Top Ten facts and stats to know about Montenegro
Posted on October 12th, 2010 | 82 Comments |
For this article I am going to take a look at England’s opponents tonight, Montenegro, a rare chance to involve some European opposition on this website!
Before you start thinking that an England piece on this website is useless and unnecessary, I have tried my best it make it is as relevant if not more relevent to NUFC then anything else. Hopefully you will all enjoy reading about the latest addition to the FIFA football family.
1. The first point which needs to be made is that Montenegro are officially the newest FIFA recognised football nation and the first competiton the country attempted to qualify for was the 2010 World Cup.
Formerly competing as Serbia and Montenegro, and before that as part of the Yugoslavia, means that I may have to bend the rules a little and include our history with Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro to make this piece work. Entering the FIFA rankings placed at rock bottom, Montenegro have shot up from 208th to 40th in the world rankings this month.
2. Newcastle’s last meeting with opposition from Serbia and Montenegro was not a happy one as Bobby Robson’s side crashed out of the Champions League on penalties at home to Partizan Belgrade. If you really wish to remind yourself of those penalties, well, here you go;
The side on that night was Shay Given, Aaron Hughes, Andy O’Brien, Jonathan Woodgate, Olivier Bernard, Gary Speed, Kieron Dyer, Nolberto Solano, Hugo Viana, Shola Ameobi and Alan Shearer. Shola Ameobi is the only survivor who started the game back in 2003 whilst Steve Harper had to make do with his usual place on the bench back then.
3. Among the Montenegro side that will face England will be Simon Vukcevic, an attacking midfielder who currently plays for Sporting Lisbon.
A popular figure during his time at Partizan, he was awarded the No.1 shirt during his spell in recognition of his popularity. Although he was on the books at Partizan when they dumped us out the Champions League the skillfull midfielder didnt feature in either game. Another ex-Partizan player who did feature that night at St James’ Park, and who could feature tonight, is Andrija Delibasic who started both games upfront again us and currenttly plays for Rayo Vallecano in Spain.
4. The Montenegro football league, or First League as it’s called, is currently ranked at 47th in the UEFA Rankings. That means that the league is sandwiched between the Welsh league in 46th and the Faroe Islands in 47th. In the four years since its creation the league has had four champions FK Zeta, FK Buducnost, FK Mogren and most recently FK Rudar.
4. Damir Cakar was named among the subsitutes in our first leg victory over Partizan, and although he left the club soon after he currently sits in second the Montengero First League all time goal scoring charts with a net busting 16 goals between 2006-2008. Alan Shearer has a slightly better record!
5. Goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic is Montenegro’s most capped player with an astonishing 22 caps! In comparison Peter Shilton is our record cap holder for England with a mere 125 appearances. The current head coach is the father of Tottenham midfielder, and rumoured Newcaste target, Niko Kranjcar and has managed no fewer then 22 sides since his first job in 1991.
6. If there are any nufcblog.org readers who like to travel and wish to add Montenegro to their list of places they have visited, then why not follow England there on October 7th 2011. I would book your seats early though as the national stadium only has a capacity of 17,000 but this may be increased to a whopping 20,000 in the near future. Quiz-time – There are seven stadiums in League Two which are bigger, can you name them?
7. England have met Yugoslavia only once before, in the 1968 European Championships in Italy. The competition was only contested by four teams as we joined Yugslovia, hosts Italy and the Soviet Union in the finals. Newcastle’s only link to this meeting, which we lost 1-0 was the inclusion of Ashington born brothers Bobby and Jackie Charlton, both of whom never played for United of course, but Jackie did manage us as I am sure those of you old enough to remember will testify to.
8. Playing in red and gold to reflect the country’s flag and nicknamed ‘The Brave Eagles’, they definately have players who could do some damage to England. Roma forward Mirko Vucinic has netted 10 goals in 19 appearances for the national side, including the winner last month at home to a Wales side which included ex-mag Craig Bellamy.
9. The Brave Eagles have also played both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, drawing with the Republic of Ireland 0-0 this time last year with another ex-mag, Shay Given, keeping them at bay. They beat Northern Ireland 2-0 back in August although there was no room for ex-mag Aaron Hughes in the Northern Ireland line-up for that match.
10. Finally let’s take a look at the Ladbrokes odds for the game tonight.
England are hot favourites to win the match at Wembley, and the odds of 1/5 reflect that. The draw is priced at 5/1 whilst a shock Montenegro win is priced at 14/1.
As for first goal-scorer, Wayne Rooney is the favourite at 3/1 with Peter Croucn next at 4/1. Steven Gerrard is priced at 5/1 but if you fancy an outside bet you can back either Rio Ferdinand or Joleon Lescott to score first at 33/1. Mirko Vucinic is favourite to score first for Montenegro with odds of 11/1.
I hope you enjoyed this piece. Come on England!?
NUFCBlog Author: Paul Reece
Paul Reece has written 14 articles on this blog.
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