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From an interview with the deputy of Milli Majlis of the Adil Aliyev:
"Today our nation has suffered a triple blow. The first hit - it's humiliating defeat of our national team, a second blow - the defeat of brotherly Turkey, and of a third strike - a victory of Armenia and opened her way to the championship of Europe. "
"Death would be better than this" - said grieving MP
Armenia protest to Uefa over refereeing in Euro 2012 defeat by Ireland
Armenia's FA have filed an official protest to Uefa over the refereeing in their Euro 2012 qualifying defeat to Ireland.
Armenia needed to win their final Group B qualifier to finish second and make the play-offs, but lost 2-1 on Tuesday after their goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky was sent off by the Spanish referee, Eduardo González, after 26 minutes.
Berezovsky was dismissed for handball outside his area but replays clearly showed he chested the ball clear.
The FA head, Ruben Airapetyan, told reporters that the Armenians want Uefa to cancel Berezovsky's red card rather than punish the referee.
Replays also showed the referee allowed play to continue after it appeared the Ireland striker Simon Cox did handle the ball moments before Berezovsky was wrongly adjudged to have done so. González later sent off Ireland's Kevin Doyle after the striker received two yellow cards.
Airapetyan dismissed the conspiracy theories of some Armenian fans who suggested Uefa was trying to give Ireland an advantage to balance out the infamous handball by France striker Thierry Henry that cost them the chance of reaching the 2010 World Cup finals.
"Trust me, I would never think or believe that it would be possible for Uefa to give such instructions to the referee," Airapetyan said.
Ireland have just draw against Estonia. The weakest team in Euro 2012. Maybe Armenia needs a dodgy Italian manager like Trapattoni to take care of the business end of things for them. lol
Trapattoni wish granted as Ireland draw Estonia
Republic given weakest opponents in Euro 2012 play-offs while Bosnia must face Portuguese
After the Republic of Ireland's passage to the play-offs was eased by the erroneous dismissal of Armenia's goalkeeper on Tuesday night, the Irish Times ran a poll asking if readers believed Giovanni Trapattoni was "a lucky manager".
Nearly two-thirds said he was. Confirmation that they were right followed yesterday when Zbigniew Boniek handed the Irish a play-off draw so favourable "Trap" could not have bettered it had he been able to script the draw.
Ireland will play Estonia, by some distance the weakest of their four possible opponents, with the second leg at home as Trapattoni had hoped. Bosnia, who were 12 minutes from qualifying when Samir Nasri won and scored the penalty that earned France a point, and qualification, in Paris on Tuesday, were presented with the toughest task: they face Portugal. In the other ties the Czech Republic meet Montenegro and Turkey play Croatia.
Estonia v Republic of Ireland
The Irish have only once previously reached the European Championship finals, under Jack Charlton in 1988, missing out at the play-off stage in 1996 and 2000. This time they should progress. Estonia do not have a single player based in the major western leagues – the nearest to it are Middlesbrough's Tarmo Kink and defender Ragnar Klavan of AZ Alkmaar – though they do have a trio of Russian-based players, notably striker Konstantin Vassiljev of Ankar Perm. Ireland face a side who have never reached a major finals and failed to score in six of their last nine internationals, losing all six, but qualified due to a trio of autumn wins, in Slovenia and home and away to Northern Ireland.
Kevin Doyle will be suspended for the first leg when the Irish will seek to keep a clean sheet, and maybe steal an away goal, but should be eligible for the return in Dublin on 15 November. Robbie Keane looks unlikely to make either match due to injury.
Prediction Republic of Ireland
Bosnia & Herzegovina v Portugal
Not much of a reward for Bosnia's heroics in Paris, but the Portuguese will be taking nothing for granted. They may have Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani, but Bosnia are well-organised, very determined and have Edin Dzeko. Nevertheless, Portugal should have the edge.
Prediction Portugal
Czech Republic v Montenegro
Montenegro will feel they have a chance against one of the weaker Czech teams of recent years, one which was fortunate to finish above Scotland in qualifying. They will certainly worry the Czechs if they can reproduce the intensity they showed in the second half against England in Podgorica last week.
Prediction Montenegro
Turkey v Croatia
A repeat of the dramatic Euro 2004 quarter-final when Croatia scored in the last minute of extra-time, only for Turkey to snatch an equaliser and win on penalties. It could be just as hard to separate the teams, neither of whom are as strong as then, and both of whom failed to reach the 2010 World Cup. Second-leg home advantage may tilt the tie Croatia's way.
Perhaps this kind of xxxx will convince them to start using instant replay in questionable callsituations. It works well in the NFL.
Lets hope so
All this talk of tradition is illogical. Yeah that system worked 100 years ago when games where played on dirt fields, the players where part time athletes, with a couple of dozen people watching and horses where still preferred over cars. Not when hundreds of millions of dollars go into building stadiums, recruiting and training players, finding the correct coaches and leaders, and huge television deals, while millions of people follow the game. Even if the argument is not based on tradition, and is based on time efficiency, I cannot imagine how a referee watching a play upstairs for 40 seconds and confirming an obvious mistake by the field ref takes more time than a shouting match between players and refs which takes several minutes and costs clubs and countries years of effort.
They had the same argument in baseball, and look how efficiently that worked out.
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