Home discomforts
None of the Home Nations managed to record victory in Tuesday night's World Cup qualifiers, with Wales losing heavily and England, Scotland and Northern Ireland held to draws. See what the Soccer Special experts made of the action...
Last Updated: September 12, 2012 12:30pm
Coleman: bad night for Wales boss
David Phillips on Wales' 6-1 thrashing in Serbia
"Six was about right but you could turn around and say Serbia could quite easily have had eight or nine. Defensively for Wales it was a case of self-destruction; five of the goals were defensive errors.
"I'm sure Chris Coleman will look at that ahead of the upcoming games against Scotland and Croatia. However, you defend from the front and I don't think Steve Morison or the midfield did enough.
"James Collins was suspended, while there was also no Craig Bellamy, no Joe Ledley, no Wayne Hennessey, and no Neil Taylor, but we still had decent players out there, ones that are playing in the Premier League, so to get beaten by a Serbia team that have only won once in their last 11 games is very humiliating and a poor reflection of Welsh football.
"However, Serbia were different class; they orchestrated the play throughout the midfield where Dusan Tadic and Zoran Tosic were outstanding, the back four hadn easy night, and the only thing their 'keeper (Vladimir Stojkovic) had to do was pick the ball out of the net when Gareth Bale put that rocket past him. Serbia have decent technical players and will take a lot of points off teams in this group."
Paul Walsh on England's 1-1 draw with Ukraine at Wembley
"England had enough chances in the first half to put the game to bed. Tom Cleverley could have had a hat-trick; he hit one straight at the goalkeeper's legs, mistimed another shot after good work by Frank Lampard, and then hit the post after a good bit of skill.
"England looked vulnerable at the back; we've got Steven Gerrard and Lampard patrolling the midfield area but, because we have full-backs that get forward, we look like we could get exposed against good counter-attacking teams. Ukraine aren't one of the best but we still got exposed on occasions by them. It is not a disastrous result but it is not a great one either."
Graeme Sharp on Scotland's home stalemate with Macedonia
"It was really disappointing. Macedonia had numerous chances and Allan McGregor was probably Man of the Match as he really kept Scotland in the game. Craig Levein made three changes from the Serbia match and brought in Shaun Maloney, James Forrest and Jamie Mackie. That seemed positive - but it didn't work.
"It was only when Charlie Adam came on, got on the ball and started to pass that we looked a half-decent side. That is not good enough as Scotland really needed to win this game but now we only have two points from two home games. They can look at the table and say they are only two points off Belgium, Croatia and Serbia, but it is going to be tough for us now."
Iain Dowie on Northern Ireland's 1-1 draw with Luxembourg
"This is a disastrous result. As an attacking force Luxembourg had no cutting edge at all and Northern Ireland were very comfortable - but we really lacked tempo in the second half and I don't think that, other than a shot from Jamie Ward, the Luxembourg 'keeper (Jonathan Joubert) had a save to make.
"Against a side that have won about three of their last 100 competitive games, we have got be showing more attacking intent and put them to bed, but our flair players - Chris Brunt, Dean Shiels, Shane Ferguson - went quiet, while Kyle Lafferty, a frustrating talent, kept getting caught offside."
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