Luigi Di Biagio and Alessandro Del Piero. Sweden finished the group last behind Belgium with only 1 point. Italy finished first and Turkey second. Sweden came into the tournament in Portugal with low expectations. But after a dazzling 5–0 win against Bulgaria they became one of the favorites. Fredrik Ljungberg began the goal-fest after a well done pass by Zlatan Ibrahimović. Henrik Larsson
scored 2–0 and 3–0 in the second half. His first goal was done by a
nice header after that he received a perfectly taken crossball by Erik Edman. 4–0 was scored by Zlatan Ibrahimović on a penalty and the substitute Marcus Allbäck
scored the last goal of the game. After the 5–0 victory, Sweden became a
feared team in the tournament and many were surprised by Sweden's
offensive play since they were known to mostly play a defensive form of
football. In the next game they were set up against Italy, who would prove themselves as a very hard opponent. After 36 minutes Antonio Cassano scored the first goal of the game for Italy after a cross by Christian Panucci. A great game by Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson made Sweden survive the rest of the game and after 84 minutes Sweden finally managed to score a goal. Zlatan Ibrahimović made an amazing backheel shot which found the back of the net.
Sweden's last game of the group was held against Denmark. It was said before the game that if Sweden and Denmark played 2–2, Italy would be eliminated from the tournament. This is exactly what happened. Denmark led the game by 2–1 for a long time. But at the end of the game, Mattias Jonson scored the equalizer after numerous rebounds. Italy was eliminated and both Denmark and Sweden was qualified for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, Sweden had to face Holland. The game became goalless after full-time, but not without a lot of chances. The closest Sweden came to scoring was through Fredrik Ljungberg but he hit the post with a well taken shot. But the game ended goalless in normal time and went to a penalty shootout. After a long run of penalties were taken, it was Olof Mellberg's turn to take a shot. The Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar saved Mellberg's shot and Holland won the game. Sweden was eliminated and Holland was through to the next round. Competing in Group G of the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers, Sweden picked up their first point on the road in Austria with a 1–1 draw on 8 September 2014. After a 1–1 draw against Russia at the Friends Arena, Sweden then picked up their first win in their next match with a 2–0 result against Liechtenstein. Sweden then went unbeaten for another three matches before suffering two consecutive defeats, a 1–0 loss to Russia in Moscow and a crushing 4–1 home defeat to group leaders Austria. This caused Sweden to move down to third place in their group, just one point above fourth-placed Montenegro. Sweden then bounced back to win their final two group games against Liechtenstein and Moldova with the scoreline being 2–0 on both occasions. They finished their group in third position behind Austria and Russia and qualified for the playoffs. Sweden were drawn against big rivals Denmark and won 4–3 on aggregate, qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2016.
FOLLOW US
Twitter: @bizarre_comms
Facebook: Bizarre Communications
Email: bizarrecommunications@gmail.com
Belgium's national team have participated in three quadrennial major football competitions. They appeared in the end stages of twelve FIFA World Cups and four UEFA European Football Championships, and featured at three Olympic football tournaments including the 1920 Olympic tournament which they won. Other notable performances are victories over four reigning world champions—West Germany, Brazil, Argentina and France—between 1954 and 2002. Belgium has longstanding football rivalries with its Dutch neighbours, the so-called Low Countries derby, and its French counterparts, having played both teams nearly every year from 1905 to 1967. The squad has been known as the Red Devils since 1906, and its supporters' group is named 1895.The first period lasted from the 1980s to the early 1990s, with the team finishing as runners-up at Euro 1980 and fourth in the 1986 World Cup. With the second golden generation, which emerged under guidance of Marc Wilmots in the early 2010s, Belgium topped the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in November 2015. With four successful qualification campaigns out of thirteen, Belgium's performance in the European Championship does not match their World Cup record. Belgium has hosted or co-hosted the event twice; they were chosen to host the 1972 European Football Championship from three candidates, and they hosted UEFA Euro 2000 with the Netherlands. At Euro 1972, Belgium finished third after losing 1–2 against West Germany and beating Hungary 2–1. The team's best continental result is their second place at the Euro 1980 in Italy. By finishing first in their group, Belgium reached the final, in which they faced West Germany. Horst Hrubesch scored first for the West German side, but René Vandereycken equalised courtesy of a penalty. Two minutes before the regular playing time ended, Hrubesch scored again, to deny Belgium a first UEFA European Championship. At Euro 1984, in their last and decisive group match against Denmark, the Belgian team took a 0–2 lead, but the Danes won the match 3–2. Sixteen years later, Belgium automatically reappeared at UEFA's national team tournament as co-hosts. After winning the Euro 2000 opener against Sweden 2–1, two 2–0 losses against eventual runners-up Italy and Turkey eliminated the Belgians from the tournament by the end of the group stage.
The Italian national football team represents Italy in association football and is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy. Italy is one of the most successful national teams in the history of the World Cup, having won four titles (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006) and appearing in two finals (1970, 1994), reaching a third place (1990) and a fourth place (1978). In 1938 they became the first team to defend their previous World Cup tournament victory and due to the outbreak of World War II retained the title for a record 16 years. They have also won a European championship (1968), as well as appearing in two other finals (2000, 2012), one Olympic football tournament (1936) and two Central European International Cups. Italy's highest finish at the Confederations Cup was in 2013, when the squad achieved a third-place finish. The team is known as Gli Azzurri
from the traditional colour of Italian national teams and athletes
representing Italy. In its first two matches, the Italian national team
wore white shirts with shorts from the club of each player; the azure
shirts were introduced in the third match; (azzurro, in Italian) comes from the "Azzurro Savoia" (Savoy Blue), the colour traditionally linked to the royal dynasty which unified Italy in 1861, and maintained in the official standard of the Italian President.The primary training ground is at the FIGC headquarters in Coverciano, Florence, and the team plays their home matches at various stadiums throughout Italy. In 1968, the Azzurri won their first major competition since the 1938 World Cup, beating Yugoslavia in Rome for the European Championship title. The match holds the distinction of being the only European Championship or World Cup final to go to a replay. After extra time the final ended in a 1–1 draw, and in the days before penalty shootouts, the rules required the match to be replayed a few days later. Italy won the replay 2–0 (with goals from Riva and Anastasi) to take the trophy. In the 1970 World Cup, exploiting the performances of European champions' players like Giacinto Facchetti, Rivera and Riva and with a new center-forward Roberto Boninsegna, the team were able to come back to a World Cup final match after 32 years of desolation. They reached this result after one of the most famous match in football history: Italy vs. West Germany 4–3, which is known as the "Game of the Century". Although they were defeated by the Brazilians in the final. The cycle of international successes ended in the 1974 World Cup, being eliminated by Lato's Polish team in the first round. In the Euro 2000, another shootout decided Italy's fate but this time in their favour when defeating the co-hosts the Netherlands in the semi final. Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo saved one penalty during the match and two in the shootout, while the Dutch players missed one other penalty during the match and one during the shootout with a rate of one penalty scored out of six attempts. Emerging star Francesco Totti scored his penalty with a cucchiaio (spoon) chip. Italy finished the tournament as runners-up, losing the final 2–1 against France (to a golden goal in extra time) after conceding les Bleus equalising goal just 30 seconds before the expected end of injury time (93rd minute). After the defeat, coach Dino Zoff resigned in protest after being criticized by Milan president and politician Silvio Berlusconi. A three-way five point tie in the group stage of the 2004 European Championship left Italy as the "odd man out", as they failed to qualify for the quarter finals after finishing behind Denmark and Sweden on the basis of number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams. Italy's winning goal scored during stoppage time giving them a 2–1 victory over Bulgaria by Antonio Cassano proved futile, ending the team's tournament. The successful former Juventus manager Antonio Conte was selected to replace Cesare Prandelli as coach after the 2014 World Cup. Conte's debut as manager was against 2014 World Cup semi-finalists the Netherlands, in which Italy won 2–0. Italy's first defeat under Conte came ten games in to his empowerment from a 1–0 international friendly loss against Portugal on 16 June 2015. On 10 October 2015, Italy qualified for Euro 2016, courtesy of a 3–1 win over Azerbaijan. Three days later, with a 2–1 win over Norway, Italy topped their Euro 2016 qualifying group with 24 points; four points clear of second placed Croatia. However, with a similar fate to the 2014 World Cup group stage draw, Italy were not top seeded into the first pot. This had Italy see a draw with Belgium, Sweden, and Ireland in Group E. On 4 April 2016 it was announced that Conte would step down as Italy coach after UEFA Euro 2016 to become first team head coach of English club Chelsea at the start of the 2016–17 Premier League season.
Under the guidance of Jack Charlton, Ireland enjoyed its most successful era, reaching their highest FIFA ranking ever which was 6th in the world in August 1993, and qualifying for UEFA Euro 1988 in their first appearance at the UEFA European Championship, reaching the quarterfinals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in their first ever appearance at the finals, and making the last 16 at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Charlton's successor Mick McCarthy lost out on the next two major tournaments but ultimately qualified for the 2002 World Cup, making it to the last 16. Under Giovanni Trapattoni, the team narrowly lost out on qualification for the 2010 World Cup during a controversial play-off, but went on to qualify for UEFA Euro 2012. The team failed to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil which marked the end of Giovanni Trapattoni's tenure as manager. Ireland also fell to a record low FIFA ranking of 59th. The team fell further to a record low of 70th in June 2014. For the next Euro qualifying campaign under manager Martin O'Neill, Ireland finished third behind Germany and Poland, but went on to qualify for Euro 2016 after a 3–1 aggregate win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-offs. In 1964 Ireland reached the quarter finals of qualifying for the European Championship. Ireland did not qualify for a European Championship until the 1988 UEFA European Championship. On 12 June 1988 in Stuttgart the Irish football team took to the pitch in its first match at a major championship finals competition. Ray Houghton of Liverpool FC scored the only goal of the match as Ireland recorded a memorable and historic victory. Ireland took on the former Soviet Union next and took the lead late in the first half via a spectacular volley from Liverpool's Ronnie Whelan. Unfortunately for both Whelan and Ireland the lead was cancelled out midway through the second half by Oleh Protasov as the match ended in a 1–1 draw. In their final match the Netherlands won 1–0 and the Irish were heading home. It was not until 2011 were Ireland clinched a place at UEFA Euro 2012 with 5–1 aggregate victory over Estonia. Ireland lost all 3 games and conceded 9 goals which was Ireland's worst performance in a major tournament to date.
Sweden made their first World Cup appearance in 1934. Sweden has made eleven World Cup appearances and five appearances in the European Championships. They finished second in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, and third in both 1950 and 1994. Sweden's accomplishments also include a gold medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics, and bronze medals in 1924 and 1952. They reached the semi-finals in UEFA Euro 1992.
Traditionally, Sweden are rivals with neighbours Denmark, Norway and Finland but through the years a rivalry with England has also developed. Sweden's captain is Zlatan Ibrahimović with Andreas Isaksson as vice captain. As the host of the 1992 European Championship, Sweden played in their
first European Championship tournament. They were drawn in the group
with Denmark, France and England. Sweden managed to advance as group
winners ahead of the eventual champions Denmark. In the semi-finals
following the group stage Sweden were eliminated by Germany 2–3. The
place in the semi-final is Sweden's best result in a European
Championship to date. Sweden qualified impressively for this tournament, winning all games
except the away game against England (0–0) and conceding only one goal.
The finals however, were a great disappointment. Sweden lost their
opening game against the host Belgium 1–2. Johan Mjällby scored the goal for Sweden in the 53rd minute after a mess-up by the Belgian goalkeeper Filip De Wilde while Belgium won via goals from Bart Goor in the 43rd minute and Emile Mpenza in the 46th one. Then Sweden played 0–0 against Turkey and lost 2–1 to Italy. The goal was scored by Henrik Larsson while Italy won via goals from Luigi Di Biagio and Alessandro Del Piero. Sweden finished the group last behind Belgium with only 1 point. Italy finished first and Turkey second. Sweden came into the tournament in Portugal with low expectations. But after a dazzling 5–0 win against Bulgaria they became one of the favorites. Fredrik Ljungberg began the goal-fest after a well done pass by Zlatan Ibrahimović. Henrik Larsson
scored 2–0 and 3–0 in the second half. His first goal was done by a
nice header after that he received a perfectly taken crossball by Erik Edman. 4–0 was scored by Zlatan Ibrahimović on a penalty and the substitute Marcus Allbäck
scored the last goal of the game. After the 5–0 victory, Sweden became a
feared team in the tournament and many were surprised by Sweden's
offensive play since they were known to mostly play a defensive form of
football. In the next game they were set up against Italy, who would prove themselves as a very hard opponent. After 36 minutes Antonio Cassano scored the first goal of the game for Italy after a cross by Christian Panucci. A great game by Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson made Sweden survive the rest of the game and after 84 minutes Sweden finally managed to score a goal. Zlatan Ibrahimović made an amazing backheel shot which found the back of the net.Sweden's last game of the group was held against Denmark. It was said before the game that if Sweden and Denmark played 2–2, Italy would be eliminated from the tournament. This is exactly what happened. Denmark led the game by 2–1 for a long time. But at the end of the game, Mattias Jonson scored the equalizer after numerous rebounds. Italy was eliminated and both Denmark and Sweden was qualified for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, Sweden had to face Holland. The game became goalless after full-time, but not without a lot of chances. The closest Sweden came to scoring was through Fredrik Ljungberg but he hit the post with a well taken shot. But the game ended goalless in normal time and went to a penalty shootout. After a long run of penalties were taken, it was Olof Mellberg's turn to take a shot. The Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar saved Mellberg's shot and Holland won the game. Sweden was eliminated and Holland was through to the next round. Competing in Group G of the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers, Sweden picked up their first point on the road in Austria with a 1–1 draw on 8 September 2014. After a 1–1 draw against Russia at the Friends Arena, Sweden then picked up their first win in their next match with a 2–0 result against Liechtenstein. Sweden then went unbeaten for another three matches before suffering two consecutive defeats, a 1–0 loss to Russia in Moscow and a crushing 4–1 home defeat to group leaders Austria. This caused Sweden to move down to third place in their group, just one point above fourth-placed Montenegro. Sweden then bounced back to win their final two group games against Liechtenstein and Moldova with the scoreline being 2–0 on both occasions. They finished their group in third position behind Austria and Russia and qualified for the playoffs. Sweden were drawn against big rivals Denmark and won 4–3 on aggregate, qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2016.
FOLLOW US
Twitter: @bizarre_comms
Facebook: Bizarre Communications
Email: bizarrecommunications@gmail.com
0 comments: