At a stroke, it seemed to many, UEFA’s President had messed around with a perfectly-formed event that actually needed no meddling.
Suddenly, it may have felt to the best teams in Europe as if qualification for the finals was a divine right, not a hard-earned privilege.
Was this then perhaps the main reason for the major nations’ sluggish start to the qualifiers and for the spate of wholly unlikely results which have so far characterized a couple of rounds of matches?
The theory now is that, with two teams and sometimes three per group guaranteed to make the finals in France, Europe’s top guns can afford an absent-minded off-day and still feel as safe as houses. [eap_ad_2] Indeed, perhaps sub-consciously amid their post-Brazil slumbers, they have happily taken advantage of this comfort zone, which may explain some of the startling results which have afflicted them so far.
Still, though, there has been a ‘so what?’ feel to these sensations.
Portugal gets beaten at home by Albania. So what? Let Ronaldo rest his injury, come back rejuvenated and even if they finish behind Serbia and Denmark, they will probably still qualify.
So the world champions Germany are downed for the first time ever by their Polish neighbours? Great, but not a soul imagines that the reverse will remotely derail the Mannschaft’s progress towards France 2016. (Reuters/NAN) [eap_ad_3]