A new thread maybe?
Draw at 5pm today.
Pot A - Austria, Czechia, England, Wales
Pot B - Finland, Ukraine, Iceland, Norway
Pot C - Slovenia, Ireland, Albania, Montenegro
Pot D - Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan
England, Norway, Greece the obvious nightmare draw there - and a huge difference between that and Wales, Iceland and Georgia
Everyone progresses to something from the group - first gets promoted, fourth gets relegated, second goes into a promotion play-off (against third in League A) and third goes into a relegation play-off (against second in League C). So the equivalent last time is we would have had to win a play-off against one of Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, Kosovo or Bulgaria. You'd hope we would win that, but...
Group games in Sept/Oct/Nov this year. Play-offs in March next year.
2024/25 UEFA Nations League(uefa.com)
2024/25 UEFA Nations League(wikipedia)
2024/25 UEFA Nations League B
2024/25 UEFA Nations League B Group 2
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 28/03/2024 at 10:41 AM. Reason: Added links
https://www.uefa.tv/video/live/258581/
For anyone that wants to watch it
Its really not that complicated!!!
It would be extremely good to get Iceland. After that there's not much in it. Avoiding England maybe, but we would be able to play those games like FA Cup ties and maybe get something the team from Pot B wouldn't be able to match.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
We get England
When did we last get a good draw in anything? Absolutely cursed the last few years.
England
Finland
Republic of Ireland
Greece
FFS
So we'll be doing well to avoid the relegation play off then.
And should have gotten Kazakhstan instead, but they had to move group cos they couldn't travel to us and England.
That's about as bad as you could have gotten I think. Ukraine/Norway instead of Finland is the only way it could have been worse. Could well be looking at relegation (again...)
But new manager optimism will lift things!
Looks like a fourth place finish to me, unless we can maybe turn over Finland. Close to as bad as it could have been, once again.
If Carsley was waiting on this draw to make his decision, he may have just got his answer.
We'll probably win the Group.
That was more the lesser of two evils than anything.
France dropping down to second seeds last time and we get them followed by England dropping to League B and we get them too. About a 1 in 40 chance of that happening by my calculations. Then getting Greece as about the strongest team in their pot twice as well to boot. Unbelievable, absolutely cursed. As pointed out by Dan McDonnell today, this may well have a knock on impact on our Euro 2028 qualification hopes as well.
I make it six wins from 29 games against those three sides?
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3GHjdltvEH/
We have to be positive -- even if that means being motivated by revenge.
Revenge against England for 800 years of boasting about their World Cup win in 1966. Revenge against Greece for our last match against them, which they had the audacity not to lose. And revenge against Finland for eh... um... not participating in the Cod Wars.
And a special mention for Rice and Grealish... both of whom I wish all the best if they have the fupping cheek to come over and play us.
Tactics and team selection will also be important, but I think there's enough ideas here for the new manager to work with.
The game against England will be awesome. I can't imagine if Cromwell himself showed up with 3 lions on his shirt he'd be treated any worse than Rice and Grealish will get in Lansdowne Road.
Bring this on.
The cunning plan... drop down to League C for the Euro qualifiers and win through the play off route there
The England games should be money spinners anyway.
Maybe Carsley will like to go up against Southgate ( If Southgate is still the England manager ) ~ Or just go up against England.
Of course England could be European Champions !
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