Estonia look to put 'nightmare' behind them

Estonian national team coach Arno Pijpers described 2001 as "a nightmare" in a frank interview prior to the turn of the year. It was a year like 1992, 1994 and 1995 in which the country failed to win a single game, but Estonia’s results and performances need to be put into perspective.

Difficult qualifying task
The country’s bid to impress in their 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign was a difficult task, being paired as they were with Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands, and they registered 'just' eight points. That was three less than their EURO 2000™ qualifying section in which they were only denied third place by Bosnia-Herzegovina’s superior goal difference.

No longer a minnow
Both campaigns can be looked on with pride as in the three previous qualifying tournaments  - for the 1994 and 1998 World Cups and EURO 96™ - the Estonian national team managed to record only one win and two draws in 30 games. In defeating both the Faroe Islands and Andorra twice in recent years, Estonia can no longer be considered one of the real minnows of European football.

Without a memorable win
Occasional wins, such as beating Lithuania away, and creditable draws, including two against Scotland, also show that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but Estonia is still without a really memorable win over any of the continent’s most-powerful nations. They did come close to doing so in June 2001, however, when the Dutch visited Tallinn for the first game in FC Flora’s new Lilleküla stadium.

Record crowd
All 9,300 tickets for the game sold out in a matter of hours, easily beating the old record of 6,000 set during a match against Scotland prior to the breakaway from the Soviet Union. The tremendous atmosphere inside the stadium obviously boosted the Estonian team and they took the lead through Andres Oper before Louis van Gaal’s side equalised through an own goal. Indrek Zelinski put Estonia back in front and they were still ahead with seven minutes remaining before the Dutch showed their class and struck late goals through Ruud van Nistelrooij (two) and Patrick Kluivert.

New style and tactics
That game, along with draws against Cyprus (twice), Egypt and Finland, indicate that the year was no "nightmare", regardless of the fact that it was a winless one. Although the team has not developed as speedily as expected, they are still familiarising themselves with the new style and tactics employed by Pijpers. He opted against playing 4-4-2 with an accent on defence, a favourite of previous incumbents of his post, instead opting for the 4-3-3 style made famous by the Dutch.

‘Change is for the good’
"We are at least trying to attack and of course it takes time for all of us to fit into the new system, but I believe this change is for the good and we learn it better, the results will also come," said Marko Kristal, who became the youngest ever European to reach 100 international caps and now, at 28, has 110 caps to his name.