HuttonDressedAsLahm

Seedings are based entirely on Qualification performance. Albania’s results have been quite frankly astonishing so far. They beat the Czechs 3-0 last night.

Yes. Referee always has reviewed potential interference. As I understand it, UEFA also want referees to look at vanilla offside decisions as well as part of ‘selling’ the decision.

If it is indeed a foul, then VAR's involvement was totally improper. If there's a foul there, it's of the softest possible variety and VAR is well outwith its expected involvement.

It’s got be. I’m not at all convinced he’s interfered either but it’s sellable at least

If there was ever a game where we needed to find a way to kill it…

That’s the two sides as they were in 2011. The change in that Spain team is quite incredible. We’ve hugely improved, but they starting XI isn’t as bad as we sometimes were.

If I recall correctly from the Spain game, wasn't Dykes tasked with always pressuring Rodri so that his ability to dictate the game was always difficult? He's one of the best midfielders in the world, and almost certainly the best player in that Spain side so I'd imagine that will be the tactic again.

The qualifying format seems really quite reasonable. 2 guaranteed slots seems fair given Ukraine/Poland and Belgium/Holland in the past. England will waltz their group, and if we're not qualifying directly we only need to be above a maximum of 2 of Wales/ROI/NI (most likely 1 of ROI and Wales since NI look incapable of beating anyone). Euro 2020 was a total damp squib because of COVID, but given we'll (presumably) get the away tournament out the system in Germany, a home tournament with a stronger team and without the absurdities of a Europe-wide competition, will be really rather good.

My sense of it was that we played England in a manner that we wouldn’t have done had it been competitive. We were a bit more expansive and played a high line, which caused us big problems with England’s long balls into pacey forwards. Spain will be much more like the first game - sit in and allow them/encourage them to have the balls in wide areas. We didn’t ride our luck last time, but games like this can often turn on a moment’s brilliance, a deflection, or just the law of averages. Morata is almost definitely going to start, and as limited as he is (relatively speaking in comparison to the best international forwards) he’s still both miles better than Joselu, and is a threat in the air (which is a problem if Spain resort to shelling balls into the area again). A draw is well within our abilities, but even losing by a single goal isn’t a bad result given the H2H advantage.

Also current Germany striker Niclas Füllkrug- capped just shy of age 30, and a week before the World Cup last year. All 6 months after a season in Bundesliga 2. Now on 9 caps with 7 goals.

First goal at 0.59; second at 1.35. As you say, absolutely superb. Can't imagine we have a better striking prospect than Conway?

That’s Tommy Conway fit again. Came off the bench in the 79th minute and scored twice to win Bristol City’s game tonight.

It's particularly unfortunate that we didn't end up with a 6th seed, otherwise we would have been able to give these guys time. Norway organised friendlies against Jordan and The Faroes, and we went with England and France. Good reasons no doubt, but it really limits how much rotation you can make. Even if we qualify next week, through whatever results make it happen, we still need to take points from Georgia and Norway to help our seeding in Germany. That's another limitation to what Clarke can do with the team (unless we're cantering to a win in either game of course). There's a chance of 2 friendlies in March, and another 2 in June. Though they'd be in preparation for the Euros, we could at least play a couple of games that would allow for some changes.

Excellent input as ever. Thanks

Ironically enough, his last goal in football was excellent. Scotland v South Korea - u21s Burke also scored a goal in that game where he ran from his own half without once being in control of the ball. Don't think Billy will ever be a great scorer (look at how few goals Xavi and Busquets got whilst being generational midfielders), but I reckon they'll start to come.

As far as I know, 3rd place A teams and 2nd place B teams now also have a playoff for promotion/relegation. Same with 3rd place and League C 2nd placed teams. Seems to be a way of changing things up a bit more - certainly it now makes it possible for all four sides in League B to be in a different League come the next edition (1st and 2nd promoted to A; 3rd and 4th relegated to C).

Yeah that's correct. We knew after the Ukraine game in 2022 who was in every pot for every league.

It's difficult to both have consistency, and find time for the third/fourth striker in a 1-striker system. Shankland/Nisbet, our back-up goalkeepers, the perennial Fleck/McCrorie positions, and the 5th centre half struggle for game time. At least with 5 subs, we're able to share it out a bit more. The problem with this campaign is that there's no 6th seeds, and unlike Norway (who have opted to play their blank games against Jordan/Faroe Islands) we have arranged matches against England and France. No doubt there are good reasons for those, but if we'd done the same, we could have changed things around more. Because of the seeding system, even if we're qualified in the next break, we still need to try and win v Georgia/Norway in order to secure a Pot 1/Pot 2 seeing...

Exactly. Spain still have Cyprus (A) and Georgia (H) to go. Even if we'd scored another few, in the above scenario, the best we could have hoped for would be an approximate equal GD with Spain going into the final two games. They could easily score another 10 without reply, and there just isn't a planet where we'd do the same (or better) against Georgia/Norway. It's useful knowing that being 1-0 down doesn't massively change everything. A draw is enormous for us, but even losing a late goal wouldn't be catastrophic. As has been mentioned above/elsewhere, going into the last two games having already qualified and knowing 2/2 wins wins us the group would the type of pressure this team would enjoy. As much as the Ukraine game remains painful, we've done exactly what was required in the latter stages of WCQ, and the UNL, so I'm pretty positive about this team's ability to grind results against teams of a weaker/similar level to us. To note: Norway are the complete opposite. They lost late goals against Serbia in the Euro 2020 playoff; bottled WCQ by drawing 1-1 away to Turkey; drawing 0-0 at home to Latvia; and losing 2-0 away to Netherlands in their last 4 games. They then started with 4 wins and a draw in the UNL, before losing away to Slovenia and again at home to Serbia. We're also aware of their profligacy against Georgia away, and their poor performance/result against us. If there was a nation in Europe more likely to 'bottle' an opportunity than us historically, then it's this current Norway side.

By that definition, most defenders couldn't do it? 'World class' is up there with 'legends' as being one of those ugly terms that's cast around mainly to justify a viewpoint the speaker already has. I've always taken it to be that the player could play for anyone. Still a matter of opinion, but at least defined in some considered way. To that regard, I can't see how Robertson isn't/wasn't world class. He could have played left back for anyone, and likely still could. Whether he win a trophy himself isn't really a useful metric, since it's even more abstract, and pretty much only available to a select few players and only really in attacking positions.

If the shoe was on the other foot, and we were relying on Norway winning 0 of these games, whilst we won all 3… We’re damaged by our memories of Georgia. If it was Estonia instead, conceding at will and looking a shadow of the ‘dark horse’ for qualification, then we wouldn’t have remotely the same fear levels.

Most people wouldn’t shout (obscenities or otherwise) at people in the street either, but they do at football. If we really took a step back, booing a national anthem is hell of a lot more respectful than the way many football fans single out match officials and specific players for abuse that is wholly unacceptable in any other walk of life. I didn’t/don’t boo anthems, but I can’t get at all animated by it because it’s hugely inconsistent to have an issue with that, but not with the much more personal (and far less political) chanting/yelling/abuse that happens at football across every level every weekend. I had more of a problem with the jovial winding up of Maguire last night than the drowning out of the anthem, and only because we’re suddenly on the same side as the crass moronic pundits and fans that have long since overstepped the mark with him. Southgate dealt with it well, but if we’re measuring damage/offence by the actual impact it has, there’s only ever one clear ‘winner’.

This is exactly it. If the shoe was on the other foot, we wouldn't be expecting anything at all. Worth also remembering that Norway absolutely bottled the last UNL as well. Beat Serbia at home, Sweden H+A, and drew at home to Slovenia. They then lost at home to Serbia and away to Slovenia without scoring and whilst having Haaland in the side. They have a world class striker, and a world class attacking midfielder. The rest of the side is nowhere near that level.

Well they didn't earn it, did they?