International Action

Where was everybody?

There were no Premier League fixtures this weekend, which meant Premier League players travelling the globe with their national teams. Some players didn't have far to travel - England were playing at Wembley and Brazil played Chile (1-0) at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. This meant a home game for Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez and a quick trip across London for Chelsea's Oscar, Filipe Luis and Willian. Fernandinho of Manchester City and Coutinho of Liverpool were also in the Brazil line-up. Other players had a bit further to travel - Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta along with Manchester Utd's Angel Di Maria had to travel to the USA, where Argentina played El Salvador (2-0) and Man Utd's Radamel Falcao travelled to Bahrain to score twice in a 6-0 win for Colombia. With over 90 different nationalites having played in the Premier League, you can usually find a Premier League connection in most international matches. 

What was at stake?

The matches involving teams from Africa, Asia and the Americas were international friendly matches so there was little at stake apart from professional pride and a chance for international managers to work with their squads before important tournaments. One of these tournaments is the Copa America, which takes place in Chile in June and July this year. The Copa America is the main international tournament for teams from South America (Mexico and Jamaica have also been invited this year) and Uruguay are the current champions. This current round of friendly matches have been usd as warm-up matches for this important event. In Europe, there was much more at stake as teams were involved in qualifying matches for the European Championships, which will take place in France next year.

Who is going to qualify for France 2016?

To qualify for the tournament, teams have to finish in the top two of their qualifying group or finish in third place and win a play-off against another team, who also finished in third place. France 2016 will be the first European Championships that will have 24 teams (expanded from 16), so there is a better chance for teams to qualify. The only team that is certain to qualify is France because the host nation qualify automatically. After the most recent matches we are now at the halfway point of qualifying and many of the groups are starting to take shape.

Who has made a good start?

The only teams with a 100% record are England and Slovakia. England won their fifth game out of five, when they comfortably beat Lithuania 4-0. It is a match that will be remembered for a long time by Tottenham striker, Harry Kane. He made his international debut, when he came on as a substitute in the 70th minute, and after only 79 seconds he had his first goal in international football! Slovakia's good start is much more surprising, as they have only ever qualified for one major tournament before. The Slovakia team, captained by Liverpool's Martin Skrtel, had a comfortable 3-0 win against Luxembourg and are three points ahead of Spain, who they beat in October, at the top of their group. Belgium had a fine 5-0 win against Cyprus with three Premier League scorers (Christian Benteke, Marouane Fellaini and Eden Hazard) but they are still behind Wales, who had a great 3-0 win away to Israel, with Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale (2) on the score sheet.

Which teams have more work to do?

There are some big teams that haven't had a good start to the qualifying campaign. The Netherlands could only draw 1-1 at home to Turkey and they are in third place, behind both Iceland and the Czech Republic. New Netherlands coach, Guss Hiddink, is finding it diffficult to follow in the footsteps of Manchester Utd manager - Louis van Gaal, who took them to the semi-finals of the World Cup last summer. World Champions Germany are also in a difficult group, they are currently in second place, behind Poland, but there are only three points that separate the top four (Poland, Germany, Scotland and Ireland). Bosnia and Herzegovina won 3-0 away to Andorra, with Manchester City's Edin Dzeko scoring a hat-trick, but they have a lot of work to do if they want to qualify - they are currently in fifth place in their group. Finally Greece, who won the European Championships in 2004, have a huge mountain to climb if they want to qualify. The Greeks are bottom of their group with only two points, a 0-0 draw against Hungary at the weekend, which followed a home defeat to the Faroe Islands does not really help them very much.

Who do you think is going to qualify for France 2016? Will there be any surprises?