27-3-19 5 nations soccer how are they doing

EURO CHAMPIONSHIPS

GROUPC

NI 2-0 ESTONIA

MIGHTY MC GINN

McGinn lashed the ball into the net from 16 yards from Kyle Lafferty's lay-off in the 56th minute and Davis fired home from the penalty spot in the 75th.

NI 2-1 BELARUS

MAGNEUS MAKES IT

Leicester City defender Jonny Evans headed NI into the lead on the half hour but Igor Stasevich equalised with a deflected shot three minutes later.

A low cross from Paddy McNair was finished from close range by the Bolton striker to secure a deserved win.

NETERLANDS 2-3 GERMANY

MY OPINION

This is going to tell us what Ni will ned to stand that chance at automatic qualification beat the Dutch over 2 legs and I think this will be a very difficult thing for them to do. Germany showed that they can win big matches like this and the fact that they can do it again

GROUP E

WALES 1-0 SLOVENIA

JUMPIN JAMES

The hosts flew out of the blocks with attacking intent and led inside five minutes as Daniel James struck his first international goal with a bullet of a shot from 20 yards.

CROTIA 2-1 AZERBYJAN

SLOVACKIA 2-0 HUNGARY

HUNGARY 2-1 CROTIA

MY OPINION

|For Wales this does not say much as in my opinion it looks like a group where anything can and probably will happen. There have been too many surprise results in this group so far to tell us what will happen but it is a good win for Wales

GROUP I

KAZACKSTAN 3-0 SCOTLAND

VOROGSKIY VA VOOM

Alex McLeish's callow side were two down inside 10 minutes in Astana after dreadful defending allowed Yuriy Pertsukh and Yan Vorogovskiy to score.

The Kazakhs had only won one of their past 20 qualifiers, but the feeble Scots were unable to trouble them.

And Baktiyor Zainutdinov's header just after the break completed the rout.

BELGIUM 3-1 RUSSIA

SCOTLAND 2-0 SAN MARNIO

Kenny McLean and Johnny Russell scored their first international goals, but an expected avalanche of strikes did not arrive.

MY OPINION

The result against Kazakhstan says to me the scots have no hope against the Belgians but they could look at Russia and try to win the their tier competition to qualify for Euro 2020 which would be more of a possibility  

GROUP A

ENGLAND 5-0 CZECH REP

This was deliciously simple. Kane, playmaking from deep, splits the Czech defence with a sliderule pass down the inside-right channel. Sancho is in behind! And he rolls a simple ball across the front of the six-yard box. Pavlenka is out of position, having been drawn towards Sancho, and Sterling sticks out a telescopic leg to guide the cross into the net!

That’d be cute, wouldn’t it. But Kane opts for power instead. Which is just as well, because his shot, to the left side of the goal, is close enough for Pavlenka to get a hand on the ball. Kane’s given it a real belt, though, and the keeper’s hand hinges back and the ball reaches its intended destination.

Alli slips a fine pass down the inside-right channel for Sterling. Novak slides in, and once again the luck’s not with him. His hook clear rebounds off Kalas and back into the path of Sterling, who has his back to goal. Sterling takes a touch, tricks Celustka by turning inside, and curls a delicious shot into the top left past a helpless Pavlenka! What a wonderful finish by this sensational player!

Sterling is so hot right now. He completes his hat-trick by cutting in from the left and going for a curler into the top right

Sancho turns in the midfield and drives towards goal. He sends a pass wide left for Hudson-Odoi, who dribbles powerfully into the box, opens his body, and sidefoots low and hard towards the bottom right. Pavlenka does well to get a hand to the shot, but can’t do anything as it rebounds to Kalamity Kalas, who can’t get out of the way and slap-traps clumsily into the bottom right

BULGERIA 1-1 MONTNEGRO

MONTENEGRO 1-5 ENGLAND

BEAUTIFUL BARKLEY

Manager Gareth Southgate gave first starts to youngsters Declan Rice and Callum Hudson-Odoi but England were stunned after only 17 minutes when Marko Vesovic gave Jordan Pickford no chance with a precise, curling finish.

Everton defender Michael Keane headed home Barkley's free-kick for his first international goal on the half hour, before the midfielder turned in Chelsea team-mate Hudson-Odoi's shot to give them the lead before the break.

Montenegro posed only a fleeting threat and Barkley effectively wrapped up the victory with a powerful finish after determined work by Raheem Sterling on 59 minutes.

England emphasised their vast superiority when Sterling was provider once more for Harry Kane's simple finish before the Manchester City forward got on the scoresheet himself.

MY OPIONION

England look impressive and one to watch for the whole tournament at the moment as they are putting in one good result after another and I think that they seem to be that step above the teams that are in their group

GIBRRALTER 0-1 ROI

HENDRICK HAPPY

Jeff Hendrick's low 49th-minute shot secured victory at the Victoria Stadium, but the visitors struggled to convert dominance into goals.

GEORGIA 0-2 SWIZERLAND

ROI 1-0 GEORGIA

HOURIHANE HEALS

Conor Hourihane's superb first-half free-kick gave the Republic of Ireland a morale-boosting 1-0 win over Georgia in the Euro 2020 qualifier in Dublin.

Hourihane's goal came straight after a delay as Irish fans threw tennis balls on to the pitch in protest at John Delaney remaining in the FAI hierarchy.

SWIZERLAND 3-3 DENMARK

MY OPINION

Being top of the group cannot be seen as a bad thing but Ireland had put in substandard performances and against the bigger teams we know they will fail. Massive improvements are needed in limited time