' MATCH THREAD ' ' BOSNIA V WALES ' ' MATCH THREAD '

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Bosnia v Wales, Euro 2016 Group B qualifier, Stadion Bilino Polje, Zenica
What time does the game kick off?
The action starts in Zenica at 7.45pm UK time

Where can I watch it?
You can follow all the action right here on walesOnline . The game is being shown live on Sky Sports 2, with coverage beginning at 7pm.

Date: Sat 10 Oct 2015

"THERE'LL BE NO FEARS" SAYS WILLIAMS AS WALES PLAN TO CREATE HISTORY IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Wales captain Ashley Williams says the players are focussed on the game and not the occasion with the team needing just one more point for qualification to UEFA EURO 2016.


BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA v WALES
UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifying Group B
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Stadion Bilino polje, Zenica
Kick off: 19:45 BST

Wales go in search of at least a point in Zenica today (10 October) as they look to confirm qualification to UEFA EURO 2016 against a Bosnia-Herzegovina team who must win to have any chance of reaching the play-offs.

For Bosnia-Herzegovina to achieve a play-off place, they require Israel to drop points against Cyprus and Belgium. If Israel fail to win their last two matches, it will ensure that Wales automatically qualify for the Finals in France next summer without needing to pick up any more points.

There is however, a significant amount of expectation surrounding Wales with travelling fans and supporters back home wanting to see the team, captained by Ashley Williams, create history and reach a first major finals since the 1958 World Cup.

However, Williams stresses that Wales will approach this match in the same way as every other game up to this point.

“We’ve been working hard for a long time to be in this position,” explained the captain. “This is about us playing the game and not the occasion. We are focussed and have done good work on grass and in the meeting rooms. The lads are in great spirits.

“As a squad we’ve earned a lot of caps. There’s a lot of experience around you and we have our game plan and that is the main thing we focus on.”

Chris Coleman wants his players to achieve qualification at the Stadion Bilino Polje and said: “We’ll take it to Bosnia.

“We hope that for the travelling fans and the supporters at home, we come back with what we came for.”

Williams added: “It’s important we enjoy the situation we find ourselves in and it’s important that we concentrate.

“There’ll be no fears and we won't be unsure on what we have to do.”

Meanwhile, Coleman confirmed that Gareth Bale will start the European Qualifier match against Bosnia-Herzegovina despite only recently returning to action for Real Madrid from injury. “Gareth is fit to start,” said Coleman.

However, Coleman has both this match and the home game against Andorra in mind and added: “I am not sure he is fit enough for 90 minutes but we will monitor how it goes. We have two games in four days, which is tough, so he is unlikely to play 90 in both.”

Bosnia-Herzegovina goalkeeper Asmir Begovic is fully aware of Bale’s danger having played against him the in English Premier League with Chelsea. He said: "I know how good Bale is as I have played against him in England.

"We have to give everything. We need to be positive, play smart and act aggressively against Bale. That is not to be malicious, but you have to be aggressive against a player like him. If you give him space to operate then he causes you all kinds of trouble. We have to, by all costs, try to avoid that.”

Meanwhile, Bosnia coach Mehmed Bazdarevic says his team are prepared to counteract Wales’ quality, and explained: "We have studied them and we are ready to respond, but we are talking about a very disciplined team and very good individuals.

"We will do our best but we can not be tricked into the type of transformations that they play.

"There is big pressure on us but it is good. We are not worried at all and we are looking for success.”

All that is needed now is for this highly anticipated game to kick off.

Together. Stronger

About 800-1,000 Welsh Fans are expected to make the trip

reports of near 2000 out there now

About 800-1,000 Welsh Fans are expected to make the trip

reports of near 2000 out there now

Sadly without tickets

" Seedings for Euro 16 finals "

Keith Morgan
aka Since62


Here goes an attempt to set it out in simple terms but don`t blame me as it is not straightforward (what is in either FIFA or UEFA?).

Basically the group stages of the finals will have 6 groups of 4 teams based on seedings as calculated below. The top two teams from each group plus the best 4 third place finishers will qualify for the round of 16 knockout stage (i.e. 16 of the 24 qualifiers will get through to the knockout stage).

Seedings are based on the UEFA 2015 rankings , which take into account the qualification records for the 2012 UEFA finals , the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and the 2016 UEFA qualifiers.

Despite Wales being ranked 8th in the world by FIFA , we are only ranked 29th in Europe by UEFA on the above criteria. There are still either one or two games left to play in qualifying for all teams which will impact on those rankings , but it looks like no team who will reach the finals(N Ireland have just overtaken us) will be ranked lower than Wales , so we will be in the bottom group of seeds and will therefore be bound to be drawn against some tough opponents.

As of today , the top ranked teams who will be seeded 1 in the 6 groups are Germany , Spain , France, Portugal, England and Netherlands but Belgium and Italy are only just behind Netherlands who may not qualify anyway.

Wales could have a group of say Germany, Belgium and Austria to play which wouldn`t be easy to get through. I would prefer the possibility of Portugal , Switzerland and Republic of Ireland (if the make it).


Keith

Zenica, and the Stadion Bilino Polje, is the home of Bosnia’s Blue Dragons, their preferred home despite only housing 15,000 with only 700 away fans able to lay their hands on tickets and make the dashes from airports all over Europe with no direct flights to Sarajevo.

They talk here of the curse placed on opposing teams by the venue – they once went 11 years without defeat at the ground – yet Wales will not be fazed, opting to train at home before flying out on Friday.

They know they have got this far by focussing on themselves, that the rest will take care of itself. They are not about to change a mentality now.

Because they are not reliant on hope but on the blend of brilliance provided by Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey and the broad-mindedness of the stubborn skipper in defence in the shape of Ashley Williams.

Rob Phillips ‏@robphillipshere
Match night in Zenica - noisy outside, calm inside. Big game moving closer.

Already to watch

Booed

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=163788

Wales Team

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BOSNIA v WALES
European Championship Qualifiers
Saturday 10th October 2015 7.45pm
Stadion Bilino polje, Zenica

Bosnia v Wales Euro 2016 The time for hope is over... the moment has come for Wales to deliver the dream


WALES TEAM

image.jpeg

A point in Zenica will be enough to see Wales qualify for Euro 2016, our first major tournament in over 50 years

Wales Fans in Bosnia viewtopic.php?f=2&t=163762

' WALES GROUP TABLE/KEEP UPDATED '
Link
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=163759

Saturday night will hopefully be the greatest night in the lives of Welsh football fans

About 800-1,000 Welsh fans are expected to travel

Bosnia 4/5
Draw 13/5
Wales 10/3

wales bosnia.PNG

' UPDATED DAILY '


Wales have received a massive boost with Gareth Bale making a return from a reccurring calf injury

BBC Wales Sport ‏
Asked about Gareth Bale potentially not starting for Wales in Bosnia, Gunter says: "It would take a brave man to tell him he's not playing."

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia striker Edin Dzeko has a good chance of recovering from a knee injury in time for their Euro 2016 home qualifier against Wales on Saturday, the Balkan nation's assistant coach Dragan Peric said.


Latest News


Wales have received a massive boost with Gareth Bale making a return from a reccurring calf injury

While David Cotterill has been forced to withdraw due to a hamstring injury, being replaced by Wes Burns. Joe Allen returns from suspension but a yellow card for his midfield partner would trigger a suspension for Joe Ledley. Emyr Huws has earned himself a re-call after a good start to his domestic season while David Edwards has been called up despite suffering an initial injury.

Preview

Bosnia and Herzegovina will look to keep Wales waiting in Group B, Chris Coleman's side within sight of their first final tournament since the 1958 FIFA World Cup.

Bosnia and Herzegovina are still in the running for a play-off place, but need to gain three points on Israel in their closing two games. Israel have the better head-to-head record in the event that the sides finish level on points.

Five points clear of third-placed Israel – the only side that can deny them a top-two finish – Wales can only miss out on an automatic finals slot if they lose both of their remaining games (and Israel win both of theirs).

Previous Meetings

The sides drew 0-0 in Cardiff in their first Group B meeting.

The sides' only previous meetings were in friendly matches; a 2-2 draw in Cardiff in 2003 and a 2-0 win for Safet Sušić's visitors in Llanelli on 15 August 2012 when Vedad Ibišević and Miroslav Stevanović were on target.

Tournament Form

One side or the other has scored three goals in Bosnia and Herzegovina's last five Group B games (W3 L2) which have ended (most recent last) 0-3, 3-0, 3-1, 1-3, 3-0.

The Bosnians are unbeaten in three Group B home games (W2 D1).

Wales are unbeaten in Group B, and in ten competitive games in total (W6 D4) – their longest unbeaten run in competitive games, surpassing an eight-game streak from November 1984 to September 1987 (W5 D3). During that ten-game run they have conceded just three goals.

Wales are unbeaten in five competitive away games (W3 D2) and have not conceded in the most recent three.

Possible Lineups

Wales

01 Hennessey
02 Gunter
06 Williams
18 Davies
04 Richards
10 Ramsey
07 Edwards
08 King
03 Taylor
11 Bale
09 Robson-Kanu

Bosnia

01 Begovic
03 Bicakcic
15 Sunjic
04 Spahic
05 Kolasinac
02 Zec
10 Pjanic
07 Besic
16 Lulic
09 Ibisevic
11 Dzeko

Form - Previous group games

Wales

Sun 6 Sep: Wales 0-0 Israel
Thu 3 Sep: Cyprus 0-1 Wales
Fri 12 Jun: Wales 1-0 Belgium
Sat 28 Mar: Israel 0-3 Wales
Sun 16 Nov: Belgium 0-0 Wales
Mon 13 Oct: Wales 2-1 Cyprus
Fri 10 Oct: Wales 0-0 Bos-Herce
Tue 9 Sep: Andorra 1-2 Wales

Bosnia

Sun 6 Sep: Bos-Herce 3-0 Andorra
Thu 3 Sep: Belgium 3-1 Bos-Herce
Fri 12 Jun: Bos-Herce 3-1 Israel
Sat 28 Mar: Andorra 0-3 Bos-Herce
Sun 16 Nov: Israel 3-0 Bos-Herce
Mon 13 Oct: Bos-Herce 1-1 Belgium
Fri 10 Oct: Wales 0-0 Bos-Herce
Tue 9 Sep: Bos-Herce 1-2 Cyprus

Previous Highlights



Stadium



Key facts

Stadion Bilino Polje is the home ground of Bosnian Premier League side NK Čelik Zenica. First opened in 1972, it is currently one of two stadiums used by the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team along with Asim Ferhatović Hase Stadium.

History and description

Bilino Polje first opened in 1972 in order to replace NK Čelik’s previous ground known as Blatuša. Capable of accommodating 15,600 supporters, the old stand was beginning to show its age as a result of the wooden building materials and was slowly beginning to decay after almost 30 years of use.

The project was largely financed by the company Željezara who wanted to use the promise of high-quality football as a pull factor for workers around the local region. Historically an industrial city, Zenica’s best known football team, NK Čelik were competing within the Yugoslav First League which was the highest tier of football back then.

Constructed over a period of 8 months, it was completed in time to host to host matches of the Mitropa Cup which features clubs from across Europe. NK Čelik defeated ACF Fiorentina in order to retain their title, and christen their new ground with an impressive victory.

Built very much in the English model, the rectangular arrangement of stands is still somewhat uncommon on Bosnia and Herzegovina to this day. Stadion Bilino Polje is arguably the most celebrated stadium in the country despite not being located in the capital city or boasting the largest capacity.

The first international match of Bosnia was played against Albania in 1996, and for the next 10 years Bilino Polke Stadium became known as a fortress. Across 15 matches, Bosnia’s national team was undefeated until a Euro 2008 qualifier against Hungary.

Table as it stands

Capture2.PNG

Match Odds

Bosnia 4/5
Draw 13/5
Wales 10/3

Guess the score

Post your predictions below

Mostly Bosnia so far

As it stands: Belgium are top of Group B after Nainggolan gives them the lead in Andorra

Ramsey looks a bit short of confidence.

Half time looking good 0-0

Quality in the final third has not been good so far.

Looking good as Israel losing to Cyprus

Quality in the final third has not been good so far.

Ryan I agree

1-0

Dam 1-0 Bosnia

ISRAEL 1-1

Israel have equalised

82 Mins ... Bosnian 1-0.

Cyprus 2-1 up .

2-1 Cyrus.

Ramsey has been in the Bosnian defence pockets all evening.

2-0

Crawling over the line.

We have looked leggy and dire.