While the mid-week’s International fixtures provided both Euro 2008 flavor, as well as International friendly flair, the accolades go primarily to Robbie Keane, Eduardo, and Simao for their contributions to the only thing that matters in competitive football matches—the score-line. Robbie Keane and Eduardo both bagged hat-tricks while Simao hit a brace in Euro 2008 qualifying encounters.

Croatia’s naturalized-Brazilian, Eduardo hit for three as Croatia tipped Israel (4-3) to lead the pack in a very tight group race that also sees Russia catapult England in the pecking order of Group E with their (2-0) victory over Macedonia. The Tottenham striker also scored three in Ireland’s (5-0) cruise over San Marino. While the result leaves the Irish still third from bottom in Group D, they have at least restored some Irish pride with two recent victories.

Portugal clawed back some hope as their (3-0) victory over Kazakhstan leaves them only 4 pts. off the lead (though still in 4th spot) of Group A.

Other notable scorers in the mid-week International Friendlies were Rooney, Drogba, and Kaka as all strikers found the net for their country. Rooney finally scored for England in their (1-1) draw on the road in Holland as Van der Vaart pulled a late leveler for the Dutch. Drogba scored the game winner in (1-0) victory over Sweden, and Kaka scored in the (2-1) victory over Switzerland.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 7:28 am and is filed under Soccer World, Rick Wall (Head Editor). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.