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2008 Here We Come!


Neiljb

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I'd go with

:D

Greece

Romania

Bulgaria (on current form)

Scotland

Iceland (4 points from their World cup group)

Moldova

San Marino

:angry:

Holland

Germany

Serbia

Scotland

Hungary

Belarus

Azerbaijan ahead of Liechtenstein, just for the travelling hassle.

Actually, we'll probably end up in the group of 8 with both of them.

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Guest Spanky Rodriguez

How the f**k do UEFA come up with the pots for the draws? Lucky Dip?

Slovakia in pot 3 ahead of ourselves and Ireland. Denmark in pot 3 whilst England who they humped a few weeks ago in Pot 1. It doesn't make sense to me.

Also can anyone explain why we are in pot 4 when we've never, in my life time anyway, finished 4th in a group? Most of the time we finish 2nd. It's just this year and WC2002 where we have finished 3rd. Grrrr :guns

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How the f**k do UEFA come up with the pots for the draws? Lucky Dip?

Slovakia in pot 3 ahead of ourselves and Ireland. Denmark in pot 3 whilst England who they humped a few weeks ago in Pot 1. It doesn't make sense to me.

Also can anyone explain why we are in pot 4 when we've never, in my life time anyway, finished 4th in a group? Most of the time we finish 2nd. It's just this year and WC2002 where we have finished 3rd. Grrrr :guns

711985[/snapback]

If we hadnt won on wednesday and had been put in pot 5 that would have been a travesty. Agree that we usually finish second or third so dont know how we are in pot 4 but it could have been worse.

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How the f**k do UEFA come up with the pots for the draws? Lucky Dip?

Slovakia in pot 3 ahead of ourselves and Ireland. Denmark in pot 3 whilst England who they humped a few weeks ago in Pot 1. It doesn't make sense to me.

Also can anyone explain why we are in pot 4 when we've never, in my life time anyway, finished 4th in a group? Most of the time we finish 2nd. It's just this year and WC2002 where we have finished 3rd. Grrrr :guns

711985[/snapback]

There is less groups this time and an extra seedings pot. The seedings are taken from results in past couple of campaigns. Obviously alot of other teams have been doing better than us...

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My dream group would be:

2. Turkey

3. Ukraine

4. SCOTLAND

712100[/snapback]

You WANT Ukraine from THAT pot? :blink:

Were you not looking when they ran away with qualification in a group that included the the reigning European Champions, the reigning World Cup Third Place team and Denmark for good measure?

And in a pot which has the frankly pish poor Norway in it!

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Best potential opposition in my opinion is highlighted in bold.

UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ qualifying round draw

Pot 1

Greece

Netherlands

Portugal

England

Czech Republic

France

Sweden

Greece definitely the weakest of these and finished 4th in their recent WC Qualifying group. Wouldn't enormously be worried by either England or Sweden though either.

Pot 2

Germany

Croatia

Italy

Turkey

Poland

Spain

Romania

Probably Poland who I felt sailed through to the WC largely thanks to a very weak group rather than being much of a talent themselves. Romania wouldn't be the worst of draws either. You definitely don't want Germany, Italy or Spain as a group second seed though. :o

Pot 3

Serbia and Montenegro

Russia

Denmark

Norway

Bulgaria

Ukraine

Slovakia

Norway are pretty rank, I think we all see that from the last campaign. Drawing them again would be dull but it is the easiest of the pot. Bulgaria are probably next best option. You definitely don't want the Ukraine and probably not Serbia either.

Pot 4

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Republic of Ireland

Belgium

Latvia

Israel

Scotland

Slovenia

Not applicable obviously. Some disappointment that we can't get the Irish which would be a magic draw for the "craich". Israel will be dangerous floaters for any other group to get.

Pot 5

Hungary

Finland

Estonia

Wales

Lithuania

Albania

Iceland

Estonia is probably just about the weakest of those. They are venues where an away victory would be pretty hard to get though probably only Wales and maybe Hungary would come to Hampden looking to win. Iceland probably the worst of the draws.

Pot 6

Georgia

F.Y.R. Macedonia

Belarus

Armenia

Northern Ireland

Cyprus

Moldova

Northern Ireland - It's easy to get to, there's nothing mysterious about them and fundamentally they are probably the weakest anyway. All of the others are nations we could potentially drop points to, with all bar Cyprus and Macedonia being a pain in the backside travelwise too. You certainly do not want to get Belarus out of this pot. :ph34r:

Pot 7

Liechtenstein

Azerbaijan

Andorra

Malta

Faroe Islands

Kazakhstan

Luxembourg

San Marino

To be honest it really shouldn't matter much out of this one. Faroe Islands are a better side than most of this pot and Azerbaijan wouldn't be the pushover most seem to think whilst Kazakhstand and Azerbaijan would be nightmare trips too. Andorra, Luxembourg and San Marino remain true minnows though and one of them would be ever so slightly easier.

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How the f**k do UEFA come up with the pots for the draws? Lucky Dip?

Slovakia in pot 3 ahead of ourselves and Ireland. Denmark in pot 3 whilst England who they humped a few weeks ago in Pot 1. It doesn't make sense to me.

Also can anyone explain why we are in pot 4 when we've never, in my life time anyway, finished 4th in a group? Most of the time we finish 2nd. It's just this year and WC2002 where we have finished 3rd. Grrrr :guns

711985[/snapback]

AFAIK it is the record during qualifying and during the last 4 tournments that its judged by. we haven't been to any of those tournment while every team in the top 3 pots have been to at least one tournment bar Slovakia. 4 of the teams in our pot have to at least one of the last 4 tournments.

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Northern Ireland

A potential banana skin imo, SD. They would treat it like a derby and would fancy taking us considering their win over England. Don't disagree with the rest of them though.

I find it odd that Germany are in pot 2, all the more so because they could be WC champions come next year. And far be it for me to be cynical, but somehow I feel UEFA might manage to "arrange" it so Holland and Germany are not in the same group...

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I'll take:

Greece

Turkey

Bulgaria

SCOTLAND

Albania

Cyprus

Luxembourg

Not just because I think they're the worst in each pot, but also because of the genuine possibility of some fisticuffs with Turkey, Greece and Cyprus in the same group. B)

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AFAIK it is the record during qualifying and during the last 4 tournments that its judged by. we haven't been to any of those tournment while every team in the top 3 pots have been to at least one tournment bar Slovakia. 4 of the teams in our pot have to at least one of the last 4 tournments.

712249[/snapback]

Seedings for the pots were arrived at from performances in the Euro 2004 campaign and the World Cup 2006 qualifying ONLY.

Check the link provided by k38jfb for a full explanation.

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A potential banana skin imo, SD. They would treat it like a derby and would fancy taking us considering their win over England. Don't disagree with the rest of them though.

712282[/snapback]

True but then I think everybody in that group could be a banana skin to some extent or another (two of them took points from us in the group just finished for a start and had they not done so we'd have been in the play-offs).

Which one would you go for instead? Armenia maybe? :unsure:

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Seedings for the pots were arrived at from performances in the Euro 2004 campaign and the World Cup 2006 qualifying ONLY.

Check the link provided by k38jfb for a full explanation.

712312[/snapback]

I realise other teams will have won more points in their groups but in those campaigns we finished 2nd and 3rd in our groups so it is a bit odd that we are in pot 4 :unsure:

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I realise other teams will have won more points in their groups but in those campaigns we finished 2nd and 3rd in our groups so it is a bit odd that we are in pot 4  :unsure:

712318[/snapback]

As has been said, the groups have decreased in number, hence the more pots and lower seeding for Scotland. I think pot 4 is more like pot 3 from before, with pots 1 and 2 split into 1,2,3.

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If we had to bring the FIFA world rankings into equation, the best and worst groups we could hope to have are;

Best

1. Greece

2. Romania

3. Serbia & Montenegro

4. SCOTLAND

5. Lithuania

6. Armenia

7. San Marino

Worst

1. Holland

2. Spain

3. Denmark

4. SCOTLAND

5. Finland

6. Belarus

7. Azerbaijan

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I realise other teams will have won more points in their groups but in those campaigns we finished 2nd and 3rd in our groups so it is a bit odd that we are in pot 4  :unsure:

712318[/snapback]

As has been said, the groups have decreased in number, hence the more pots and lower seeding for Scotland. I think pot 4 is more like pot 3 from before, with pots 1 and 2 split into 1,2,3.

712397[/snapback]

It's also of course that it's not the same dozen or so teams that have finished above and level with us in those two campaigns. Some teams (such as Greece) have done very well in one campaign but finished below us in another. Never the less they will overall be ranked over a side which has ultimately not qualified for either tourney.

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