In the interests of precision, the historical average night time temperature in Athens on 16 June is 19c.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/gr/at...weather/182536
That being said the past couple of years have been significantly higher (no surprise there...) so we're looking at 24-25 degrees most likely. Balmy, but not intolerable.
To those heading over, drink plenty liquids!
That's a forecast I think. If you go to 2022 on that link, it shows a low of 20 degrees in June - never went lower than that. Some days never went lower than 25. And kick-off wouldn't be the coldest time of the day.
They're preparing well for it this summer after last year anyway. We'll have a nine day warm weather training camp in Turkey and Kenny wants a behind closed doors friendly the week before we play Greece. Four day mini camp in England at the end of the season, assume the PL season which finishes May 28th which is three weeks after the championship.Originally Posted by zero
Jeepers ,all this weather discussion just because one poster, in order to downplay any difficulty in the Greek away game, said it wasn't going to be very warm?
We are in dimpled chad territory ( for those of a certain vintage ) in what ironically in Kenny is our own Brexit / Trump national polarisation moment.
Football anoraks and weather geeks are kissing cousins.
You can't spell failure without FAI
A truly awful half of football too.
Only turned it on from the 70th minute but the Dutch looked an absolute shambles,they played the second half of extra time with Frankie DeJong at CB launching balls to VVD and Weghorst….
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
They were a shambles, pity we weren't playing them this weekend. You could say it was only the NL finals, they weren't that bothered as no real prize at stake (though > Carling Cup) but they were at home and that comatose crowd went ballistic after they equalised at the death. Hopefully it's time for another Netherlands qualifier campaign shocker.
They actually looked the better team in the first half, moving the ball around with ease and overloading out wide. Their goal when it came was well deserved. Croatia came back at them superbly. I missed all but the last 5 mins of ET though. I was told the Dutch missed a sitter to make it 3-3.
We can do an update on the playoff situation now that the weekend's games are over - all will change again on Mon/Tues of course, and even then we won't be half-way through qualifying, so this is all still up in the air.
League A
Holland
Spain
Italy
Wales
League B
Israel
Bosnia
Finland
Iceland
League C
Luxembourg
Azerbaijan
Kosovo
Bulgaria
Norway and Slovenia are ahead of us in the race for a League B playoff spot. Six teams ranked below us are currently qualifying automatically - we need that to be two or less (assuming that, ultimately, there's less than four League A sides that don't qualify by rights, when Estonia bypass us to get added to that playoff). Of those -
- Georgia have already drawn with Norway and beaten Cyprus - but it's hard to see how they'll keep ahead of Spain, who lost to Scotland. They'll stay in the top two until September anyway, as Spain are playing Nations League this weekend, while Georgia travel to in-form Scotland.
- Romania slipped up with a draw in Kosovo (where Andorra also drew) while Israel won in Belarus; Romania are still three points ahead of Israel, who we'd like to see qualify. Romania are away to Switzerland on Monday, while Israel host Andorra - a five-goal swing and Israel would be up to second.
- Greece are in our group of course - we would like to see them finish behind Holland, and while you'd still expect that to happen, it's maybe a bit less likely given Holland's performance against Croatia in the Nations League and Greece's performance against us. It's France v Greece on Monday.
- Turkey got a 95th-minute winner in Latvia, while Wales - who we want to see qualify instead - lost 4-2 at home to Armenia. Turkey host Wales on Monday; if they win, they'd be five points clear.
- Kazakhstan are one of four teams on six points in their group, along with Denmark, Finland and Slovenia. Any two of those three would be fine for us. Kazakhstan travel to Belfast on Monday, while Slovenia host Denmark and Finland host San Marino.
- Slovakia won in Iceland while Bosnia (who we want to see qualify) lost in Portugal. Slovakia are four points clear now - having beaten Bosnia at home - but really today's results were predictable enough, so no real change here
Romania, Turkey and Slovakia look the real dangers at this stage. Probably 50/50 we make the playoffs I think - and a lot less that we actually manage to beat two countries of a similar strength to us as things stand, but that's a different story!.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 17/06/2023 at 9:37 PM.
I'll add the wiki link to the first post
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_E...ying_play-offs
It was always 50/50 making the play offs, but yeah, we're still in with a bit of a shout..
Only thing about it is... if we do make them, we'll likely be double poxxed, by end up as the final team making up the A path play off with Wales/Estonia/Slovakia...
We'd still struggle to get out of that on current form, but I genuinely believe Kenny will get the sack after Mondays game, and maybe we'll get a new manager bounce.. or something.. I'm clutching at straws here..
Praying for Isreal and Bosnia to get their **** together
That would only happen if we don't win.
Actually another good reason to hope Holland finish ahead of Greece alright.
The League A playoff last time was Iceland (the only League A side that didn't qualify on merit), Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. The League B playoff was us, the North, Slovakia and Bosnia. Probably slightly stronger
France 1 up at home to Greece.
Regarding play off spots..
We'll get one if no more than 2 teams who finished below up in the Nations League don't qualify automatically
Wales are muck.. so expect Turkey to come out of that group
Austria and Belguim should keep Sweden behind them
Finland and Denmark should have enough to see off Kazakhstan
The way I see it now, the ones that frighten me, are Romania and Slovakia
And of course, Greece not coming out of our own group..
We've still a decent play off chance
Just watching the France highlights earlier. How did the Greek keeper get done for encroachment on the pen when he clearly had one foot behind the line ? The same thing was being allowed in the shootout in the Nations League final last night.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
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