Cruise Control

September 4th, 2010 | by: Harun | Comments Off

That’s how we played for at least 3/4ths of the game against Luxembourg, and after scoring three goals between the 6th and 16th minutes, who could blame us? A convincing performance that saw us emerge victorious while avoiding injuries, yellow cards and, frankly, over-exerting ourselves. More below the fold.

First: the goals.

Senijad Ibričić started the scoring in the 6th minute. Zvjezdan Misimović, entering the 18-yard box amidst a swarm of Luxembourg defenders, sent out a sweet pass to Miralem Pjanić, who managed to reach the ball and send in a perfect cross just before it went out. On the other end, Ibričić, standing at the far post, volleyed a powerful close-range header past the keeper.

Not even seven minutes after that, Miralem Pjanić doubled the score with a well-executed Juninho-style free-kick.

The third and final goal was a classic Misimović-Džeko collaboration in the 16th minute. Misimović took the ball at about the half-way line before sending in a piercing pass to Edin Džeko, who took it in stride and then quickly rounded the Luxembourg keeper and fired it in at an angle.

For the rest of the game, as mentioned, the team more or less went on cruise control, persistently in control but never replicating the onslaught from early in the first half. Safet Sušić subbed out the three midfielders expected to do most of the running (Ibričić, Pjanić and Rahimić) and we closed out the game relatively fresh, without any yellow cards or injuries.

We started with two of our new players debuting as fullbacks: Senad Lulić on the left and Mensur Mujdža on the right. Both performed pretty well (although Mujdža did have the better night), and our game was noticeably wider than in the past. With them, we really exploited the flanks instead of just trying to force play down the center and resorting to long-balls when that didn’t work.

Elsewhere in the group, things worked out about as well as they could have for us. Our “rivals for second place,” Romania, drew at home to Albania, while our “rivals for first place,” France, shockingly lost at home to Belarus. With our goal difference against Luxembourg, this leaves us at the top of group D. If we can get a positive result on Tuesday against France, we would give ourselves a great shot at qualifying.