The so-called saying that there are no weak brigades in Europe actually has certain conditions and background. Teams like Gibraltar and Liechtenstein are clearly not included in this context. And in the European preliminaries, when you see Kazakhstan beating Denmark and Moldova beating Poland, this sentence really has a little taste.
However, the fact that there are no weak brigades in Europe does not mean that all Europe is strong. The weak brigade is just at a certain node, giving the strong team such a blow at once. But under normal circumstances, weak brigades are still not beaten after all. This is like Kazakhstan even if it wins Denmark, but because the overall results are not too outstanding, it is still very difficult to qualify.
In fact, teams like Kazakhstan and Moldova impressed us because in the previous rounds of European preliminaries, they really let us see the possibility of promotion. However, judging from the current situation, they have been taken advantage of by several strong teams in the same group, and I am afraid that the dark horse trip will not have an absolute surprise.
And one of them, at one point, was the closest to qualifying, and the situation was better than Kazakhstan and Moldova. But in the 7th round, they used a 0:2 game to prove to all the fans who were bullish on them that they were overrated.
This team is Armenia.
In the first 6 rounds, Armenia's dark horse record mainly included a 1-1 draw at home to Turkey and a 4-2 win away to Wales, and in this game alone, looking at European football, there are really few weak teams that can do it. Prior to the seventh round, Armenia was third in the group with seven points, behind Croatia and Turkey with 10 points. The reason why Armenia is better is because in the 7th round they away to Latvia, the weakest in the group, while Croatia and Turkey go head-to-head, and whoever loses will stay at 10 points, then Armenia will tie them. In the next two games, there will be a lot of variables, and if a team like Armenia wants to qualify, don't you need some variables?
However, Armenia did not win Latvia away and was beaten 2-0. It can be seen that the strength of Armenia and Latvia is actually not a substantial gap, and both teams belong to the third and fourth tier teams in Europe. It's just that Armenia's results in the first 6 rounds are a bit deceptive of false prosperity.
After seven rounds, Armenia still has only 7 points, and still has a gap of 3 points from Croatia, which lost this round. Now, the only match worth mentioning in Armenia's first 6 rounds was a 4-2 away win over Wales, but today's Wales is no longer the red dragon of Bale's time. Perhaps, the strength of Wales has slipped to the same level as Armenia.
It had been hoped that Armenia, taking advantage of the fact that Croatia and Turkey would have suffered a wound in the rivalry, would take a step further and make the situation in this group a little more chaotic. But a 2:0 game proves that everyone thinks too much. If Armenia is the dark horse of the European preliminaries, then this 2:0 is enough for them to show their original form.
The next two rounds have basically declared Armenia out early. Even if they win Wales at home and Croatia in the final round, what will they win? Perhaps, the concept of dark horses only belongs to European second-tier teams such as Turkey, while third- and fourth-tier teams such as Armenia seem to be far from this word.