Should be a bit of craic going to Wales anyway. I'll eagerly await paul o'shea's analysis of the game while at my computer.
Serbia no longer have Vidic, Ivanovic will be approaching his mid-thirties and Kolarov has gone off the boil.
Tadic, Dordevic, Djuricic, Tosic, Nastasic and Ljajic are all fine players but none of them are world class nor have they came close to fulfilling their potential, though Ljajic still could.
Matic & aforementioned Ivanovic the only players to fear.
No real goalscorers anywhere in that team - though late bloomer Dordevic is one to watch - so cause to be reasonably optimistic there.
Can somebody please explain to me how England always get gimme groups? They'll sleepwalk their way to another qualification.
Our group is competitive because it is so evenly matched. Home form crucial.
there's no fixture in this group where you would think we have no chance of getting a result.
i also anticipate lots of draws though.
they did just win the u20 world cup though... the players from that group will be starting to come of age in the next couple of years.Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks
That's true, but at a similar age players like Tosic and Kuzmanovic were hyped up and they haven't come anywhere close to fulfilling that hype.
Portugal are also lucky that they got a comfy group; they always toil through qualifying campaigns against teams they should be strolling past.
Tony O'Donoghue asking Martin O'Neill if he wants to stay on as manager for the next campaign, and then asks if he'll stay on until the end of this campaign. O'Neill clearly not happy with the line of questioning.
Georgia: hardest team in the pot. Still should be 6 points.
Moldova: arguably the best team we could have got in their pot. Should be 6 points.
Serbia: the best team in pot 3 in my opinion. Some world class players and brilliant talent coming through. They seem to argue with each other and unlike Croatia, they don't deliver as a national tea. If we could take 2 points off them I'd be delighted. If they click, they will walk this group.
Austria: a decent team with one great player. We need to aim for 4 points with this lot. I'd settle for 2 if it was offered to me though. It could have been much worse.
Wales: the best top seed we could have got. Two really outstanding players and a few established premier league players. Man for man, I think we're better in most positions, but they are a much better and classier version of Scotland. Bale could do serious damage to us. We need at least 4 points off them.
As disillusioned as I am with the team right now, I think we have a decent enough chance of winning that. We are rightly fourth favourites but nothing to greatly fear. A big win against Serbia or Austria or going to Cardiff and winning could be the difference, as I see very little between the top 4.
Can't complain about that, could have been in with Spain and Italy
Austria and Serbia sounds better in theory.
Amazing to think we are in the same pot as Faeroe Islands though, you would not have believed 10 years ago!
Looks like a very competitive group. Bit of shame we drew Serbia from the third pot, but at least we avoided France and Italy. It will most likely be a four way scrap. There isn't any clear favourite at this point but we have probably a 50-50 chance of at least getting a play-off. Gutted we missed Group B. Never mind England who actually have a relatively difficult draw (Scotland and Slovenia plus Slovakia who top the group containing Spain at the moment), why the f*ck do Portugal keep getting easy draws? Ronaldo must be sleeping with someone pretty high up.
"Life is like a hair on a toilet seat. Sooner or later you are bound to get pi$$ed off."
"In this league, a draw is sometimes as good as a win" - Steve Morison
We really cannot have any complaints getting the easiest #1 seeds with one of the lower ranked #2 seeds. I'd probably rate Serbia tougher than Wales and Austria.
Forget this aiming for second place crap. We should be winning this group is we're half way decent.
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
And funnily enough, we probably thought away to Germany was the only one we predicted not getting a result in for this campaign.
Not the worst draw at all. The only maaassive threat to our hopes is Gareth Bale, I'm afraid. That chap will be going balls out to reach a World Cup and, at this stage, probably feels he has the players with him to get there. But he's only one player and they're only one team. And they're not even that exceptional of a team.
In reality, we could top the group as easily as we could come 4th. A lot of it hinges on goals. Can we unearth our Kyle Lafferty or David Healy? Many of our players will be more experienced and at a good age for this campaign (Clark, Wilson, Coleman, Hendrick, Brady, McClean and also McGoldrick, Christie and Arter who are relative newbies). Hopefully they'll be supplemented by Jack Byrne and his namesake. I've just noted, however, that I haven't mentioned the name of any striker there, other than McGoldrick who isn't a goalscorer of tremendous note. Sam Byrne, Mikey Drennan, Conor Wilkinson and Eoghan Stokes- help. A bridge too far for Eoin Doyle and Adam Rooney?
Last edited by Olé Olé; 25/07/2015 at 5:32 PM.
moldova seem to be in awful shape at the moment - liechtenstein have taken 4 points off them in their euro group. i'd say georgia are better.
serbia have been a disaster in qualifying, and must be in full rebuilding mode now.
Good group, but let's be honest fellas, we have little chance of qualifying with the current management set up.
Look at our Euro campaign, overall it's been dreadful.
For the tenth time, doc, if you keep playing well you might get picked.
That's painfully true. I really don't rate our management team.
However, this is a group made for ambition and going for the 3 points rather than the heroic point. Austria and Wales deserve to be respected, but they aren't Spain and Italy. You have to think we are overdue a big qualification win. Also, despite what many say there are some real talents on the periphery-if even 2-3 fulfil their talent, we could be a very different team.
I'd rather be fourth favourites with a chance of 1st than 4th seeds making up the numbers.
Martin O'Neill said "there are easier groups". Would he indulge us and tell us which groups are easier than that?
There are four or five groups that are noticeably more difficult, but this is arguably the easiest group we could have hoped for.
Getting to the Playoffs - at the least - is achievable in this group. I don't trust O'Neill at all to be the person to get us there.
See how we get on with MON at the helm for the final round of games, but I think we should have one eye on potential replacements.
All agreed.
Slightly disagree. I would definitely take Serbia here above Sweden, Ukraine and Poland. Good point on the young talent. But going back on the last few U20 world cups and teams like Ghana, Iraq, Austria, Brazil, France and Portugal have won it or did well recently and haven't really pushed on to improve at Senior level after that.
All agreed again.
I think it is an awesome group. Avoided Germany, Spain, England (Pot 1) France, Italy (Pot 2).
Just checking the group betting and we are third favourite ahead of Serbia.
Austria 2/1, Wales 21/10, Ireland 10/3, Serbia 7/2.
All very close, decent chance to top the group.
Last edited by davidatrb; 25/07/2015 at 6:26 PM.
Group B is a dream group and I'd have been jumping up and down if we'd got it.
Group H is also easier than this one, Greece are on the way down and Estonia are a nice fourth seed.
I suppose it depends on which pot you're in as to whether certain groups are easier, but from a Welsh point of view, this is definitely seen as one of the more difficult groups.
"Life is like a hair on a toilet seat. Sooner or later you are bound to get pi$$ed off."
"In this league, a draw is sometimes as good as a win" - Steve Morison
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