After a wild first two rounds that saw Romania play to draws against two inferior sides, France lose to Belarus, and that Belarus side occupy one of the top two spots alongside Albania, fans of France, Romania, and Bosnia-Herzegovina will be looking to restore order to the group during this set of fixtures. The match between Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina is probably worth watching if you have the means, but the big show comes on Saturday when France faces Romania.
Euro 2012 Group D Preview, Picks: Bosnia-Herzegovina Looking To Bounce Back
Matches
Luxembourg vs. Belarus, 2:15 pm Eastern, Friday
Birmingham City’s Alyaksandr Hleb and his international teammates should have little trouble dispatching of Luxembourg, a team whose players mostly play domestically at a poor standard of football and who did not take any points from their first two matches. Lars Gerson, a 20-year-old midfielder with six caps, is the only Luxembourg player who plays top flight football outside of his home country. Expect a comfortable win for Belarus.
Albania versus Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2:30 pm Eastern, Friday
Bosnia-Herzegovina looked flat at home in their loss to France, so expect them to be very motivated to get themselves back near the top of this group. Midfield playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic and strikers Vedad Ibesevic and Edin Dzeko are all healthy and should provide Albania with a stiff test. The key matchup in this game will be between Mimisovic and Albanian captain and midfielder Lorik Cana. Cana is a hard working and hard tackling presence who should make life difficult for Mimisovic in the middle. Albania’s best threat up top is striker Erjon Bogdani whose season is off to a solid start for Cesena in Serie A. In the end, the quality of Bosnia-Herzegovina should be too much for Albania, even on the road. If Cana and the Albania defense can play like defensive midfielder Yann M’Vila and the France defense played in their game against Bosnia-Herzegovina, they might be able to get a positive result, but that seems unlikely.
France versus Romania, 3:00 pm Eastern, Saturday
Laurent Blanc's team put in a fantastic performance in their last game against Bosnia-Herzegovina, completely taking their opponent's best attackers out of the game, so don't expect any kind of dramatic changes for France. The only player in that team who was not brought into the squad was right back Bacary Sagna, dropped for fitness reasons. Lyon right back Anthony Reveillere should take his place and that is likely the only change that Blanc makes for this match.
Their opponents, Romania, are a team in deep trouble after opening the campaign with draws that felt like losses against Albania and Belarus. If they can’t get a point from this match while France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Belarus all gain more ground, they might feel as if their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign has come to an end in October of 2010.
Romania is a decent team in defense and at goalkeeper, and their strikers are respectable, but the boys up top won’t be able to do anything without supply from an inexperience midfield. Six of the Romanian midfielders have single digit caps and the other two currently play in Saudi Arabia, generally regarded as a slightly lower standard of football than Romanian Liga I. For Romania to have any chance at a result on Saturday, those players will have to be wise beyond their experience.
Picks
Luxembourg 0, Belarus 2
Albania 0, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2
France 3, Romania 1
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