2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Group A
Couldn't see a thread for this, but merge away if there is one already.
Draw is on 7th December at 5pm Irish time.
We're confirmed in Pot 3 - though when you look at our form in recent years, it's amazing we actually had a chance of being in Pot 2 up to yesterday.
The pots are -
Pot 1: Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Netherlands
Pot 2: Switzerland, Poland, Sweden, Wales, Austria, Ukraine, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Russia, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Hungary, Czech Republic, Scotland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Finland, Greece
Pot 4: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Israel, Georgia, Luxembourg
Pot 5: Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Andorra
Pot 6: Moldova, Malta, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar, San Marino
10 groups - 5 of 6 teams and 5 of 5. The 10 group winners qualify for the World Cup, and the 10 runners-up will join the two highest-ranked Nations League winners who fail to qualify in a play-off. But unlike previous years, you have to win two play-offs to qualify - so 12 teams gets reduced not to 6, but to 3.
I don't think we'll be troubling the qualification end of things anyway, but sure we can but dream.
I'd like a 6-team group - we could do with some shooting practice, although God knows if the games were as bad as against Gibraltar last time, that could be counter-productive for confidence.
We could be lucky and get -
Denmark (really only them or Croatia out of group 1 would be remotely manageable)
Slovakia (we were the match of them in the Euro play-off)
Ireland
Luxembourg
Andorra
San Marino
Or we could be unfortunate and get -
England
Switzerland
Ireland
Bosnia
Armenia
If we were back in vintage foot.ie days of everyone travelling to the games, I'd enjoy -
Denmark (getting utterly ****ed on would detract from an away trip somewhat!)
Ukraine
Ireland
Georgia
Faroes
Liechtenstein
Obviously the second and fourth seeds hold the key to the draw really.
<MOD EDIT - Added links>
2022 FIFA World Cup Qualification(UEFA)
2022 FIFA World Cup UEFA Qualification - UEFA Group A