retired_marcias

FT: Faroe Islands 0-0 Russia

This was a vast contrast from the Faroes' last match. Both sides defended well, but neither created much in the way of chances so the defenders were not over-extended at any point in the match. The Faroe Islands remain unbeaten from their 3 home matches in the group and on the face of it this is another excellent result to give them their 3rd point of the qualifying group. As a spectacle there is little else to say about the game - neither side deserved to win, neither side did win.

retired_marcias

International roundup from The Dingwall Times on Saturday 8th June 2013

Germany sink Faroes while Scots thump Malta

Markus Merkle scored once in each half for Germany as they eased to victory against the Faroe Islands in their Wolrd Cup 2014 qualifying Group 1 clash in Leverkusen today. The Germans created numerous chances throughout the match with the Faroes only managing 2 shots on goal and 1 on target. The Faroe Islands will be relatively pleased with this result however as it was expected that Germany would win easily and by more of a margin.

FT: Germany 2-0 Faroe Islands

At Hampden Park, Scotland ran riot in the second half against a hapless Malta team. Barry Ferguson and Scott Brown fired the Scots into a 2-0 lead by half time on a match they controlled from start to finish with the Maltese failing to create a single chance. In the second half, Ross County's Alan Reid rose at the near post to head in a corner from club-mate David Dunne before Darren Fletcher turned in a Kenny Miller cross for 4-0 after 67 minutes. With Malta on the back foot, the Scots piled on the pressure into the last 10 minutes as first Kenny Miller fired home the rebound from Alan Reid's shot, then substitute Ian MacSween of Ross County who had only been on the field 3 minutes collected a Darren Fletcher pass to score the 6th and then added a 7th 5 minutes later from a Scott Brown cross.

FT: Scotland 7-0 Malta

Russia recorded a crucial 1-4 win away to Macedonia in the Faroese group with Lithuania again drawing, this time with Finland. In Scotland's group, Moldova held Italy to a shock draw as Sweden narrowly beat Switzerland 1-0.

Elsewhere, Portugal recorded an excellent 3-5 win away to Belgium, Wales were hammered 5-0 in Turkey, England grabbed a 0-2 win in Croatia and Ireland thrashed Iceland 4-0.

retired_marcias

International roundup from The Dingwall Times on Wednesday 12th June 2013

Faroes and Scots held in goalless draws

In a very uneventful match in Thorshavn, the Faroe Islands maintained their unbeaten home record in the group with a 0-0 draw against FYR of Macedonia, The Faroese 4th draw of the group. Neither side created many scoring chances with Kári Dahl and Ingi Hojsted missing the only real chances of the match for the Faroes. Both sides passed the ball around neatly, but without any incisiveness so a 0-0 draw was the only result ever very likely.

FT: Faroe Islands 0-0 FYR of Macedonia

Scotland came away from Basel disappointed with their performance, but happy to have gained a point from a match in which the Swiss created more of the chances and will feel themselves unlucky not to have converted any to take the 3 points. Ross County's Mark McGlynn, David Dunne, Nick James and Kerr Dodds all featured in defence for the Scots.

FT: Switzerland 0-0 Scotland

Germany continued their domination of Group 1 with a 0-3 win in Finland as Lithuania held Russia to a 2-2 draw in Moscow. In Scotland's group it was draws all round as Malta and Moldova shared a 0-0 and Italy were held 1-1 by Sweden.

Germany now head Group 1 with 17 points, 4 ahead of Russia with Lithuania trailing in 3rd. In Group 2 Portugal head Ukraine, Albania and Bulgaria, while Greece and Estonia are tied top of Group 4, 4 points clear of Romania and Turkey. Denmark lead Group 4 with 19 points ahead of Czech Republic on 16 with Group 5 lead by Sweden, 2 points ahead of Scotland who are in turn 3 ahead of Italy. In Group 6 Austria and England share the lead with 18 points each, comfortably ahead of Croatia. Group 7 is extremely close with just 3 points seperating Belgium, Holland, Poland and Israel. France head Group 8 by 3 points from Norway and Ireland whilst in Group 9 favourites Spain lead Belarus by 3 points.

retired_pahuja_satish

You were so unlucky against Finland! Keep it up, it's great to read.

retired_brinker317

Truly impressive - I managed Albania in one (01/02) game, and though most of the players were dreadful, it was highly enjoyable.

Good Luck

retired_marcias

Thanks. It is fun managing a small nation. I just wish the Faroese league was implemented because it would be even more interesting if I could have the input at club level to bringing through and training players - I guess I'll have to wait a while for that though if it ever happens

Reports on those last 2 games were rather short because I was really frustrated - I went into holiday mode at the end of Ross County's season until the season tick-over and forgot I had 2 Faroes matches in that time so they were played in my absence

retired_marcias

Saturday 7th September 2013

Well, it's a new season in the league and 3 final qualifying games for the Faroe Islands to play - the first two of which come today and on Wednesday, Lithuania (a) today and then Finland (h). As always seems to be the case with picking an international squad, we have been hit with injuries both before and after picking the squad of 26. Strikers Christian Holst, Kristian Poulson and Teitur Rasmussen, midfielders Jan Djurhuus and Jóan Petur Nielsen and defenders Atli Danielsen and John Kjærbo all may have featured in the squad, but were either unavailable or pulled out injured so we had to dig around finding yet more new players to call up. With a large number of players having retired over the last few seasons it is hard work trying to keep a settled team and mould anything together, but we have at least progressed from last qualifying campaign. The names will no doubt mean little to the reader, but since so much has changed, I'll include my current squad, including the team selection for the Lithuania match below. We'll be playing with a slight variation on our recently relatively successful 4-3-3 formation with one of our 3 midfielders dropping back to a DMC role to provide a little more protection to the back 4 whilst the other 2 have licence to roam forward and join the 3 strikers. Not sure how it'll do away to Lithuania - we are yet to pick up any points away from home, but the performance in Finland gave us a huge boost so we'll see if we can take our first away point from the group, a win might be asking a little too much - in fact, the Faroe Islands haven't won a competitive away match since a 0-2 win in Luxemburg on Saturday March 24th 2001!


6th in World Cup European Qualifying Section Group 1
Squad Screen

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Lmp Joensen, J GK GK Lmp Joensen, P GK DC Dahl, K D/M RC Hansen, R D R FC Lmp Jacobsen, J D/F RC DR Kjærbo, H D R DC Gregersen, Ó D/DM LC DL Lmp Jacobsen, J D/DM L Joensen, J D/DM L SB5 Lmp Poulsen, J D LC SB3 Lmp Dam, Ó D C Lmp Danielsen, R D/M C SB4 Lmp Gregersen, A D C Lmp Olsen, K D/DM C DMC Lmp Joensen, M DM RC MC Lmp Højgaard, M M RLC SB2 Lmp Poulsen, J M/F RC Hojsted, I M C Lmp Jørgensen, B AM LC MC Lmp Skorini, H AM C SB1 Nielsen, K F RC SB7 Lmp Thorsteinsson, B F LC FC Andreasen, A S C Lmp Nolsøe, R S C SB6 Lmp Olsen, B S C FC Poulsen, J S C </pre>

retired_marcias

Author's Note

CM just crashed part way into the match so I had to reload the game 7 days earlier before 2 players withdrew through injury so this is a correction to my last post.

Jan Djurhuus and Teitur Rasmussen are still in the squad now instead of Thorsteinsson and Skorini and Djurhuus takes Skorini's place in the midfield, Rasmussen is on the bench.

retired_marcias

International roundup from The Dingwall Times on Saturday 7th September 2013

Faroes beaten as Scotland record famous win

A strange mix of conflicting statistics sees the Faroe islands having failed to score for a 4th game running yet having played some very good football and suffering their joint heaviest defeat of the season together with the Germany match. It was 2-0 that night in Leverkusen and so it was again tonight as Nerijus Zutautas scored on 3 and 83 minutes to sink the Faroes. The visitors created numerous chances however and had a lot of the possession, but in the end the Lithuanians superior finishing made the difference. The Faroe islands have now lost all 4 away matches, but two by 2-0 and two by just a single goal is a record which they should be quite proud of and especially after some of the performances - it is undoubtably at home where they remain unbeaten after 4 draws from 4 games that they have their best chances of points and maybe even victory.

FT: Lithuania 2-0 Faroe Islands

At Hampden Park, the back 4 again consisted of entirely Ross County players as it has throughout most of the campaign and it is perhaps no coincidence that the team have conceded just 2 goals all campaign and will perhaps be disappointed to have drawn 4 of their 8 matches. In a tight match of few chances it was County's versatile Mark McGlynn, playing at right-back tonight, who scored the only goal of the game, just 5 minutes from time. This result sees Scotland still in with a chance of pipping Sweden to automatic promotion and leaves Italy out of the qualifying tournament.

FT: Scotland 1-0 Italy

Russia won 0-2 in Finland while Germany continued their impressive form with a routine 2-0 win over Macedonia in Group 1, while in Scotland's Group 5, Switzerland and Sweden both eased to away victories against Malta and Moldova respectively.

Elsewhere, Group 3 closed up to be incredibly tight with just 2 points covering 5 teams hunting for automatic qualification. England were held 1-1 in Austria in Group 6 while Ireland beat Norway 2-0 in Group 8

retired_marcias

International roundup from The Dingwall Times on Wednesday 11th September 2013

Record breaking Faroes in 7th heaven as Scots are humiliated at Hampden

This was a performance which had arguably been building up over a number of unlucky results, a performance borne out of frustration at recent results and perhaps most notably the cruel 3-2 defeat in Finland. So it was that the Finns came to Thorshavn for what could well turn out to be the wooden spoon encounter of Group 1 to face a Faroese side out to show Europe what they are really capable of. It was a truly historic night as the Faroes recorded the biggest competitive win in their history and their first since beating Northern Ireland in the last qualifying campaign.

The hero of the night was Jón Rói Jacobsen, a player who has been somewhat of an enigma for the Faroes in recent years - a player with undoubted talent, but who has failed to perform to the standards people expect, scoring just a single goal in 53 appearances before today. Tonight however, he finally stood up to be counted with a fantastic hat-trick to sink the Finns in a match which the home side dominated for large spells. With just 13 minutes on the clock Andreasen found Hojgaard in space through the middle, the midfielder sliding the ball wide for Jacobsen to take forward and slot coolly past the Finnish 'keeper. 15 minutes later and Jacobsen was at it again, Jákup Poulsen with a teasing cross from the left wing which evaded everyone in the Finland defence to fall at the feet of Jacobsen who fired home at the far post. With a 2-0 lead at half time the Faroese were confident, but mindful still that they were 0-2 up in Finland, but still lost. There was to be no such heartbreak today however as just minutes into the second half Jacobsen completed his hat-trick with a truly sublime solo goal, pulling wide right and dribbling past players to the goal line, cutting in-field and blasting past the 'keeper from a seemingly infeasible angle - the Faroese people knew he was capable of it and today he finally showed the watching world what a gifted player he is. The 4th goal came on 56 minutes, persistance from Jan Djurhuus paying off to win the ball in midfield and feed Jákup Poulsen, the striker still had a lot to do, but sidestepped his marker and slotted home neatly to send the Faroese fans into raptures. Matti Lähitie spoiled the party slightly with a 91st minute consolation for Finland, but no-one really cared - this was an historic night that none here would ever forget.

Faroe Islands manager Adam Eckersley was quite overwhelmed after the match and almost in tears as he spoke to us, but was clearly proud of the lads - "We've played so well and been so unlucky at times this campaign and I knew the lads were capable of a performance like this and I think it was just one of those times you get in football when suddenly a team who has been unlucky just explodes and it all comes together on one day - this is one of the greatest moments of my managerial career despite all my successes with Ross County - to feel the atmosphere, see what it means to the fans and people of this small island nation is just fantastic. That is our last home game in the group and to finish unbeaten here, albeit with 4 draws is a quite outstanding achievement from the lads when we were expected by the media to lose every match, both home and away...". As the manager digests the result, those of us who were there tonight can join in his delight at what was a truly remarkable performance from a team who has never given up during this campaign. In the Euro2012 qualifying campaign, the wheels rather fell off in the latter stages with some heavy defeats, but not this time. A goal difference of just -3 for a nation like the Faroe Islands from 9 games was unthinkable at the start of this group and after 2 matches with Germany.

FT: Faroe Islands 4-1 Finland

There was a rather different story at Hampden Park however as fans must have wondered what happened to the side who beat Italy 1-0 just 4 days earlier. This was a woeful and humiliating performance which sees the Scots lose any chance of automatic promotion. Moldova came to Glasgow having failed to win any of their 8 matches so far, but more than doubled Scotland's goals against tally for the qualifying campaign as Imilian Revenco gave them an early lead, cancelled out by Kenny Miller just after half time, but Ion Caras and Denis Calencov wrapped up an outstanding away victory for the underdogs, leaving Scotland feeling truly dejected at such a bad performance. The Scots will now have to enter the lottery of the play-offs, but can at least console themselves that they have seen off Italy in this qualifying group.

FT: Scotland 1-3 Moldova

Germany's narrow 0-1 win in Russia sees them take the automatic qualifying spot in Group 1 while FYR of Macedonia beat Lithuania 4-2 to remain 3 points ahead of the Faroes. Sweden's unimpressive 1-2 win in Malta was enough to ease them through to the World Cup also in Group 5 where Italy recorded a 2-3 win in Switzerland also. In Group 3 Romania and Wales won while Greece and Turkey shared a 1-1 draw leaving Romania top, a point clear of Greece and Wales, 2 ahead of Estonia and Turkey with 1 round of matches yet to play. France and Spain are the other confirmed qualifiers so far.


World Cup 2014 Qualification
Group 1
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Q Germany 9 7 2 0 18 2 +16 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Russia 9 4 4 1 16 10 +6 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Lithuania 9 2 5 2 14 15 -1 11 4th FYR of Macedonia 9 3 1 5 10 16 -6 10 5th Faroe Islands 9 1 4 4 9 12 -3 7 6th Finland 9 1 2 6 11 23 -12 5 </pre>

[This message was edited by glamdring on 02 April 2004 at 2:18.]