Spectre

I would say you more want as many of the European teams in pot 1 and 2 to pair up. We must have at least one of Qatar, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, USA in our group. Which, In my opinion is good. Obviously this could throw up something like Brazil, Germany and Senegal which would make our chances of progressing fairly trivial. But, Based on current results I'd guess we have at least half a chance of finishing above one of Mexico, USA, and Qatar if we are drawn against either or both of them. Easier said then done of course. Speaking about my own hopes for the draw, I would genuinely want a group full of no other European teams, and I really don't want England. Out of the pot 1 seeds we probably have more of a chance of snatching something against them than most, but across the recent men's and women's tournaments, We've frawn them in every single one and I'm just bored of them.

I'm not sure if this is the process of the draw, but if they just pick the balls out 1 at a time and they go into groups A, B, C etc. then you could have a situation where after the first two pots are done (and more of the balls are drawn out must be moved to the next available group) that 2 groups have no European teams. For example Group A Group B ... Qatar Brazil USA Mexico In this instance, if Senegal (or another team not Poland/Serbia) get drawn into group A, then that is acceptable, but it forces group B to have a European pot 3 team because each group must have a European team and there is only 1 pot 4 European team which would be us. Because Qatar are guarantee to be in Group A, they are more likely to be allowed 3 non European teams in the first 3 pots than Brazil or Argentina. Although if Qatar do get a European team in pot 2/3 and Brazil or Argentina do get USA or Mexico in their group, then they also have a decent chance of drawing an African or Asian team in pot 3 which would force us into that pot. I'm really not too sure of the likelihood of it all, but I do think this has an impact

I've had a bit of a play about with this question, and its probably not fully right, and naturally depends on the many rules which I can't be bothered to look through and try to figure out the actual true answer to this. As far as I can tell from the draw simulator ,we have a fairly high chance to draw Qatar using the 1 min and 2 max European team per group, there is a 25% (5/8 * 2/5)chance there will be 2 European teams are drawn with Qatar and therefore we can't actually be placed in that group. But there is also a 22.5% (3/8 * 3/5) chance that no European teams are drawn in with Qatar and as I understand it, we would have to be placed in that group. So already above the 12.5% chance you would have if it was entirely random. For the remaining 52.5% of situations where there is 1 European team, then it gets a little more complicated to work out because it depends on who is in the group with Qatar. If its a team from Africa or North America, then only 4 teams can be drawn with Qatar (no Asian and the respective continent including play offs). If we're in with Uruguay and Qatar then its only Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and the AFC/Conmebol playoff winner that can't get drawn which leaves 5 potential teams that can be drawn into Qatar's group. I can't quite be bothered to fully work out the likelihood so have just used 1/4 for the times where there is one European team in with Qatar which gives us a 35.625% chance to be in Qatar's group... or just a bit less, so 1/3 seems pretty much spot on to be honest.

You’ve probably been asked this before somewhere already but where do you get your data?

I don’t think they are even playing all that well, some of them are making a few poor errors, and Cyprus nearly scored. Although some are just clearly a few levels above the Cypriots Might see a bit of a drop off with us being so far ahead in the 2nd half

Well that should have been a penalty

Was interested myself and had recently seen a fairly simple analysis technique for things like this, so just went through the out league games this season manually (like the massive nerd that I am) and in terms of goals when the partnership is on the pitch - averages at scoring 1 goal every 87 minutes and conceding 1 goal every 65.25 minutes. Only 261 minutes they have been on the pitch together though... so small sample but poor numbers. For times they haven’t been both been on the pitch (so one or the other, or neither) it’s the reverse, we score 1 goal every 68 minutes and concede 1 goal every 89.5.... It’s a pretty simple method and doesn’t really get into performance and focussed more on outcome....and my data collection has been sloppy as I’ve missed a game somewhere and I don’t know which one. You could also argue things like imbalances in games against Rangers who are a much better team than the others in the league might make it unfair so should you should remove data from those games? Hopefully this of interest to someone out there....

Just looking back over previous qualifying campaigns and i can only find one other time that a pot 1 team has finished third - Denmark behind Switzerland and Iceland for 2015 World Cup. It’s incredibly disappointing to not being qualifying this time, especially when we have a squad that can realistically do well at a finals.

14 shots against Slovakia as well. 33 shots and 0 goals, need to be doing better than that. Still optimistic about the euros but this has been a big disappointment

Don’t get me wrong I’m optimistic about our chances (maybe that’s a side effect of 6 wins in a row and some entertaining football) I actually think we have a decent chance, although certainly not favourites. but I also think the other teams would have been easier.

Best draw? we got a home draw at least but LASK finished above sporting in their group in Europa league last season, would expect them to be the toughest of the teams we could have got and wouldn’t anticipate they would lose at home against the Slovakian team

Sporting Lisbon away for Aberdeen.... if we get through. Rather tough

Trying to be optimistic but I believe we would get their seeding for the play off round if we were to qualify. We would likely have to play a team like this anyway if we wanted to get to the group stages. Obviously we would be underdogs against malmo PSV or sporting. But are they at a different level to a team like Celtic? I’d certainly feel that we would have a chance at home. Sporting would be the toughest I reckon. PSV also strong although they lost to Osijek at this round 3 years ago, malmo would be the least hard but their recent history against Scottish teams would suggest another tough tie.

Unfortunately not a possible draw as if Aberdeen get Bala town, then Motherwell would get Goteburg. And if Motherwell get B36 then Rangers can’t get red imps, due to the numbering in the groups.

No longer open to public reservations unfortunately and lost its Michelin stars because of that reason. Never actually watched the documentary though but I’ve heard it’s interesting

Aberdeen at home to Barry town or runavik and Motherwell at home to glentoran or Torshavn

poor predictable Craig, always chooses Rock

+ 4 finals makes 13 trips to Hampden

Another strong performance and result. Looked well on top of Iceland for most of the game. Certainly not what is our perceived best starting XI with regulars like Little and Beattie not playing. Good to know we can still put in a dominating against a team currently above us in the FIFA rankings despite missing such players

Here’s a guide on how to beat Copenhagen next time, it’s really not that hard.

what a guy

we would get an additional sub if it went to extra time

No Hernandez anywhere to be seen. That signing seems to be getting stranger and stranger. Is he still not match fit or does McInnes think he is shit?

Wow, that came out of nowhere. RB from Stabæk in Norway. Certainly an interesting one. Based on the length of the deal, there must be a fair bit of faith for this boy to perform. Certainly exciting. Whether he will be any good is a different story. I’m certainly positive as things stand

why? I agree, the content regarding an aging squad isnt really relevant, but using xG (and I admit it has its limitations) as a means to show how poor we have been is perfectly fine.