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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?