World Cup 2018 Qualification Draw

[Cymro]

Looks like a very competitive group. Bit of shame we drew Serbia from the third pot, but at least we avoided France and Italy. It will most likely be a four way scrap. There isn't any clear favourite at this point but we have probably a 50-50 chance of at least getting a play-off. Gutted we missed Group B. Never mind England who actually have a relatively difficult draw (Scotland and Slovenia plus Slovakia who top the group containing Spain at the moment), why the f*ck do Portugal keep getting easy draws? Ronaldo must be sleeping with someone pretty high up.

[Metrostars]

We really cannot have any complaints getting the easiest #1 seeds with one of the lower ranked #2 seeds. I'd probably rate Serbia tougher than Wales and Austria.
Forget this aiming for second place crap. We should be winning this group is we're half way decent.

[Olé Olé]

there's no fixture in this group where you would think we have no chance of getting a result.

i also anticipate lots of draws though.

And funnily enough, we probably thought away to Germany was the only one we predicted not getting a result in for this campaign.

Not the worst draw at all. The only maaassive threat to our hopes is Gareth Bale, I'm afraid. That chap will be going balls out to reach a World Cup and, at this stage, probably feels he has the players with him to get there. But he's only one player and they're only one team. And they're not even that exceptional of a team.

In reality, we could top the group as easily as we could come 4th. A lot of it hinges on goals. Can we unearth our Kyle Lafferty or David Healy? Many of our players will be more experienced and at a good age for this campaign (Clark, Wilson, Coleman, Hendrick, Brady, McClean and also McGoldrick, Christie and Arter who are relative newbies). Hopefully they'll be supplemented by Jack Byrne and his namesake. I've just noted, however, that I haven't mentioned the name of any striker there, other than McGoldrick who isn't a goalscorer of tremendous note. Sam Byrne, Mikey Drennan, Conor Wilkinson and Eoghan Stokes- help. A bridge too far for Eoin Doyle and Adam Rooney?

[zero]

Georgia: hardest team in the pot. Still should be 6 points.
Moldova: arguably the best team we could have got in their pot. Should be 6 points.
Serbia: the best team in pot 3 in my opinion. Some world class players and brilliant talent coming through. They seem to argue with each other and unlike Croatia, they don't deliver as a national tea. If we could take 2 points off them I'd be delighted. If they click, they will walk this group.
Austria: a decent team with one great player. We need to aim for 4 points with this lot. I'd settle for 2 if it was offered to me though. It could have been much worse.
Wales: the best top seed we could have got. Two really outstanding players and a few established premier league players. Man for man, I think we're better in most positions, but they are a much better and classier version of Scotland. Bale could do serious damage to us. We need at least 4 points off them.

As disillusioned as I am with the team right now, I think we have a decent enough chance of winning that. We are rightly fourth favourites but nothing to greatly fear. A big win against Serbia or Austria or going to Cardiff and winning could be the difference, as I see very little between the top 4.

moldova seem to be in awful shape at the moment - liechtenstein have taken 4 points off them in their euro group. i'd say georgia are better.

serbia have been a disaster in qualifying, and must be in full rebuilding mode now.

[the doc]

Good group, but let's be honest fellas, we have little chance of qualifying with the current management set up.

Look at our Euro campaign, overall it's been dreadful.

[Charlie Darwin]

Good group, but let's be honest fellas, we have little chance of qualifying with the current management set up.

Look at our Euro campaign, overall it's been dreadful.
For the tenth time, doc, if you keep playing well you might get picked.

[Bungle]

Good group, but let's be honest fellas, we have little chance of qualifying with the current management set up.

Look at our Euro campaign, overall it's been dreadful.

That's painfully true. I really don't rate our management team.

However, this is a group made for ambition and going for the 3 points rather than the heroic point. Austria and Wales deserve to be respected, but they aren't Spain and Italy. You have to think we are overdue a big qualification win. Also, despite what many say there are some real talents on the periphery-if even 2-3 fulfil their talent, we could be a very different team.

I'd rather be fourth favourites with a chance of 1st than 4th seeds making up the numbers.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Martin O'Neill said "there are easier groups". Would he indulge us and tell us which groups are easier than that?

There are four or five groups that are noticeably more difficult, but this is arguably the easiest group we could have hoped for.

Getting to the Playoffs - at the least - is achievable in this group. I don't trust O'Neill at all to be the person to get us there.

See how we get on with MON at the helm for the final round of games, but I think we should have one eye on potential replacements.

[davidatrb]

Georgia: hardest team in the pot. Still should be 6 points.
Moldova: arguably the best team we could have got in their pot. Should be 6 points.


All agreed.



Serbia: the best team in pot 3 in my opinion. Some world class players and brilliant talent coming through. They seem to argue with each other and unlike Croatia, they don't deliver as a national tea. If we could take 2 points off them I'd be delighted. If they click, they will walk this group.


Slightly disagree. I would definitely take Serbia here above Sweden, Ukraine and Poland. Good point on the young talent. But going back on the last few U20 world cups and teams like Ghana, Iraq, Austria, Brazil, France and Portugal have won it or did well recently and haven't really pushed on to improve at Senior level after that.




Austria: a decent team with one great player. We need to aim for 4 points with this lot. I'd settle for 2 if it was offered to me though. It could have been much worse.
Wales: the best top seed we could have got. Two really outstanding players and a few established premier league players. Man for man, I think we're better in most positions, but they are a much better and classier version of Scotland. Bale could do serious damage to us. We need at least 4 points off them.


All agreed again.




As disillusioned as I am with the team right now, I think we have a decent enough chance of winning that. We are rightly fourth favourites but nothing to greatly fear. A big win against Serbia or Austria or going to Cardiff and winning could be the difference, as I see very little between the top 4.

I think it is an awesome group. Avoided Germany, Spain, England (Pot 1) France, Italy (Pot 2).

Just checking the group betting and we are third favourite ahead of Serbia.

Austria 2/1, Wales 21/10, Ireland 10/3, Serbia 7/2.

All very close, decent chance to top the group.

[Cymro]

Martin O'Neill said "there are easier groups". Would he indulge us and tell us which groups are easier than that?

There are four or five groups that are noticeably more difficult, but this is arguably the easiest group we could have hoped for.

Getting to the Playoffs - at the least - is achievable in this group. I don't trust O'Neill at all to be the person to get us there.

See how we get on with MON at the helm for the final round of games, but I think we should have one eye on potential replacements.

Group B is a dream group and I'd have been jumping up and down if we'd got it.

Group H is also easier than this one, Greece are on the way down and Estonia are a nice fourth seed.

I suppose it depends on which pot you're in as to whether certain groups are easier, but from a Welsh point of view, this is definitely seen as one of the more difficult groups.

[geysir]

As it stands now, I think we got a very good group for a 4th seed. We dodged all the bullets, avoided the usual suspects and the 4 impossible groups.
Austria are much improved since we played them. Wales are better than us of course but as a top seed team, we did well to get them.
The only sure thing is, that the order of things will change between now and then.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Another bonus for Ireland is the off chance that Serbia might do something stupid and get points deducted at some stage.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/oct/24/serbia-charge-sheet-uefa-albania

In the last World Cup qualifying campaign they beat Wales 6-1 (h) and 3-0 (a) for an aggregate 9-1 victory and picked up 4 points out of a possible 6 against Scotland without conceding.

They fared poorly in the other games though, with a comprehensive dead rubber win against Macedonia the only exception.

So in the last two campaigns they are pretty bad, but rise to the occasion against teams from these isles.

[TrapAPony]

Don't get why people are on about Serbia. They're not going to qualify for the Euros and are in worse form than ourselves in the qualifying. They lost to Denmark twice, lost to Portugal, drew with Armenia & gave the match to Albania. Hardly anything to get you shaking in your boots. Wales are the easiest 1st seeds and Austria are one of the lower 2nd seeds. It's good that we already know Georgia & Moldova are probably the easiest 5th seeds & should be 6 points if we have any ambition of qualifying. We have a very good chance & definitely cannot complain about the draw.

[liamoo11]

nice to have a draw that gives us a chance. That draw might give players like grealish, crowley. bamford the feeling that a world cup appearence can be achieved with ireland

[Charlie Darwin]

Don't get why people are on about Serbia. They're not going to qualify for the Euros and are in worse form than ourselves in the qualifying. They lost to Denmark twice, lost to Portugal, drew with Armenia & gave the match to Albania. Hardly anything to get you shaking in your boots. Wales are the easiest 1st seeds and Austria are one of the lower 2nd seeds. It's good that we already know Georgia & Moldova are probably the easiest 5th seeds & should be 6 points if we have any ambition of qualifying. We have a very good chance & definitely cannot complain about the draw.
Serbia are U20 world champions and a good few of that team have made their senior bow already and play at clubs competing regularly in Europe. Their old guard are on the way out but the players coming through are very good.

[Bungle]

All agreed.



Slightly disagree. I would definitely take Serbia here above Sweden, Ukraine and Poland. Good point on the young talent. But going back on the last few U20 world cups and teams like Ghana, Iraq, Austria, Brazil, France and Portugal have won it or did well recently and haven't really pushed on to improve at Senior level after that.



All agreed again.



I think it is an awesome group. Avoided Germany, Spain, England (Pot 1) France, Italy (Pot 2).

Just checking the group betting and we are third favourite ahead of Serbia.

Austria 2/1, Wales 21/10, Ireland 10/3, Serbia 7/2.

All very close, decent chance to top the group.

Good post. You are right about the young talent. They might never kick on. an injury to alaba, or bale/Ramsey and I think we're better on paper than Austria/Wales. Both will hopefully have a euro 2016 hangover. I'm still very disillusioned about our ability to beat a good team though.

Serbia at 7/2 looks a good bet to me.

I'd love o'neill to blood a pile of young talent in the friendlies next year. There is a perception that we don't have any talent coming through but for my money, we have a few that could be very good players breaking through.

[tricky_colour]

Good draw, we have every chance of making 4th unless Moldova or Georgia proves tricky.

[backstothewall]

Weighing up Cardiff or Vienna away trips already. Both should be quality but will probably only manage one or the other

[jbyrne]

Tony O'Donoghue asking Martin O'Neill if he wants to stay on as manager for the next campaign, and then asks if he'll stay on until the end of this campaign. O'Neill clearly not happy with the line of questioning.

tod seems to base half his line of manager questioning on their futures. a bit tiring and pathetic really

[tricky_colour]

Didn't Ultravox sing a song about Cardiff?

[backstothewall]

Austria has been home to a string of great musicians. Strauss, Mozart, DJ Otzi, Beethoven. The list goes on and on.

[pineapple stu]

Didn't Ultravox sing a song about Cardiff?
Means nothing to me anyway.


How about a cosy trip from Kaliningrad to Sochi some 2500 km? 2 and half days :)
Or a three-hour flight. Oh, the humanity!

(Let alone that a long time on a train is a brilliant way to see Russia)

As I said, yeah, spreading the groups over so many cities is silly; our Italia 90 group of Cagliari and Palermo was considered awkward at the time and would be a piece of cake compared to this. But transport connections in general are better now. Be grand.

[Crosby87]

Great draw. See you in Moscow. Already looking at flights. This one is in the bag. Ireland 10 to 1 to take the group. I'll clean up on that. Pay for said flight. How do you say "how much for some oral" in Russian, Stutts?

[tricky_colour]

Fifa rankings
Wales .....10th, 7th .in uefa, only Spain and Croatia are ranked higher in pot 1.
Austria ...15th, 11th in uefa and second best pot 2 group so could have been better.
Serbia ....44th, 27th in uefa I think that makes them the worst pot 3 team, so possibly lucky there.
Moldova 124th, 46th in uefa I think that is the worst pot 5 team? They are the 8th worst team in eufa
Georgia 153th, 50th in uefa and the 4th worse in uefa.

It is similar to getting 4 out of 5 correct in the euro millions draw!

[pineapple stu]

Flip side, for balance (!), is -

Wales have Bale, Ramsey and Allen - top players and way above anything we have
Austria are our bogey team
Serbia, as Charlie Darwin notes, just won the world u-20 championship and some of those players will surely be involved in this campaign
Moldova will be a complete unknown; as near as you can get to the old trips into unwelcoming and tricky Eastern Europe
Georgia we've beaten every time, but all our competitive games have been very tight, and we're due a slip

But it's surely a group where the top teams will drop points and the bottom teams will gain points; going to be very tight.

[Charlie Darwin]

Flip side, for balance (!), is -

Wales have Bale, Ramsey and Allen - top players and way above anything we have
Austria are our bogey team
Serbia, as Charlie Darwin notes, just won the world u-20 championship and some of those players will surely be involved in this campaign
Moldova will be a complete unknown; as near as you can get to the old trips into unwelcoming and tricky Eastern Europe
Georgia we've beaten every time, but all our competitive games have been very tight, and we're due a slip

But it's surely a group where the top teams will drop points and the bottom teams will gain points; going to be very tight.
McCarthy is 10 times the player Allen is, but agree otherwise.

[back of the net]

Good draw, we have every chance of making 4th unless Moldova or Georgia proves tricky.

Good draw...but wales, Austria , Serbia and even georgia will be thinking the same thing.


Not been pessimistic. ...unfortunately just realistic as we are poor at the moment

But as ever...COYBIG

[gastric]

Phew, talk about the luck of the Irish. Hopefully, we don't see Given and Robbie togging out again as we chase some short term goals. We really need to start giving the likes of Hoban and Jack Byrne a chance off the bench and to start to develop a more transitional approach to things. O'Neill has spoken about such and it might reinvigorate the squad a bit. Essentially give youth a chance!

[Crosby87]

Predict the Irish starting squad for their opening match at the WC 18. Assuming they go of course. Then we can check in 3 years time and see who was right. That's my challenge to you fine chaps.

[DeLorean]

Did anybody make Belgrade in 98?

Wasn't that TV3's first game or something? The fixture had to be rearranged as well didn't it?

[ArdeeBhoy]

We have NO chance of qualifying.
Some Eejits commenting on this thread.

Great away trips possibly?

#CorruptFIFA********s

[back of the net]

We have NO chance of qualifying.
Some Eejits commenting on this thread.

Great away trips possibly?

#CorruptFIFA********s

Ah shut the f×ck up ya plank

[osarusan]

For recent qualification draws, I have had a kind of "ah f**k, it's over before it even started" feeling when I saw the draws we got.

This time I didn't get that feeling.

[SkStu]

As good as we could reasonably have hoped for.

[bennocelt]

Serbia at 7/2 looks a good bet to me.

.

Thats not a bad bet, they def will get a bounce with the success of the u20 team

[Stuttgart88]

Why is everyone so sure recent U20 success will immediately translate into senior success?

[ArdeeBhoy]

Ah shut the f×ck up ya plank
Pished when we wrote that...

The point stands. We won't qualify, but given the venue is no bad thing...

[pineapple stu]

Why is everyone so sure recent U20 success will immediately translate into senior success?
I'm not.

But look what their last underage world champions did. And it's a hell of a lot more than we have.

(Aware that our third place u-20 team largely did nothing at senior level)

[pineapple stu]

Did anybody make Belgrade in 98?

Wasn't that TV3's first game or something? The fixture had to be rearranged as well didn't it?
Wasn't Croatia away TV3's first game?

Suker scored in the 93rd minute. I was watching in the UCD Sports Bar and the feed cut out a couple of times - I think TV3 were broadcasting on the same signal as the campus info channel or something?

We'd just played Yugoslavia at home (which was a rearranged game - they were denied visas to enter the country) and then went off to Malta (and nearly lost)

[Gather round]

why do England and Portugal keep getting easy draws?

Assuming you mean any draw not including one of the other 'big seven' (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands), both the two above and Germany have avoided this in the last eight qualifying tournaments. France are the unluckliest (three close rivals since 2000, for Spain, italy and the Netherlands it's twice each).

England's second seed this time (Switzerland) outpointed them in 2014 qualifying; Slovakia this time are on current form their equal best team in Europe.

[ArdeeBhoy]

We know!!!

[DeLorean]

The under 20's success guarantees very little but it's obviously worth noting. Even if one of those players becomes world class it would give them something we don't really have, just look at Alaba and Ibrahimovic in the last campaign. They made the difference really and Wales have their guy in Bale as well, although it kind of bugs me when Ramsey gets thrown into that bracket, who is far from world class but a clever, skillful footballer nonetheless.

It's an absolutely dream draw, all things considered. We're still up against it, we're fourth seeds for a reason, but I really was fearing the campaign being over before it started. We have a fighting chance of challenging every team in the group. If we have a reasonably good campaign we could almost finish top as easily and second, given the evenness of the teams involved. We're probably fourth best but there is everything to play for. We're clearly going to need to improve, but any improvement at all should see us mixing it with the other three until the end. That's more than anybody could have hoped for.

When are the fixtures announced? Aren't they computerised now instead of a sit down, or is that just the Euro qualifiers? An early trip to Vienna would be welcome I think and maybe a later visit to Tbilisi, when they've lost some of their early enthusiasm.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Aye, but we're not going to improve, we have No decent players coming through!

[DeLorean]

Wasn't Croatia away TV3's first game?

Suker scored in the 93rd minute. I was watching in the UCD Sports Bar and the feed cut out a couple of times - I think TV3 were broadcasting on the same signal as the campus info channel or something?

We'd just played Yugoslavia at home (which was a rearranged game - they were denied visas to enter the country) and then went off to Malta (and nearly lost)

I think they may have had all the away games in that campaign? And Yugoslavia was the first if memory serves, could be wrong though. I really thought Yugoslavia away had to be rearranged as well but, again, a bit foggy about it. Something in my head about TV3 having to wait longer for their first game.

[Wolfman]

Fixture dates.
2016
Monday September 5: Serbia away
Thursday October 6: Georgia home
Sunday October 9: Moldova away
Saturday November 12: Austria away
2017
Friday March 24: Wales home
Sunday June 11: Austria home
Saturday September 2: Georgia away
Tuesday September 5: Serbia home
Friday October 6: Moldova home
Monday October 9: Wales away

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, they had all away games; you're right. And Yugoslavia was our first away game - so you may well be right there.

We had three away games to finish the way it ended - Croatia, then Malta, then Macedonia

Funny, I can remember exactly where I was watching all those games (UCD Sports Bar being frustrated at the feed cutting; at home trying to spot my mates' flags while I was studying for the repeats that meant I couldn't go out; in Lonnegan's just about starting to celebrate come that final corner), but I'm drawing a complete blank on the Yugoslavia game.

Wiki doesn't give details of rearranged games, but Yugoslavia away was played early enough and on the same day as another group game, so doesn't look like it was rearranged. There was no other games on the same day as Yugoslavia at home (which I know was rearranged)

Abiding non-Ireland memory of that group was this red card -

-4GxxPe5sS4

[DeLorean]

Aye, but we're not going to improve, we have No decent players coming through!

We have decent players playing already for which there is plenty room for improvement. We've a £12m PL striker that's sitting on our bench, a £7m PL winger at left back, a PL right back valued at £25m, a PL central midfielder considered indispensable to his club, the Championship goalkeeper of the season sitting on the bench also... That should be a strong enough base to work from if management could up their own game (or step aside!).

[Stuttgart88]

Aye, but we're not going to improve, we have No decent players coming through!
Indy on Sunday did a group by group, team by team synopsis. They listed our Star Player as Robbie Keane. Kind of says it all.

But hey, I say this every time. Outside the elites - none of which is in our group - there's not that much between the rest. As DeLorean says, we're 4th seeds for a reason but the likes of Denmark show what can be done without a team oozing Champions League quality. Any given football match is there to be won.

[Stuttgart88]

Fixture dates.
2016
Monday September 5: Serbia away
Thursday October 6: Georgia home
Sunday October 9: Moldova away
Saturday November 12: Austria away
2017
Friday March 24: Wales home
Sunday June 11: Austria home
Saturday September 2: Georgia away
Tuesday September 5: Serbia home
Friday October 6: Moldova home
Monday October 9: Wales awayTough start. The key is to still be in the mix going into 2017. I bet anything O'Neill is already thinking of a draw in Belgrade. I want us to be looking to win these games.

[DeLorean]

Fixture dates.
2016
Monday September 5: Serbia away
Thursday October 6: Georgia home
Sunday October 9: Moldova away
Saturday November 12: Austria away
2017
Friday March 24: Wales home
Sunday June 11: Austria home
Saturday September 2: Georgia away
Tuesday September 5: Serbia home
Friday October 6: Moldova home
Monday October 9: Wales away

Don't really like the look of that. Possibly the worst time to go to Serbia as they'll be raring to go after their dismal showing this time around. Austria should be over any potential Euro hangover by the time we go to Vienna also, and they may really need a result if they've slipped up early on. Finishing in Cardiff far from ideal also but no point in worrying about all that I suppose, if we're good enough we'll pick up the points.