Estonia face big week of football

RIGA - Estonia will face their biggest hurdle on their way to Euro 2012 when they travel to Modena to take on Italy this Friday. Situated in Group C alongside Northern Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Serbia, Slovenia and Italy, Estonia is currently in their best position ever to qualify for their maiden appearance in a major football tournament, sitting in fourth position on seven points after five matches and with another five to be played. Slovenia and Serbia sit one point above the Estonians, but both sides have also played an extra match. However, if they are to improve their position they need to compete strongly with the Italians on Friday, then turn around and claim maximum points from their game against the Faroe Islanders on Wednesday.

Estonian football has produced a number of surprising results recently, including a 2-0 victory over World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay in an international friendly back in March, before following it up with a 1-1 draw with Serbia in their most recent Euro qualifying match.

These results, coupled with the fact that Italy was somewhat lucky to escape with a 2-1 victory on the last occasion the two sides met in Tallinn back in September last year, is enough to have the Azzurri’s wary. The Estonian’s goal in their previous meeting, scored by Sergei Zenjov, is the only goal conceded by the Italian’s to date during qualifying.
This week their closest rivals, Slovenia, only play one match, also against the Faroe Islands. Avoiding a major upset, Slovenia can be expected to take maximum points from the match, placing extra pressure on Estonia to claim points from their match against Italy. When Slovenia and Estonia meet during the next round of qualifying in September it may ultimately decide who will finish qualifying in second place in the group.

On Saturday, Latvia will be seeking revenge when they take on Israel at Skonto Stadium in Riga in a group F encounter. Israel and Latvia have produced a number of memorable results during qualifying tournaments of late, including their most recent encounter on March 26. Having dominated all facets of the game, the Israelites were somewhat surprised to find themselves heading into the final minutes with the match tied at one apiece. However, their dominance of ball possession would finally pay off when they claimed the winner in the 81st minute, further hurting the Latvians, who have struggled throughout this qualifying campaign. They are currently sitting in fifth position in their group with just four points.

Kaspars Gorkss, who will next season play in the English Premier League for the newly promoted Queens Park Rangers, scored Latvia’s goal in the March encounter and will again be key to Latvia’s chances in Riga on Saturday.
Lithuania find themselves in a similar position to Latvia, having so far managed to secure just four points from as many matches. The good news is, however, that two of those four matches came against group leader Spain, who are yet to drop a match and are destined to go ahead as top qualifiers in Group I. In their other two matches, the Lithuanians have managed to beat the Czech Republic, 1-0, on the Czech’s territory and tie 0-0 with Scotland. Still needing to play group easy-beats Lichtenstein both home and away, Lithuania remain confident of competing with the Czech Republic for the second spot in the group. The first of those matches comes against Lichtenstein in the small municipality on Saturday evening, before they host the return leg in the next competitive outing for both teams in September.

Lichtenstein are yet to claim a point in qualifying and should in theory offer little resistance for the Lithuanians. However, Lithuania can ill-afford complacency, having recently lost to other minions, the Faroe Islands, in a World Cup 2010 qualifying game. Further reason to avoid complacency lies in the fact that Lithuania is certain to start the game with an uncapped goalie. With regular national team goalies Zydrunas Karcemarskas and Paulius Grybauskas both out with injury, Lithuania have taken two new goalies in Ernestas Setkus and Mindaugas Malinauskas into their training camp.