European Championships Draw

11.15 on Friday morning we find out just how tricky the road to er, Switzerland and Austria is going to be.

The UEFA Website reckons it will only take 16 minutes - if thats true i'll eat my trousers.

50 countries will be drawn into 1 group of 8 and 6 groups of 7

The countries have been split into pots as follows

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Pot 1
Greece
Netherlands
Portugal
England
Czech Republic
France
Sweden

Pot 2
Germany
Croatia
Italy
Turkey
Poland
Spain
Romania

Pot 3
Serbia and Montenegro
Russia
Denmark
Norway
Bulgaria
Ukraine
Slovakia

Pot 4
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Republic of Ireland
Belgium
Latvia
Israel
Scotland
Slovenia

Pot 5
Hungary
Finland
Estonia
Wales
Lithuania
Albania
Iceland

Pot 6
Georgia
F.Y.R. Macedonia
Belarus
Armenia
Northern Ireland
Cyprus
Moldova

Pot 7
Liechtenstein
Azerbaijan
Andorra
Malta
Faroe Islands
Kazakhstan
Luxembourg
San Marino

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and obviously 1 country from each pot will make up each group.
The group of 8 will have 2 countries from pot 7.

One change this time is that there will be no playoffs involved and the top 2 in each Group go straight through to the Finals

Games will be played from September 2006 to November 2007

Pretty exciting, huh?

Best draw for Ireland under the management of SUPER Steve Staunton and his brave band of men (plus Robby Bobson) :

Republic of Ireland
Jersey
Pershore Town
North Utsire
Sark
Craggy Island All-Priests Over 75's Football Team
Wales

i think you'll find it was an over 70s team!

Plenty of teacups to be thrown around at half-time then when Mrs Doyle gets going.....!!!

Every second rate journo will have already written their "group of death" nonsense no matter who we get. I hope we get the best 1st seed. A team who can beat everyone else in the group easily. Except us of course. 2nd and 3rd seeds hard looking ones again please. Teams that can beat each other. Of the "minnows" much of a muchness. Again I would prefer teams that can and do beat so called "big" nations. We are going to be scrapping for every point to qualify and we will need help from other teams.

just out of interest is the reason we dropped to fourth seeds really due to the fact that UEFA have made the amount of teams in each group of seeds smaller? or is there just more teams now?:confused:

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Originally Posted by klein4

just out of interest is the reason we dropped to fourth seeds really due to the fact that UEFA have made the amount of teams in each group of seeds smaller? or is there just more teams now?:confused:

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If there were the same amount of groups as the last Euro Qualifiers we'd have been in Pot 3 going into tomorrow's draw. We'd actually have been one of the higher seeds in Pot 3 too.

so what was all the crap about how kerr got us to a fourth seed????????
lot of rubbish gets spouted as fact that is never questioned.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

If there were the same amount of groups as the last Euro Qualifiers we'd have been in Pot 3 going into tomorrow's draw. We'd actually have been one of the higher seeds in Pot 3 too.

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We're going to get England. Its inevitable. Bobby Robson, Croke Park etc etc. Wonder can you bet on the sort of thing.

7/1 I suppose for England odds. I'm sure some bookie would take it. This sounds silly but the team i dread getting is Albania. From the so-called minnows, they're by far the best and have always been a real struggle for us.

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Originally Posted by klein4

so what was all the crap about how kerr got us to a fourth seed????????
lot of rubbish gets spouted as fact that is never questioned.

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Yeah kerr did not make us a 4th seed however. When he took over we were in a group that we were the 1st seeds in. Taking the last 2 qualifications we have dropped down to the equivalent of 3rd seed.

which is where we were at in the campaign before his first one? no?
so what the hell is your point????????????????????????????????????
us being first seeds is a very rare occurence and not a hope in hell of us remaining a first seed indefinitely.thrid seeds is totally unacceptable and any manager who finishes third in the group should be fired.. second seeds if we were on a really good run.

/*end of ill informed and boring rant with no basis in fact*/

I had no point I was just clarifiying exactly what happened as you seemed a bit confused about the grouping and you had to ask for help in relation to it. Was the Uefa website too hard for you to navigate.

:D miaoww!!!!

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Originally Posted by klein4

us being first seeds is a very rare occurence and not a hope in hell of us remaining a first seed indefinitely.thrid seeds is about rightsecond seeds if we were on a really good run.

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Hilarious - your having a go at me on another thread for saying 3rd in group is our realistic level and then you come here and say you think 3rd seeds is about right for us. To coin your phrase, "If that's not double standards, I don't know what is" :rolleyes:

so by your logic you expect every goup to finish as per the seeding? now who is being naive Karlos? eh??:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Donegalcelt

7/1 I suppose for England odds. I'm sure some bookie would take it. This sounds silly but the team i dread getting is Albania. From the so-called minnows, they're by far the best and have always been a real struggle for us.

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It´s nothing personal against us with Albania, they would make it difficult for any team. Every team would dread a visit to Albania. I would venture that we have a better chance with competitive 'minnows' in the group than with teams like Malta and Faroes who were beaten by the higher ranked teams in every game.

anyone know if the draw is gonna be live on the radio? ie is it usually?...cant make it to a tv at 10.45...setanta sports have it live in case anyone was wondering........

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Originally Posted by KarlosIRL

Hilarious - your having a go at me on another thread for saying 3rd in group is our realistic level and then you come here and say you think 3rd seeds is about right for us. To coin your phrase, "If that's not double standards, I don't know what is" :rolleyes:

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Don't worry Karlos. Klein4 is anti-everything, pro-nothing. I think most people on this forum have copped onto him at this stage.

Cue the immature reply ...

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Originally Posted by klein4

so by your logic you expect every goup to finish as per the seeding? now who is being naive Karlos? eh??:rolleyes:

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Seems like your struggling with your own logic, nevermind mine! :D

by your own admission we are unlikely to be first seeds - i.e. by continually finishing first and always qualifying. Second seeds if we have a good run and third seeds are about right according to you.

So it's clear that in whatever draw would be made (and before Stan even names a squad) we would according to you be the third best team (even worse, 4th best in Uefa eyes).

Despite you knowing all this you are still demanding that the manager gets sacked if we don't play far beyond our ability and qualify as first or second in his first campaign regardless of what progress is made in how we play or develop over the course of the campaign.