Category Archives: Football

Summer of football/soccer 2015: play offs!

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Fotbolls-EM

In 2015 three major football tournaments are played around the world: FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, Under 21 European Championships in Czech Republic and Copa América in Chile. The playoffs have begun in all tournaments:

FIFA Women’s World Cup

The first round of the play offs (16) has been played and with Swedish eyes we can state that Sweden sadly didn’t went through to the quarter finals this time. They got beat by Germany 4-1 fair and square and the yellow and blues didn’t reach normal standard in this tournament. However, since many other European teams also didn’t make it to the next round, Sweden will be able to qualify to the Olympic games in Brazil 2016. The qualifiers are played between Sweden, Norway (who got beat by England 2-1), Netherlands (lost against Japan 2-1) and Switzerland (lost against the host nation Canada 1-0). In the other matches, China won against the only African team in the play offs, Cameroon, 1-0. United States eliminated Colombia 2-0 and Australia managed to eliminated Brazil 1-0 which means there are no South American teams left in the tournament. France won against South Korea 3-0.

This gives us the following quarterfinals:

China – USA
Germany – France
Australia – Japan
England – Canada

While we though Norway would reach the finals in an earlier post, now we have to replace them with Japan. However, Germany still stands as heavy favourites to the gold.

U21 European Championships

Unlike in the Women’s World Cup, in the European U21 Championships Sweden have made success with a second place in their group, which means a) semifinal against Denmark and b) a spot in the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil where the team might get a supreme reinforcement in Zlatan Ibrahimovic (every team in the tournament can have three players over 21 years of age). The other semifinal is played between Portugal and Germany. Both matches are played June 27. The final is played July 5.

Copa América

The play offs in Copa América have just begun. We will update the results in a later post as the quarterfinals progress. In the first matches Chile and Peru have advanced by beating Uruguay and Bolivia. In the other half of the play off tree, Argentina will play Colombia and Brazil Paraguay. Chances are we will see Lionel Messi face a Brazil without suspended Neymar in the semifinal.

Football/soccer, summer 2015

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This is an old post describing football events of 2015. The winners of the below tournaments were:

Copa América: Chile
U21 European Championship: Sweden!
FIFA Women’s World Cup: Team USA
UEFA 2016: Portugal

——

Before 2015 many of us thought that this summer would become a middle-year between FIFA World Cup 2014 and the 2016 UEFA Championships. That’s not quite right. In this post we summarize the hottest tournaments of summer 2015: Copa América, U21-European Championships, FIFA Women’s World Cup and the UEFA qualifiers. Below we describe each tournament shortly with dates and links to more info.

Copa América

Description: Copa América is the South American championships of football. This years the tournament is held in Chile and you have the opportunity to see Lionel Messi, Neymar and other superstars fight for the gold. The winner also gets to play in the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.

When: June 11 – July 4.

U21 European Championship

Description: Eight U21-teams participate in the  Under 21 European Championships. Except for the gold medal, spots in the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil is at stake.

When: 17-30 June.

FIFA Women’s World Cup

Description: The highest ranked women’s tournament is on! We look forward watching some high quality football as Germany, USA and Brazil and the other participating teams are fighting for the gold in Canada.

When: June 6 – July 5.

UEFA 2016 qualifiers

Description: The European teams are fighting for spots in the 2016 European Championships in France.

Date: 12-14 June.
More info: UEFA.

With all this football action, it doesn’t matter if the weather this summer is so-so. Let it rain and stay inside and watch some great football action!

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015: Schedule for the round of 16

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The last round of the preliminary stage in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 is played and you can find the schedule for the play offs below. There were some drama when the last teams reached the round of 16. Sweden was dependent on Brazil (that was resting their best players) winning against Costa Rica, which they did thanks to a late goal in the 83rd minute. Group A ended with two draws and Canada came up on top as group winners. In group B, Germany and Norway advanced to the knockout stage as planned. 2011 champions Japan won all their games in group C. United States won group D, followed by Australia and Sweden. Brazil won group E, followed by South Korea. Costa Rica and Spain got eliminated. France and England won their last games in group F, and thus made it to the play offs together with Colombia.

Schedule, round of 16

The round of 16 is played June 20-23:

China – Cameroon
United States – Colombia
Germany – Sweden
France – South Korea
Brazil – Australia
Japan – Netherlands
Norway – England
Canada – Switzerland

We predict that the following teams will face each other in the quarterfinals that are played June 26-27:

China – United States
Germany – France
Brazil – Japan
Norway – Canada

…and this constellation will reach the semifinals:

United States – Germany
Japan – Norway

In the final, we think Germany will beat Norway.

Chicken Swedes will now go on vacation for a week. When we return we will see of the following prediction is correct before the semifinals. We will then continue to report from the Women’s World Cup and other interesting sport events from around the globe!

European Qualifiers 2016: England beat Slovenia 3-2 in a tight game

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England, at the top of group E in the qualifiers for European Championships of football 2016, struggled for some time against Slovenia who got the 1-0 lead. However, two goals from Jack Wilshere turned the tide. Slovenia fought back though and scored 2-2 in the second half. A few moments later, Wayne Rooney could score the decisive 3-2 goal for England. Two other British teams played a derby this round, Republic of Ireland and Scotland, in a match that ended 1-1. Northern Ireland played a goalless game against Romania at home while Wales beat Belgium 1-0.

Other results

In group G, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored two goals in Sweden’s 3-1 win against Montenegro. While Austria beat Russia 1-0, this means that Sweden is positioned in second place in the group, four points after Austria, four points before Russia. This gives them a good shot at directly qualifying for the 2016 championships. In the qualifiers, all first and second placed teams advances directly to the tournament, together with the best placed third placed team. The other third placed teams will have to qualify through the “Week of Football”, more on that in a later post.

Former Swedish coach Lars Lagerbäck’s Iceland won against Czech Republic which means they are one step closer to their first European Championships ever. Iceland are in the lead in group A with 15 points. Czech Republic is in second place with 13 points and Netherlands are trailing in third place with 10 points. Croatia and Italy played a 1-1 draw at the top of group H. Sadly, the Croatian supporters are embarrassing themself, this time they had painted a swastika on the field. That is a shame, considering the country has become a great sports nation after the civil was that tore up former Yugoslavia. Portugal struggled against Armenia before superstar Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up and score a hat-trick. Portugal won the game 3-2.

As stated above, Sweden won 3-1 against Montenegro. The other Skandinavic countries all got points in this round, except for Finland who lost against Hungary at home, 0-1. Denmark beat Serbia 2-0. Norway played a goalless game against Azerbaijan.

Germany crushed the newcomers Gibraltar 7-0.

The qualifiers continue in the beginning of September and October.

2015 U21 European Championships schedule

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52 teams tried to qualify for the 2015 Under 21 European Championships in Czech Republic. 8 managed to grab a spot in the tournament. The format of the tournament is pretty straight forward: Two groups of four teams are competing for spots in the play offs. The best two teams of each group will go through to the semifinals. Also, these will grab a spot in the Olympic Games in Brazil 2016. However, if England reaches semifinal, a separate qualifying game will be played between the third placed teams since England is not an olympic nation (they participate as Great Britain).

Schedule:

Group A:

Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Serbia

Group B:

England
Italy
Portugal
Sweden

Matches:

June 17:

Czech Republic – Denmark
Germany – Serbia

June 18:

Italy – Sweden
England – Portugal

June 20:

Serbia – Czech Republic
Germany – Denmark

June 21:

Sweden – England
Italy – Portugal

June 23:

Czech Republic – Germany
Denmark – Serbia

June 24:

England – Italy
Portugal – Sweden

Play offs:

The semifinals are played June 27.
An eventual olympic qualifier is played June 28.
The final is played June 30.

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015: Results from the second round

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Women's Football

Women’s World Cup of Football in Canada 2015 continuous. In group A we looked forward to the highly anticipated match between Germany and Norway. It was Germany who got the first goal of the game when Anja Mittag, who scored a hat-trick against Ivory Coast in the first match, scored in the 6th minute. The Germans outplayed Norway in the first half. However, in the second half, Norway came out as a new team, started putting higher pressure on the German attackers instead of collapsing. In the 61st minute Norway got a free kick just outside Germany’s penalty box. Marin Mjelde scored one of the most beautiful goals of the tournament so far, putting the ball high up in the corner of the german goal. That tied the game, 1-1 which also became the end result. In the other match of group B, Thailand beat Ivory Coast 3-2. Important points in the battle for becoming among the top third placed teams which will go through to the play offs.

Few goals in Group A

In group A, China beat Netherlands with a late decider in the 91st minute. Host nation Canada played a goalless match against New Zealand in the same group. Group A is tight with only three goals scored in four games. Canada is in the lead with 4 points before China and Netherlands with 3 and New Zealand with 1 point. While China should be able to beat New Zealand in the last game, Canada and Netherlands will probably have to play a decisive game of who gets the second spot in the group and thereby, for sure advances to the play offs.

Ecuador is the tournament’s punching bag

In group C Ecuador started the tournament with a 6-0 loss against Cameroon, They followed up this result with a 10-1 loss against Switzerland. Fabienne Humm and Ramona Bachmann scored a hat-trick each for Switzerland. Ecuador’s Angie Ponce also scored three goals: Two in her own net and one against the opponents through a penalty… Ecuador will face the 2011 Champions Japan in the next game. Japan beat Cameroon 2-1 in their second game and they have two straight wins now. It is no long shot to guess that they will probably have a perfect record, three for three, after the last game against Ecuador.

No goals between Sweden and USA

Sweden have a team plagued by injuries in this year’s World Cup. In the first round they lost a 2-0 and 3-2 lead against Nigeria and had to settle with one point. They are in a tough group and the next opponent in line was team USA. The Swedes played a more solid defensive game this time and could even have won, but Therese Sjögran hit the crossbar in the second half. There are still question marks around Sweden’s offensive players. Sjögran and Lotta Schelin has not produced any goals in the two matches. Since Australia beat Nigeria 2-0, they will play a decisive game against Sweden where the winner gets the second spot in the group. The consequences of a tie is more uncertain since it depends on the result between Nigeria and USA. The last round will be exciting for sure!

Oh and a message to Canadian TV: Sweden is NOT Switzerland. We are not famous for our cheese and pocket knives, but for beating you in your own game, hockey, every now and then… (Read more about the difference between Sweden and Switzerland).

Brazil in top of group E

Brazil has two straight wins after beating South Korea in the first match and Spain in the second. South Korea and Costa Rica played 2-2 in the second round. France lost unexpectedly against Colombia 2-0 while England beat Mexico 2-1. Colombia and England are at the top of group F while France is currently at third place.

The current ranking of the third-placed teams are the following (team/points):

Cameroon 3p
Netherlands 3p
France 3p
Thailand 3p
—
Sweden 2p
Spain 1p

The third placed teams with the lowest ranking after the final round will be eliminated.

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015: Results from the first round

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The first round of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 has been played and we have seen some great football. Here is a short summary. In group A, the host nation Canada won a tight match against China, 1-0. That was also the result in the other match of the group when Netherlands beat New Zealand. Group B has two favourites that can go all the way in this tournament, Norway and Germany. They won their first matches in this year’s World Cup, Norway beating Thailand 4-0 and Germany crushed Ivory Coast 10-0(!). World Cup 2011 champions Japan won against Switzerland, 1-0 after a penalty shot. In that group Cameroon run over Ecuador 6-0. In group D, team USA are destined to win and they got a good start through a 3-1 win against Australia, who did a solid match, despite the numbers. Sweden lost their lead twice against Nigeria, the match ended 3-3 and coach Pia Sundhage have to do some magic now, having injuries on many key players. Sundhage coached team USA earlier.

Marta made history

Brazil’s superstar Marta broke Germany’s Birgit Prince’s earlier record of most goals scored in the World Cup. With Marta’s 15th goal in Brazil’s 2-0 win over South Korea, she is now the overall top goal scorer. USA:s Abby Wambach is third in the goal scoring league, with 13 goals. Another record was broken by Formiga in the very same match: At the age of 37, she became the oldest goal scorer in the tournament. In the other game of group E, Costa Rica managed to get a 1-1 tie against Spain. Another superstar that delivered was France’s Eugenie Le Sommer. She scored the only goal in the 1-0 victory over England. The other match in group F, between Colombia and Mexico, ended 1-1.

The teams placed 1st and 2nd together with the fourth best third placed teams in each group goes through to the round of 16 play offs. The play offs starts June 20 and the final is played July 5.

Barcelona FC won Champions League 2014/15

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Camp Nou

Barcelona FC were favourites against Juventus in the 2015 Champions League-final. They did not disappoint anyone and won 3-1. Thanks to Ivan Rakitic’s goal they got the start they wanted. Juventus stayed in the game though, much thanks to veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

Juventus tied the game in the second half

Juventus played a good defensive game, but had a hard time creating something offensively. In the 55th minute they got the change though: Carlos Tévez shot the ball and Álvaro Morata did no mistake on the rebound, making it 1-1. The match was now an open story and one could sense some nervously Barcelona players. Then, their superstars stepped forward. Lionel Messi drove forward with the ball, taking the shot. Buffon’s rebound went left, straight on the feet of Luis Suárez who could give Barcelona the 2-1 lead in minute 68. Neymar got the chance a while later but his header were disapproved since the ball also touched his arm. A good and correct call by the referees. However, at stoppage time, Neymar got his second chance of the game, scoring 3-1 Barcelona, which also became the final result. The Spanish offensive 4-4-3 lineup beat Italian defensive 4-4-2.

Aftermath

After the 2015 Champions League final, two great players will leave the European top football: Barcelona’s Xavi and Juventu’s Andrea Pirlo. From this night, we will remember them in a great game that was decided by solid play. We could enjoy some great football, forgetting FIFA scandals and bribes. Seeing the world’s best players on the field at the Olympic stadium in Berlin, we could sense hope that a dream about a clean sport that ties people together instead os separating them, will come true. If that is going to happen, we have to treat and care for the sport. Football can and will bring countries, people and cultures closer to each other. It is the symbol of a united world of justice, where the team that is at their best for today will win the trophy this time.

Champions Leauge-winners the last 10 years

2014-15: Barcelona
2013-14: Real Madrid
2012-13: Bayern Munich
2011-12: Chelsea
2010-11: Barcelona
2009-10: Inter
2008-09: Barcelona
2007-08: Manchester United
2006-07: Milan
2005-06: Barcelona

Betbonus will return with reports from Champions League 2015/16. Stay with us!

Copa América 2015: schedule and fixtures

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Messi

Copa América is the battle for south America, similar to the UEFA European Championships. The tournament is played every fourth year and this summer it is hosted by Chile. In 2011 the tournament was played in Argentina and Uruguay won after beating Paraguay 3-0 in the final. In this post you will find fixtures/schedules for the 2015 Copa América. As expected, it is a tough tournament with many strong teams.

Schedule

The tournament is played in three groups with four teams. The two top teams in each group and the two best third placed teams will reach the quarterfinals.

Date – Teams

Group A

12/6 – Chile – Ecuador
13/6 – Mexico – Bolivia
15/6 – Ecuador – Bolivia
16/6 – Chile – Mexico
19/6 – Mexico – Ecuador
20/6 – Chile – Bolivia

Group B

13/6 – Uruguay – Jamaica
13/6 – Argentina – Paraguay
16/6 – Paraguay – Jamaica
17/6 – Argentina – Uruguay
20/6 – Uruguay – Paraguay
20/6 – Argentina – Jamaica

Group C

14/6 – Colombia – Venezuela
14/6 – Brazil – Peru
18/6 – Brazil – Colombia
19/6 – Peru – Venezuela
21/6 – Colombia – Peru
21/6 – Brazil – Venezuela

Quarterfinals

25/6 – Winner A – Third A/B/C
26/6 – Winner A – Second C
27/6 – Winner B – Third A/B/C
28/6 – Winner C – Second B

Semifinals

30/6 – Winner K1 – Winner K2
1/7 – Winner K3 – Winner K4

Bronze game

4/7 – Loser S1 – Loser S2

Final

4/7 – Winner S1 – Winner S2

Champions League final 2015: odds

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June 6, at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Juventus and Barcelona will play the 2015 Champions League final. While Barcelona are favourites to win to the odds of 1,6, Juventus are underdogs at 6.0. A draw is played at 4.0. How then, are these odds treated the best way? Let us see what we have on the pitch. An Italian team with solid defences versus an offensive Spanish team with a Neymar-Messi-Suárez trio on top. There are a few possible scenarios based on the two teams current season:

Juventus

Juventus won the Italian league Serie A with a large margin and they recently also won Coppa Italia. They haven’t really been tested in the Champions League this year, except for the semifinal against Real Madrid. Now, if you can beat Real Madrid you can probably beat Barcelona too. However, Barcelona have been the better Spanish team in La Liga this year, winning both the league and the cup. Italian teams are known for they great defenses and can win and outmaneuver any team with just a 1-0 lead. Juventus have four losses in this season, three in the Italian league and one against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League group stage.

Barcelona

Few teams in modern history could have matched such an offensive as Barcelona’s Luis Suárez, Neymar and Lionel Messi. They have run over and won against most of their opponents this season. In 2014-15 Barcelona have five losses, one against Real Madrid away in La Liga and three against middle placed teams in the league. The last loss came in the Champions League semifinal against Bayern Münich but it was in an already decided series. As noted above, Barcelona have won two titles this season and have the chance of a third.

So where does this information takes us? First goal wins! If Juventus can manage to move the pressure up field and score an early goal, then they will probably withstand Barcelona’s offensive rushes. However, they will not be able to play on a 0-0 score for long so there is no point in betting at the draw. If Barcelona get the quick go-ahead goal, they will surely get the second and third as well. Be sure to pick up a good deposit bonus from one of our partner sites and make some money while you enjoy good football!