What Ahppens If????

[concanta]

Say for example - the top 4 end up winning all their games against the 2 minnows and ALL the games between the top 4 end in draws - sounds silly but you never know....how is it decided???

do they just take the top 4 and counts the resuklts against eachother
if so naturally they will all have same pints and will go down to goal difference - i presume away goals will not count in those circumstances....

one of the few good points is that it was a high scoring draw

[thejollyrodger]

work it out with excel ;)

[Stuttgart88]

I think the point is what are the rules to separate teams that are tied.

As far as I know it's:

1. Head to head points.
2. Head to head GD (i.e., if one team ends up winning 1-0 but the other wins 3-0, then the 3-0 team goes though).
3. Total group GD against all teams.

The key here is that Israel are no better off having drawn 2-2 in Dublin vs. our 1-1 in Israel. At this stage "away goals" in the head to heads are NOT a factor though UEFA can do what they want to do I suppose.

In a WC finals it'd be a toss of a coin (remember our group in 1990?).

There's a potential situation as follows:

Let's say Switzerland and Israel draw.

Ireland beats France.
France beats Switzerland
Switzerland beats us.

All 3 of us have 19 points.

Each of the winners in the matches above wins the head to head between those teams, but no clear winner emerges because we each win one head to head and lose one head to head.

I think on that basis overall GD applies.

[concanta]

what you mean work it out with excel? I can add up but what are the rules what criteria will they look for

[mjpcc]

I would not worry about it. On our performances to date we are not good enough to be in the running at the end.
:(

[concanta]

I am as worried as anyone but I do not agree that our performances have been that bad - played very well against france its our tactics need working on

[yablazer]

worked it out that barring a huge slip up by either the french or the swiss against one of the minnows, we need 4 points from our two big home games. thats assuming that we beat faroes and cyprus. not gona be easy. I can see the french putting in a huge performance at lansdowne. Cud see either the french or the swiss coming away with a win. But, were irish, were always gona make it difficult for ourselves!

[shedite]

Swiss have already beat the Faroes 6-0 at home. Can anybody see Ireladn doing that? I can't.

We really needed to beat Isreal to get it down to 3 teams and then a win against either Switzerland or France would have done.

As it is now, it's either gonna be one of those disappointing ends if we loose to on of them, or else one of those amazing nights if we manage to beat them. Keano's final miracle???

[concanta]

The swiss have been quite poor in last 2 games against cyprus at home and faroes - true they beat faroes 6 0 but that qas a freak scoreline and they only beat cyprus 1 nil and we beat them 3 0

[keenanboy]

If we can get a good few in on the Faroes, draw at home to france and take the last 6 points against faroes and the swiss we should be ok. the Swiss are a messy side and their game V Israel could well be a stalemate. I know its no excuse after saturdays debacle but we're not the only team slipping up, but it ends here. Typically Irish, we'll probably squeeze through the small kitchen window at the back of the house when the front door was open all the time!

[Stuttgart88]

I can see the Swiss dropping points in any of their games against Israel, Cyprus, France and us.

A draw against France in Dublin will be grand if France & the Swiss draw. 3 wins in the others will win us the group.

If we're going to tie I think it's more likely we'll end up tying with France rather than Switzerland. France have both faroes & Cyprus at home still :(

It'll practically be the 4th anniversary of beating Holland when we play France.

It's hard to believe but we actually haven't had a meaningful win since then. 4 long years.

[yablazer]

France will beat the swiss tho id say. Swiss will be shown up 4 the poor side they are and france's quality has to tell sometime. thats why im worried about the game in dublin. Reckon itl go down to goal difference with France and us tied on 20.

[FarBeag]

Don't forget about Cyprus,a potential bananna skin for us,trust me there will be many more twists and turns in this group yet.

[onenilgameover]

.

It's hard to believe but we actually haven't had a meaningful win since then. 4 long years.

Sad but so so true :mad:

[Irish Pride]

I would love a big win against the faroes but with Robbie out and missing O'Brian, Dunne, Breen, Finnan its going to be hard to get a big scoreline but there is still 4 games to go.

the Swiss are in the driving seat because they are 2 points ahead put they have to play.......France, Israel, and Ireland so long way to go yet.

I just hope and pray the swiss dont beat Israel. that would be a real kick in the teeth.

[jimbob117]

Don't forget about Cyprus,a potential bananna skin for us,

Not at all, they are worse off now than they were when we played them a few yrs back, and thats saying something.