I don't have anything interesting today because most of my emotional attention is already focused on Malta's World Cup qualifier against Slovakia tomorrow. The battle between hope, resignation, and (misguided) excitement that this could be the one is going strong in my head. Just one win. One.
The hope of Papua New Guinea fans was probably also being countered by feelings of resignation that the recent football administration troubles in PNG would dampen their chances of a good result against Tahiti. And their fears were realised. A 3-1 home defeat makes it almost impossible that they will be the team to challenge New Zealand for the Oceania play-off spot. New Zealand won 2-0 in Fiji and that play-off spot is looking more like the normal formality.
Dutch fans might have given up hope already and may be resigned to no World Cup for their country next year. They were in a tricky group anyway with France as the favourites to win it, and Sweden as the team to beat to second place. Throw in the unpredictable Bulgarians and the fragile state of Dutch football after their Euro 2016 qualifying failure and it was always going to tough for Holland to not miss out on a second consecutive major tournament. A 2-0 defeat in Bulgaria today means Holland are playing catch-up for second place.
Other than the titanic, neck and neck battle between the two giants, Italy and Spain in one group, the other two team battle to the end looks like it will be between Switzerland and Portugal. They both won again today but Switzerland have a three point lead thanks to beating Portugal in the first match of qualifying when Portugal were still suffering the effects of their Euro 2016 hangover.
Apart from Malta's win to look forward to tomorrow (please!) the other highlight will be the reaction to England's win, draw or loss to Lithuania. A win will be expected but criticised if it's not convincing enough and if it is a thrashing anybody praising the team will be criticised because it's "only Lithuania". A draw or a defeat? Ha! That will be fun. It's too soon for another Iceland.
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