The 2nd place qualifying table

Originally Posted by gilberto_eire

So is this settled after tonight?..... All games appear to be over in group 9 and the total is 10 points, we also have a better goal difference(unless we lose our last two)

yeah, 'cept 0 pts is quite unlikely to get us second in our group.... also, our GD is same as Norways....

anyway, 2pts in our two games is enough now, plus as the italians only need 1pt in dublin, i predict a draw

What is it about Ireland needing a draw, Italy needing a draw, and the Ireland manager being a legend in Italy that makes you think its going to be a draw?

Congratulations Ireland,you deserved it!I think that it is better for you that Bulgaria lost against Italy.Now,you have nothing to worry about.You are 2nd certanly and there is no chance for you to finish worst 2nd.
Congratulations once again!

Will 1 point from our 2 games be enough to get us 2nd place?

Originally Posted by Montenegrin

Congratulations Ireland,you deserved it!I think that it is better for you that Bulgaria lost against Italy.Now,you have nothing to worry about.You are 2nd certanly and there is no chance for you to finish worst 2nd.
Congratulations once again!

Fair play Montenengerin thanks, how was your match? Disappointed not to win or happy with draw?

Originally Posted by stiffler

Will 1 point from our 2 games be enough to get us 2nd place?

Hamilton was saying it does but not if Bulgaria win their last two and we get 1 point they are ahead of us by my reckoning.

Originally Posted by thepiedpiper

Hamilton was saying it does but not if Bulgaria win their last two and we get 1 point they are ahead of us by my reckoning.

Yes I think we need 2 points if we lose one and draw one our goal differnce will be at best +3, however if Bulgaria win their last two games their goal difference will be at least +5.

1 Italy .............8 5 2 0 11 3 +10 20
2 Rep of Ireland. 8 4 4 0 10 6.. +4 16
3 Bulgaria .........8 2 5 0 10 5.. +3 11
4 Cyprus .......... 8 1 2 4 7 11 ...4 _6
5 Montenegro.... 8 0 4 3 6 12 ..-6 _5
6 Georgia ......... 8 0 3 5 4 11 ..-7 _3

10/10/09 Montenegro - Georgia Georgia
10/10/09 Cyprus - Bulgaria
10/10/09 Republic of Ireland - Italy
14/10/09 Republic of Ireland - Montenegro
14/10/09 Italy - Cyprus
14/10/09 Bulgaria - Georgia

I think that's right, we need 2 points to guarantee qualification, one is not enough because of goal difference.

Originally Posted by Montenegrin

Congratulations Ireland,you deserved it!I think that it is better for you that Bulgaria lost against Italy.Now,you have nothing to worry about.You are 2nd certanly and there is no chance for you to finish worst 2nd.
Congratulations once again!

Thanks. Nothing is certain yet though!

Originally Posted by tricky_colour

we need 2 points to guarantee qualification, one is not enough because of goal difference.

Correct. Assuming Bulgaria win both of theirs but Cyprus away won't be a sure thing.

I think we're in a good enough place to be honest. We can complain about dropped points against Bulgaria (twice) but we'd all have accepted this situation a year ago. There look to be some beatable teams in the play offs too.

Just out of interest: were Italy any good tonight?

Will FIFA seed the qualifiers ie top four teams seeded and bottom four not. In that case we will need 4 points to get in to the top four.

You'd have to fear some kind of seeded play-off at this stage.

Portugal, France, Germany/Russia and Czech Republic in one pot

Greece, Bosnia, Croatia/Ukraine and Ireland in the other.

If Michel Platini gets anywhere near the draw it'll happen.

Originally Posted by Eirambler

You'd have to fear some kind of seeded play-off at this stage.

Portugal, France, Germany/Russia and Czech Republic in one pot

Greece, Bosnia, Croatia/Ukraine and Ireland in the other.

If Michel Platini gets anywhere near the draw it'll happen.

It's a joke really. Should've been clarified before the group games began.

Originally Posted by eaststand85

Fair play Montenengerin thanks, how was your match? Disappointed not to win or happy with draw?

Well,we worked hard to gain the lead.We finally succeded in 57th minute,only to concede few minutes later from first Cyprus corner,first chance and,alas,first shot on our goal during the whole game.We were lucky not to lose later,though...
It seems that we dont have much problems to get the lead,but than there is not chance for us to hold on to it(in friendlies we dont have such a problems).We are simply to naive.
Our goal now is to finish fourth(if we succede,we will be in fourth poth for next cyclus).
For that,we need to beat Georgia,but if we lose,we will finish last.That would not be pretty.

They didn't need to be, but looked better than they have done recently. Good goals, very good move for 2nd - lovely interplay and build-up. Bulgaria had some half decent chances, but either good saves from Buffon, tame finishing or very lacklustre movement let them down.

I'm satisfied with 2nd - like you say, S88 we would have settled for this last year

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Thanks. Nothing is certain yet though!

You will beat us,dont worry.If we score one,you will score at least two,if we score 2,you will score at least 3...if we score 10,you will score at least 11.

Originally Posted by MeathDrog

It's a joke really. Should've been clarified before the group games began.

It should be, but this way they can set it up to suit themselves. They can use points in the group, world ranking or anything else they fancy to set up a seeding that puts the teams in the pots they want them. Or alternatively, as happened in Euro 2000, they can say its an open draw, yet pick the balls out in a ridiculously suspicious order that suits the bigger countries.

In other news, the footballing heavyweights that are Bahrain will be playing off against the other footballing heavyweights of New Zealand for a place at the World Cup. Man are we on the wrong continent.

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Correct. Assuming Bulgaria win both of theirs but Cyprus away won't be a sure thing.

I think we're in a good enough place to be honest. We can complain about dropped points against Bulgaria (twice) but we'd all have accepted this situation a year ago. There look to be some beatable teams in the play offs too.

Just out of interest: were Italy any good tonight?

I 'watched' the match on a stream but it was not very good and I was also watching England on TV so I didn't really get much of an idea, I missed the goals too so I don't know, but I think they may have been poor/lucky goals
so I would not say they were impressive and hence Bulgaria were not also.
I agree Cyprus is not a sure thing for them, I can see them drawing there which gives us second place.
Also hoping Cyprus could hold Italy to a draw but I can't see that happening somehow! However if they did it is possible for us to top the group!!


[Edit] seems I was wrong about Italy.

An Azzurri side containing seven Juventus players delivered their best performance of Marcello Lippi's second reign.
On 10 minutes Italy took the lead with a fantastic goal from Grosso.
On 39 minutes, Italy doubled their lead with another brilliant goal.

I was just going by some of the comment by someone in the room, which seem to be somewhat wide of the mark, probably why I missed most of the game reading some of the garbage they were typing , + the stream was froze half the time and hence pretty unwatchable especially as it was a very poor picture anyway.

http://goal.com/en-us/news/86/italy/...t-as-italjuve-

Originally Posted by Eirambler

It should be, but this way they can set it up to suit themselves. They can use points in the group, world ranking or anything else they fancy to set up a seeding that puts the teams in the pots they want them. Or alternatively, as happened in Euro 2000, they can say its an open draw, yet pick the balls out in a ridiculously suspicious order that suits the bigger countries.

In other news, the footballing heavyweights that are Bahrain will be playing off against the other footballing heavyweights of New Zealand for a place at the World Cup. Man are we on the wrong continent.

It is utter stupidity,the way how they choose play off matches.It is not fair,becouse team rankings are taken into consideration twice,when they draw the groups and again now.Imagine champions league semi finals where they are puting teams into pots.
I think that every team that made it to the play-offs should have an equal chance.

Originally Posted by tricky_colour

I 'watched' the match on a stream but it was not very good and I was also watching England on TV so I didn't really get much of an idea, I missed the goals too so I don't know, but I think they may have been poor/lucky goals
so I would not say they were impressive and hence Bulgaria were not also.
I agree Cyprus is not a sure thing for them, I can see them drawing there which gives us second place.
Also hoping Cyprus could hold Italy to a draw but I can't see that happening somehow! However if they did it is possible for us to top the group!!

Both Italy goals were excellent flowing moves, with pirlo heavily involved, he looks to be in good form.

Originally Posted by Montenegrin

It is utter stupidity,the way how they choose play off matches.It is not fair,becouse team rankings are taken into consideration twice,when they draw the groups and again now.Imagine champions league semi finals where they are puting teams into pots.
I think that every team that made it to the play-offs should have an equal chance.

Well, we can only hope. We more or less know where we're headed now, so maybe there's enough time for John Delaney and the boys to have some input into how this is worked out.