BERNE - Europe is preparing for Uefa's first full-blown "week of football" as the marathon Euro 2016 qualifying competition gets into full swing - although it promises to be a distinctly underwhelming experience.
Uefa has heralded the new setup as "great news for football fans" but there is risk that the six solid days of international football could end up making it like background music in a shopping centre, always being played somewhere but with nobody really paying much attention.
Albania, who kicked off with a 1-0 win in Portugal, will try to pull off two more surprises when they host Denmark and visit Serbia.
Portugal will start life under new coach Fernando Santos, although he will not be on the touchline for Tuesday's visit to Denmark as he starts an eight-game ban.
World champions Germany visit neighbours Poland on Saturday in arguably the top clash of the six days, while neighbours Romania and Hungary do battle again in Bucharest on the same day.
Apart from that, there is little to get excited about in the 52 games which feature the usual mismatches, such as England-San Marino today, Belgium-Andorra tomorrow, Luxemburg-Spain on Sunday and Malta-Italy on Monday.
Only one match, Bosnia-Belgium on Monday, features two teams who were both at the World Cup in Brazil.
International matches have traditionally been concentrated into one or two days per month, creating a certain sense of occasion and anticipation, although that has gradually diminished over the years due to the sheer quantity of games played.
For the Euro 2016 qualifiers, however, Uefa had decided to spread the games evenly over six nights between today and Tuesday.
The excitement has been further diminished because the top two in each of the nine groups, plus the best third-placed team, qualify directly for Euro 2016 and the other eight third-placed sides go into a playoff round.
Guus Hiddink, who began his second stint in charge of World Cup semi-finalists the Netherlands with a friendly defeat to Italy and qualifying loss to the Czech Republic, should get his first win at home to Kazakhstan tomorrow in Group A before heading to Iceland on Monday.
Little excitement at Euro qualifiers
BERNE - Europe is preparing for Uefa's first full-blown "week of football" as the marathon Euro 2016 qualifying competition gets into full swing - although it promises to be a distinctly underwhelming experience.
Uefa has heralded the new setup as "great news for football fans" but there is risk that the six solid days of international football could end up making it like background music in a shopping centre, always being played somewhere but with nobody really paying much attention.
Albania, who kicked off with a 1-0 win in Portugal, will try to pull off two more surprises when they host Denmark and visit Serbia.
Portugal will start life under new coach Fernando Santos, although he will not be on the touchline for Tuesday's visit to Denmark as he starts an eight-game ban.
World champions Germany visit neighbours Poland on Saturday in arguably the top clash of the six days, while neighbours Romania and Hungary do battle again in Bucharest on the same day.
Apart from that, there is little to get excited about in the 52 games which feature the usual mismatches, such as England-San Marino today, Belgium-Andorra tomorrow, Luxemburg-Spain on Sunday and Malta-Italy on Monday.
Only one match, Bosnia-Belgium on Monday, features two teams who were both at the World Cup in Brazil.
International matches have traditionally been concentrated into one or two days per month, creating a certain sense of occasion and anticipation, although that has gradually diminished over the years due to the sheer quantity of games played.
For the Euro 2016 qualifiers, however, Uefa had decided to spread the games evenly over six nights between today and Tuesday.
The excitement has been further diminished because the top two in each of the nine groups, plus the best third-placed team, qualify directly for Euro 2016 and the other eight third-placed sides go into a playoff round.
Guus Hiddink, who began his second stint in charge of World Cup semi-finalists the Netherlands with a friendly defeat to Italy and qualifying loss to the Czech Republic, should get his first win at home to Kazakhstan tomorrow in Group A before heading to Iceland on Monday.
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