Portugal and Argentina continue to struggle, Peter Crouch maintains his record
Five stats about this week’s internationals
1. Peter Crouch wasn’t too impressive last night but maintained his incredible international goal-to-start record, with 14 goals in his last 14 starts.
2. England’s 21-point haul from their first seven qualifiers is a drastic improvement on 14 from their first seven in the Euro 2008 campaign, although they did have 19 at this stage under Sven-Goran Eriksson in qualification for the last World Cup.
3. Anyone who thought Portugal had turned the corner with their last-gasp 2-1 win over Albania was proved wrong last night when they drew 0-0 away to Estonia in a friendly. That result was particularly worrying as they were actually performing fairly well in friendlies prior to that, winning four of their previous five.
4. We tipped Iceland to get at least a point in Macedonia but sadly they froze. As a result, Macedonia grabbed only their third win in over 18 months.
5. Argentina suffered their fourth away loss of their qualifying campaign away to Ecuador. That leaves Diego Maradona’s side just two points clear of fifth, where they could potentially meet Mexico in a play-off, and of their remaining four games they must face Brazil at home and Uruguay and Paraguay away.
Tags: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Brazil, Diego Maradona, Ecuador, england, Estonia, Fabio Capello, Iceland, International Football, Macedonia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peter Crouch, portugal, Sven Goran Eriksson, Uruguay
Posted: June 11th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 
