Feast of goals expected in UEFA’s first ‘week of football’

LONDON: The first “Week of Football” in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship could be a feast of goals for the continent’s major powers.

The second and third rounds of games in each of the nine groups will be spread from Thursday to Tuesday, with UEFA keen on “shining the spotlight on more teams” on the road to France.

For the less-heralded nations, it could simply expose their deficiencies to a wider audience.

Spain, Italy and England all started their qualifying campaigns with wins, and easy-looking upcoming fixtures should ensure they stay on 100 percent records.

Netherlands should also rack up the goals at home against Kazakhstan as they look to bounce back from an opening-round loss to the Czech Republic.

Things may be tougher, however, for world champions Germany, who visit neighbours Poland on Saturday in arguably the top clash of the six days, while neighbours Romania and Hungary, who met in the World Cup qualifiers, do battle again in Bucharest on the same day.

Albania, who kicked off with a 1-0 win in Portugal, will try to pull off two more surprises when they host Denmark and visit Serbia.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal will start life under new coach Fernando Santos, although he will not be on the touchline for Tuesday’s visit to Denmark as he starts an eight-game ban.

Santos, who led Greece to the round-of-16 at the World Cup, has replaced Paulo Bento, who left by mutual consent following the Albania debacle and has resorted to recalling experienced faces in 33-year-old Tiago Mendes, Danny, 31, and Monaco defender Ricardo Carvalho, 36.

“As we lost our first match, this has become more important for us,” said Carvalho. “We need to stick together and adapt to one another as quickly as possible so we come into the Denmark game at as high a level as possible.”

Attention will also be drawn to the Group ‘G’ meeting of Sweden and Russia, with the home side set to give captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who last month won his 100th cap, until the last minute as he bids to recover from a heel injury.

For the Euro 2016 qualifiers UEFA had decided to spread the games evenly over six nights between Thursday and Tuesday. There was a small taste of what was to come in September when there were three days of action, but this will be the first full week.

UEFA has arranged it so that matches in Groups ‘C’, ‘E’ and ‘G’ are played on Thursday and Sunday, matches in Groups ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘H’ on Friday and Monday and Groups ‘D’, ‘F’ and ‘I’ on Saturday and Tuesday.

Of the top teams, defending champions Spain have a moderately tricky trip to Slovakia on Thursday in Group ‘C’, then visit Luxembourg 72 hours later.

Italy, who have made a promising start under new coach Antonio Conte — and with playmaker Andrea Pirlo returning from his short-lived international retirement — are at home to Azerbaijan on Friday and then travel to Malta on Monday.

Germany follow Saturday’s trip to Poland with a straightforward-looking home game against Ireland on Tuesday.

Guus Hiddink, who began his second stint in charge of World Cup semi-finalists the Netherlands with a friendly defeat to Italy and qualifying loss to the Czech Republic, should get his first win at home to Kazakhstan on Friday before heading to Iceland on Monday while Group ‘A’ rivals Turkey, who were beaten in Iceland last time out host the Czechs before an awkward trip to Latvia.

Midfielder Wesley Sneijder believes complacency after its third-place finish at the World Cup may have cost the Netherlands dearly in losing their first qualifier.

“Maybe subconsciously after the World Cup, we thought it would all just happen for us,” Sneijder told Dutch website Nu.nl. “We played a great World Cup and that led to great transfers for some players. But now we all start at zero again.”

England entertain the whipping boys of world football, San Marino, at Wembley on Thursday before a trip to Tallinn to face Estonia in a Group ‘E’ double-header that should provide few problems to Roy Hodgson’s side.

England won what is likely to be their toughest match in the group, away to Switzerland, last month to ease some of the pressure that had been growing on Hodgson who will have Wayne Rooney available amid a domestic suspension for kicking an opponent.

Fixtures from Thursday, Oct 9 to Tuesday, Oct 14 (all kick-offs 1845 GMT unless stated):

Thursday:
Group ‘C’: Belarus v Ukraine; Macedonia v Luxembourg; Slovakia v Spain.

Group ‘E’: England v San Marino; Lithuania v Estonia; Slovenia v Switzerland.

Group ‘G’: Liechtenstein v Montenegro; Moldova v Austria; Sweden v Russia.

Friday:

Group ‘A’: Latvia v Iceland; Netherlands v Kazakhstan; Turkey v Czech Republic.

Group ‘B’: Belgium v Andorra; Cyprus v Israel; Wales v Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Group ‘H’: Bulgaria v Croatia; Italy v Azerbaijan; Malta v Norway.

Saturday:

Group ‘D’: Republic of Ireland v Gibraltar (1600 GMT); Scotland v Georgia (1600 GMT); Poland v Germany.

Group ‘F’: Romania v Hungary (1600 GMT); Finland v Greece; Northern Ireland v Faroe Islands.

Group ‘I’: Armenia v Serbia (1600 GMT); Albania v Denmark.