Some of Europe’s less-heralded football nations are on a roll in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship — and leaving many of the continent’s traditional powers struggling to keep up.
Heading into the second half of qualifying for next year’s tournament in France, few would have predicted Spain would be trailing Slovakia in their group; that Netherlands would be a distant third to the Czech Republic and Iceland; and that world champion Germany would be engaged in a four-way fight for two automatic qualifying places.
The sixth of 10 qualifying rounds takes place Friday to Sunday, with Germany and the Dutch in particular needing to kick-start their campaigns.
The Netherlands have only won two of their five games in Group A ahead of their qualifier in latvia on Friday. Another slip-up and it will be difficult for last year’s World Cup semifinalist to qualify automatically. The top two countries from nine groups advance to the largest-ever European Championship finals.
Germany is second in Group D, behind Poland and tied for points with Scotland, and looking nowhere near as impressive as it did in winning the World Cup in Brazil. However, the Germans should rack up the goals against tiny Gibraltar on Saturday.
Spain travels to Belarus without Andres Iniesta, who dropped out of the squad after experiencing muscle pain following Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Juventus in the Champions league final.
Russia is another favourite in some trouble, in third place behind Austria and Sweden in Group G. Russia hosts Austria on Sunday. Coach Fabio Capello is under pressure after just one win from his side’s last eight competitive matches, not counting a victory by default when Russia’s qualifier against Montenegro was abandoned.
Netherlands coach Guus Hiddink doesn’t plan to make major changes to the team that slumped to its first-ever defeat to the US last week. Hiddink will be without central defender Ron Vlaar (calf). Wesley Sneijder said the loss to the US was “a wake-up call” for the Dutch.