Crazy isolation in Germany and the goal of Promes

The last two days of the League of Nations match turned out to be rich in incredible comebacks. On the eve of this fairy tale gave their fans the national teams of England and Switzerland, and on Monday it was the turn of the Netherlands.

Orange after several years of failures clearly manifested themselves in the League of Nations. After the defeat of France with a minimum score, Ronald Cuman wards defeated Germany, and then took revenge from the reigning world champions - 2: 0.

Thus, in the last match, the Dutch had to not reach the Germans on the road, who scored only one point in the first three matches of the tournament and could not escape from the fall in class.

It seemed that the unmotivated wards of Joachim Loew would be hard to give battle to a young rival, but in fact the hosts led by 2–0 by the 20th minute. Both goals turned out for guests completely optional. At first, Jasper Cillessen was not ready for Timo Werner's long-range shot, and then he was unable to save his team after hitting Leroy Zane - in this episode, the goalkeeper was prevented from rebounding from his own defender.

Such a good start gave the Germans confidence, and they continued to effortlessly storm the opponent's gates. Not much has changed the course of the match and after the break. In addition, in the middle of the second half, Lev threw Thomas Muller, for whom this match was the 100th in the national team. The hero of the day could even become the author of the goal and finally bury the opponent’s hope, but his strike did not have enough accuracy.

Everything went to victory for the German national team, but the ending gave the fans an incredible outcome. And one of the main characters of the Dutch's impressive comeback was the ex-Spartak player Quincy Promes. On the 85th minute, he sent the ball from the penalty semicircle exactly to the near corner.

There was little time left before the final whistle, but the enthusiastic guests rushed to the attack and nevertheless snatched the necessary draw.

It is symbolic that the team was saved from the fatal defeat of the captain Virgil Van Dyck. The high central defender, having forgotten about direct duties, went to someone else's penalty area and sent a projectile into the net.

The peaceful outcome gave the Netherlands a ticket to the playoffs of League A. The current world champions, the French, as well as the finalists of the world championship, the Croats failed to break into the top four teams in the elite division.

Departure of Slovakia and zeros in Aarhus

In League B two matches took place. In group 1, the Czech Republic and Slovakia decided among themselves who would go by the division below. In the assets of both teams on the eve of a full-time meeting, there were three points each, but the Czechs had an advantage due to the away victory over their rival in the first round - 2: 1. Thus, the wards of Yaroslav Shilgava at home even arranged a draw.

The hosts over-fulfilled the plan and again beat the principled opponent. The only goal in the 32nd minute was scored by Patrick Schick. Slovakia falls to League B. Ukraine took the first place in this group with nine points.

And in group 4, Denmark and Ireland had a meaningless match in Aarhus. The home team approached the last game with a ticket to League A, and the guests could not get ahead of Wales and rise from the last place. As a result, the teams for the second time in a row failed to hit each other's gates.

The joy of Norway and Bulgaria's flash in the pan

But the group of 3 League C gave the fans a real intrigue. Norway and Bulgaria came to the last round with ten points in the asset and determined the excess in the correspondence dispute. At the same time in full-time opposition rivals exchanged victories with a minimum score. The Scandinavians were ahead of their opponents only by the best difference of the goals scored and missed (+3 vs. +2). Thus, Bulgaria was required to beat Slovenia with a greater difference than Norway beat Cyprus.

True, the rivals did not intend to give the teams three points at all. Scandinavians did better. At the 36th minute, Ola Camara led the guests ahead, and at the beginning of the second half, scored a double.

Bulgaria by that time still could not print the gates of Slovenes. Only in the 68th minute, Galin Ivanov opened the scoring, but this was not enough for the hosts. And soon the hopes of Pyotr Khubchev’s collective for a higher class finally collapsed - Mikha Zaits restored the status quo. First place and a ticket to League B won Norway.

Bulgarian fans can only rejoice at their highly experienced goalkeeper Georgi Petkov, who again was in the starting lineup of the national team and updated his own record. Coming to the field at the age of 42 years, 8 months and 5 days, Petkov became the oldest goalkeeper in the history of international matches of the Old World.

  • Georgi Petkov
  • Reuters

The record, regardless of position, belongs to the Greek midfielder Giorgos Kudas, who last played for the national team in 1995 in 48.

Armenia’s draw in Switzerland and defeat from Macedonia

Finally, almost half of the matches of the game of the day fell on the weakest division. At the same time, intrigue remained only in group 4, where Armenia retained ghostly chances for first place.

True, for this, the team of Heinrich Mkhitaryan needed not only to beat Liechtenstein, but also to wait for the home defeat of the leading Macedonia from Gibraltar.

Armenians in their match opened the scoring in the ninth minute, but the Macedonians didn’t hitch too long and in the middle of the first half sent the first goal to the opponents' goal.

And at the junction of the halves, the wards of Armen Gulbudagyants, having learned about what was happening in a parallel meeting, were unstuck and missed twice. As a result, Armenia with great difficulty left from defeat only in the 85th minute.

Macedonia calmly sent four unanswered goals to the gates of Gibraltar and guaranteed itself an increase in class, and also got the opportunity to fight for a ticket to Euro 2020.

But the matches of group 1 of the weakest division were essentially comradely, since Georgia, two more rounds before the finish, guaranteed itself the first place. However, this did not prevent the team in the last meeting to beat Kazakhstan at home - 2: 1. The Georgians in their group won five victories in six games and did not leave their opponents a single chance.

At the same time, the only team that managed to stop the leader was the modest Andorra (1: 1). The team from the dwarf state held more than a successful tournament and scored four points, and at home did not suffer a single defeat at all. In the final round, the gates of the footballers from the principality again failed to hit Latvia, which at the same time spent more than half in the minority after Valery Shabala’s removal in the 38th minute.