This looks great. 22 of the 27 permutations sees us make the playoffs at least!Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
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This looks great. 22 of the 27 permutations sees us make the playoffs at least!Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
i've albania finishing 2nd in their group - they are a point behind denmark but the danes have played a game more and their last fixture is away to portugal. that puts denmark third who are well ahead of us.Quote:
Originally Posted by davidatrb
i've slovenia to finish 3rd in their group but they are behind us in point anyway and would be unseeded.
so... as you say to be seeded in the playoffs we'd need to catch hungary and stay ahead of the turks - which means a win in warsaw i think.
Yeah, but 16 of our chances are dependent on getting a result against GermanyQuote:
Originally Posted by davidatrb
Realistically, we're looking at the bottom line in the table, which gives us six chances from nine
Think about this and put yourself in the shoes of a nerdy footy fan standing at Lansdowne Road in the early 80s:
Iceland, Albania, NI and Wales qualify or are on the verge. Turkey, former World Cup semi-finalists but who used to be so cr@p even David O'Leary once scored against them, disappoint by coming third, ahead of thoroughbred Holland in fourth. It's a shock that Greece, former European champions, are now sh1t (again).
Russia, the biggest country in Europe, are struggling and mighty Italy only beat Malta 1-0 a few days ago. Hungary, the country that once revolutionised football haven't qualified for a generation and might still not qualify this time.
Time stands still for no man, or football country.
And some people think international football is boring.
That was good Stutts. I guess things are all relative. Did Hungary really revolutionize the game? I have a Puskas jersey somewhere from an uncle going there on business. :plane:
Very impressive by Austria ........ but I still hate everything about them.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
Re wc 2018 qualifiers, we just have to keep our heads down while Austria, Wales and Serbia kick lumps out of each other.
Just having a look at the odds to qualify: we're at 5/4 whilst you'll get between 12/1 and 7/1 for Scotland.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Or 6/4 to Qualify with Paddypower, or much much more likely 1/2 not to qualify.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
The results last night now have Ukraine as automatic 3rd place qualifiers now instead of Croatia. And Sweden in the playoffs instead of Russia. But it doesn't really change much from Ireland's stand point. Still precariously perched as seed but really we need to beat Poland (or Germany) to make sure that Israel, Norway, Turkey or Slovenia don't out rank us in the UEFA co-efficient system. We also have to rely on Turkey and Israel holding off Netherlands and Bosnia respectively to hold on to their 3rd spots. And hope that Albania don't overtake Denmark.
Some notes on the different scenarios here: http://fog2014.blogspot.ie/2015/09/i...ance-2016.html
At Sweden v.Austria last night.
The home team were so awful, even Ireland might win there...
Austria however, looked a formidable side, looked out of our league currently.
For all its detractors, I think the increased euros has being an overwhelming success so far as has the spreading out of games. I think the better chances of qualifying has provided massive incentive to many teams and it is amazing to see some of the teams that are in automatic qualifying spots. Perhaps the only top seed that has run away with things is England but their group is very easy.
It at least means that every four years, a large proportion have competitors have good qualifying chances. Unlike the WC qualifiers which is becoming all the more difficult particularly when hosted in Europe.
Not sure if posted elsewhere...
But Croatia have sacked their Manager Niko Kovac
all these outsiders qualifying for the euros worries me somewhat for England's chances.
I think there will be an awful lot of horrible games. At least with the world cup there is a bit of culture to go with the horrible games. .
i also think you will see a lot of half empty stadiums.
Which is why refs favour the clubs with a big fan base I expect.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Mind you with all this extra stuff to help the ref maybe that helps the small clubs who previously get the rough end of decisions?
i think a tournament with less jeopardy and maybe with more time to play themselves into the tournament could suit England so I agree there. But more horrible games, I'm not sure. There's good reason why these teams are qualifying. And even if these teams get spanked there's an interest in seeing how they fare anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Our provisional squad for the Germany & Poland games is to be named on Thursday. Be interesting to see if a certain AV player that isn't Clark is in the squad although my guess is no.
The novelty of the likes of Iceland or the NI qualifying will ensure sell-outs imho. Living here in the north I can see people I know, even people who wouldn't really be football fans, starting to make plans already for next summer. I would expect them to take really significant numbers of fans with them.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
I've a few NI supporting mates who want Ireland to qualify solely so that they can get a lift off me.
Yeah, promoting Kevin Toner would probably be a bit risky at this stage - maybe if we do get into the play-offs he can get a run-out thenQuote:
Originally Posted by TrapAPony
Looking At Bayern Vs Wolfsburg ..
With Bayern 1 down at H.T - they bring on Lewandoski at H.T who proceeds to score 5 goals in 9 mins
With some peaches in those 5
That third one was strange, was that match fixed or did the one team just not care anymore?
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qAHiktV_Fdo