Should be a bit of craic going to Wales anyway. I'll eagerly await paul o'shea's analysis of the game while at my computer.
Printable View
Should be a bit of craic going to Wales anyway. I'll eagerly await paul o'shea's analysis of the game while at my computer.
Serbia no longer have Vidic, Ivanovic will be approaching his mid-thirties and Kolarov has gone off the boil.
Tadic, Dordevic, Djuricic, Tosic, Nastasic and Ljajic are all fine players but none of them are world class nor have they came close to fulfilling their potential, though Ljajic still could.
Matic & aforementioned Ivanovic the only players to fear.
No real goalscorers anywhere in that team - though late bloomer Dordevic is one to watch - so cause to be reasonably optimistic there.
Can somebody please explain to me how England always get gimme groups? They'll sleepwalk their way to another qualification.
Our group is competitive because it is so evenly matched. Home form crucial.
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.
they did just win the u20 world cup though... the players from that group will be starting to come of age in the next couple of years.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks
That's true, but at a similar age players like Tosic and Kuzmanovic were hyped up and they haven't come anywhere close to fulfilling that hype.Quote:
Originally Posted by zero
Portugal are also lucky that they got a comfy group; they always toil through qualifying campaigns against teams they should be strolling past.Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
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.
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.
Can't complain about that, could have been in with Spain and Italy :D
Austria and Serbia sounds better in theory.
Amazing to think we are in the same pot as Faeroe Islands though, you would not have believed 10 years ago!
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.
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.
And funnily enough, we probably thought away to Germany was the only one we predicted not getting a result in for this campaign.Quote:
Originally Posted by zero
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?
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle
serbia have been a disaster in qualifying, and must be in full rebuilding mode now.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by the doc
That's painfully true. I really don't rate our management team.Quote:
Originally Posted by the doc
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.
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.
All agreed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle
All agreed again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle
I think it is an awesome group. Avoided Germany, Spain, England (Pot 1) France, Italy (Pot 2).Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle
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.
Group B is a dream group and I'd have been jumping up and down if we'd got it.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks
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.
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.
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/...t-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.
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.
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
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapAPony
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by davidatrb
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.
Good draw, we have every chance of making 4th unless Moldova or Georgia proves tricky.
Weighing up Cardiff or Vienna away trips already. Both should be quality but will probably only manage one or the other
tod seems to base half his line of manager questioning on their futures. a bit tiring and pathetic reallyQuote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Didn't Ultravox sing a song about Cardiff?
Austria has been home to a string of great musicians. Strauss, Mozart, DJ Otzi, Beethoven. The list goes on and on.
Means nothing to me anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by tricky_colour
Or a three-hour flight. Oh, the humanity!Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
(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.
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?
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!
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Good draw...but wales, Austria , Serbia and even georgia will be thinking the same thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by tricky_colour
Not been pessimistic. ...unfortunately just realistic as we are poor at the moment
But as ever...COYBIG
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!
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.
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?