Today was the last day of qualifying for EURO 2008 and Germany had already qualified last month so there wasn’t much to follow today.  The only real uncertainty was whether England was going to qualify or not.  Playing at home to already qualified Croatia, they just needed a tie, which at home in front of 88,000 people at the new Wembley stadium you would have thought that would be a shoe-in. 

The English and Germans have a bit of a love/hate relationship to say the least as I always have running jabs with my English friends over previous historical events, soccer related or not.  To see, England not qualify would be a shame for the tournament, but at the same time would give me a bit of internal satisfaction.  Personally, they are decent squad, but not worth the hype their own media makes them out to be. 

Anyhow, getting behind early 2-0 didn’t help things for them as I was getting giddy.  Surprisingly, they came back to make it 2-2 and now that giddiness was turning into disappointment for not seeing an upset.  But, then Croatia pulled ahead 3-2 and held on for the win.  With a narrow Russian win in Andorra, it was settled England were out.  Let the media frenzy in England begin!

Some of the quotes already from the English press: 

“A horrific night for England, one which will take a long, long, time to get over.  This is set to be an ugly, ugly post mortem.”

“It was what Croatia deserved for a display full of enterprise and heart - and what England deserved for one of their most inept displays in living memory.”

“Useless, pathetic, insipid, spineless, desperate, rubbish,’ tabloid The Sun reported. ‘England are the joke of European football.”

As for Germany, they played out a dull 0-0 tie at home to Wales, which isn’t anything to write home about, but anyhow, we at least booked our place in next year’s tournament.  The draw will be December 2 with the 16 teams involved being: Poland, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Germany, Croatia, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Romania, Holland, Switzerland and Austria.

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