QuoteYeah it's brilliant! International weeks can be boring enough (other than the Ireland games obviously) and we rarely get to see other countries outside of tournaments.
The "week of football" is a good move. There'll be two kick-off times on Saturdays and Sundays. One kick-off time on Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday. So besides watching one's own country twice, there'll be 6 other live games to watch.
Yeah it's brilliant! International weeks can be boring enough (other than the Ireland games obviously) and we rarely get to see other countries outside of tournaments.
That's it. The qualifiers will be like mini championships ahead of the main event. Watch Ireland one night. Italy, Spain and Germany or whoever on the other days.Originally Posted by DeLorean
You're obviously not married with kids!
Don't do the crime, don't do the time.
I think we'll need some guidance from Owls Fan on how to keep the family life reasonably harmonious while continuing to refuse to grow up, away from sporting/football obsessions.
I don't think it matters that much who we get from the first pot. We only need to finish in the top 2, but England would be brilliant.
Probably not Italy as they are capable of dropping points in strange places and they might drop them in the wrong places.
Avoid Serbia and Slovenia from pot 3. Scotland and Montenegro from pot 4.
As an Icelander, I'd want Ireland from pot 2, a flippin' disgrace that 'we' are not in pot 4, but that would be compensated for if we just got Ireland from pot 2. Welcome to Hell .... on ice.
Pot 5 avoid Iceland and Albania, Albania for their unpredictability, Iceland for their class and unbeatability.
Pot 6 doesn't matter who, same pain for everybody,
I am not sure there is a worse case scenario. Looking at the teams in Pot 3 and Pot 4, they are really no teams that you want to avoid, the teams in each pot are very similar. As geyser mentioned, Iceland and Albania could/would be tricky, and I think Luxembourg in Pot 6 are capable of causing upsets. If you forced me to pick a best and worst possible group:
WORST
Spain
Ireland
Serbia/Turkey (Can't separate them)
Montenegro
Iceland
Luxembourg
BEST
Greece
Ireland
Norway
Estonia
Moldova
San Marino
I've a general rule for new countries. Avoid them like the plague for the first Euro and first world cup campaign.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
I'd say we're in a lot of teams "best scenarios"
Dunno if it's been mentioned yet, but there's one five-team group, and France will act as the sixth team in that group - playing friendlies on the days when teams should be playing the sixth seed. Not a bad idea, and it'd probably be preferable to stuttering against San Marino again.
Yeah whatever way they were talking about it on Off The Ball the other night, it seemed like another daft Platini idea. I suppose I was immediately sceptical when it involved France. It actually makes a bit of sense though.
Surely you want the weakest team in each pool of seeds?
Bosnia, Poland, Cyprus, Belarus, San Marino?
That thinking is way too smart and straightforward for this board.
I suppose it's manageable this time. If Kosovo get international status, I doubt they'll repeat it when the 2020 qualifiers comes along.
Platini was makings calls for the World Cup to expand to 40. Giving Africa more places without affecting Europe and even an extra place for Europe. It would sort out one group runner-up missing out on the play-offs, with the best runner-up going through and 8 into play-offs.
I still don't agree with the expansion of the Euro's to 24, 20 would have been enough but sure it's done now. Hopefully Ireland will guarantee at least top 3.
Expanding the Euros is good for Ireland but it's totally going to dilute the quality. They ruined the Champions League, they ruined this and next they're going to ruin the World Cup.
I sincerely doubt we would have even qualified for this tournament under Trapattoni because right away we would be playing for a maximum tally of 4 points from the other top 2 seeds but I am reasonably confident that we can finally get the monkey off our back that is beating a half-decent team in a competitive game under Martin.
POT 1
- Italy - they weren't convincing last year, and don't forget that their two key players Buffon and Pirlo are 35 years old.
- England - they also have two star players Lampard and Gerrard close to end of their careers and Ireland is unbeaten in the last six matches against them.
- Greece - they are not as strong as it looks.Their key players Karagounis, Katsouranis (midfielders), Salpingidis and Gekas (strikers) are all over 32 years old.
POT 3
- Norway - they look like the weakest team in my opinion, with unknown local coach and bad results in the past year. Their duo from Fulham Hangeland and J. A. Riise is not young anymore.
POT 4
- Latvia - they have a young, inexperienced coach M.Pahars and four or five key players who are close to the end of their careers. The Boys in Green beaten them all five times.
- Estonia - they also have a young, inexperienced coach (some Swedish guy) and don't have a star players.
POT 5
- Cyprus - they have a lot of players over 30 years old and a series of bad games in the past year. Also, there is a new unknown local coach.
- Georgia - they also had a very bad previous year and there is no player who scored five or more internacional goals.
POT 6
- All teams are certainly weaker, but I'd like it not be Luxembourg or Kazakhstan.
So my list of the most suitable opponents is quite similar to the one written by the Boss. I hope it will be at least three of these eight teams in the group with the ROI.
Until The Last Rebel!
Once you get over the fact that they have Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal are not insurmountable. They lack strength in depth and stumble over the line in every qualification campaign. They have dropped points against some very weak teams, like Liechtenstein and Northern Ireland.
Yes please!: Greece, Bosnia/ Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Norway/ Estonia, Latvia, Finland/Moldova, Azerbaijan/ Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino
Meh? England, Italy/ Serbia/ Armenia/ Lithuania, Macedonia, Georgia, Cyprus / Luxembourg
Jeepers!: Spain, Germany, Russia/ Romania, Poland, Turkey/ Montenegro, Bulgaria, Scotland, Wales, Belarus/ Iceland, themnextdoor, Albania/ Malta, Kazakh's, Gibralter, Faroes'
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Of the pot 1 teams Greece is the one I would want as, as other posters have pointed out, a few of their key players are getting fairly old now. I think we could get mirror results against them (saw win at home lose away or two draws), whereas I think against the other pot 1 teams we might manage a draw at home but would probably lose away. Given that, if we dont get Greece I would rather we got Germany, Holland or possibly Spain, as even if we lose both those games that pot 1 team would be likely to beat the other pot 3,4,5 teams in the group and so you could factor them out of the group. Whereas if we draw Russia or say Bosnia we might only pick up a point against them but they (Russia/Bosnia) would (IMO) be more likely to drop points against the pot 3,4,5 teams (say Russia could lose or draw away to Poland or drop points in Armenia).
Pot 3: I'd definately take Norway and then to a lesser extent Slovakia. I would rather avoid Romania or Turkey or Serbia as these teams have good young players coming through (the likes of Torje, Nicu, Stojan, Chicheres / Toprak, Ekici, Sahin, Frei, / Subotic, Mitrovic, Markovic) although Serbia it seems will have a new manager.
Pot 4: I wouldnt want Montenegro as they seem to be more of a pot2/pot3 team and look to be easily the strongest team in that pot. Armenia have a few talented players (not just Mkhitarian at Dortmund) and the distance and heat (if the game is played in summer/autumn) could be a factor so I'd rather avoid them. I'd rather avoid Scotland and Wales as well because I think the local aspect of these games could make them more competitive. If our last fixture is away to an already eliminated Wales or Scotland I think it could be more of a challenge than say away to an already eliminated Lativa or Finland. I also think Scotland are improving under WGS and the fact they took points off Croatia away and gave a decent Belgium team a good game suggests they could be a threat. Fortunately (if we were to draw them) Wales have stuck with Coleman who seems to make very strange selections. Still I'd rather we had Latvia from pot 4 and to a lesser extent Estonia.
Pot 5: I'd take Lithuania from this group as I think they are the weakest team in the pot. I wouldnt mind Cyprus, but would want to avoid Albania and Iceland (both were pretty close to qualifing for the World Cup, Iceland narrowly lost in the playoffs and Albania - who might have had a chance of wining their group - sort of fell apart in the last few games) both of these teams looked more dangerous than Norway in their group. I wouldnt want the North because, like with Wales and Scotland but even more so, the intensity of the rivalry could make the games more competitive.
Pot 6: I'd like to avoid Kazakhstan from the point of view of distance, I think it (Dublin to Astana/Alama Alta) would be one of the longest journeys in UEFA qualification and last time I think the team had to break the journey in Estonia or Latvia, which isnt ideal. Aside from that I wouldnt mind what team we drew from pot 6. I wouldnt want to draw France (I think Platini had said they will go in pot 6 as a friendly team) as I think an enforced friendly against them could just be a distraction during qualification. I'd rather play friendlies against teams that offer us a different system to test ourselves against or are a proxy for similar opposition that we'll face in a competitive match, rather than what Platini thinks is good for France.
Overall I think being in Pot 2 has given us a great chance - a lot of the other pot 2 teams (Ukraine, Croatia, Belgium) are some way above us and it's great to be able to avoid them. The only pot 2 teams I would fancy our chances against are Hungary and the Czechs.
Last edited by Closed Account 2; 29/01/2014 at 11:50 AM.
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