What realistically can we expect from the qualifiers?
I would like to see us finish 4th in the group and bring through some new young players and of course beating Spain;)
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What realistically can we expect from the qualifiers?
I would like to see us finish 4th in the group and bring through some new young players and of course beating Spain;)
Tough group - you should be able to do Liechtensien home and away , Iceland at home maybe Latvia at hhome 4th is doable and would represent progress!
Id say between us Latvia and Iceland for 4th place and we are capable of beting those teams.
Anything worse than fourth would not represent progress.
Third is not beyond us.
We should be looking at Sweden & Denmark and believing we can give them a run for their money.
Don't be surprised if Liechtenstein give you a game of it. They've improved a small bit in stature. They're now at the level above total whipping boys. They've picked up a few wins against fellow minnows and given a good account of themselves against the likes of Portugal and Russia recently.
PS- aye, they got eight points last time, we scraped three in the previous competition.
Realistically though, we will finish fourth, fifth or sixth. Third is achievable and would be real progress.
Points in WC 2006 qualifying:
Sweden 24/ 10 games
Spain 20/10
Denmark 16/10
Latvia 9/10
NI 9/10
Liechtenstein 8/12
Iceland 4/10
In the WCQ we were seeded 5th, but finished 4th.
In this particular group I could accept 4th, but would hope maybe to finish 3rd - though we'd really need a lot of luck with injuries, suspensions, player availability etc for us to maintain the requisite consistency.
Looking at the other teams, Spain are way out in front and Lickystein should be rock-bottom.
Iceland had terrible results in the last WCQ and have plummeted down the FIFA rankings, so I feel we can finish above them.
I would hope we could at least share the points with Latvia.
Sweden had a disappointing World Cup and have lost Larsson.
Denmark may be demoralised from not qualifying for the last World Cup - recent results were patchy.
That said, it is still a tall order to get in amongst Sweden and Denmark for 3rd place. Perhaps the key will be if we can get, say, four points from one of those two, and the other teams do us a favour in their matches against them?
Here's hoping! :)