Old Bing Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 We should be beating any of those teams at home in the first game. It all hinges on the home/away draw for the second game. If we get 2 home draws it looks promising. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 39 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said: North Macedonia vs Kosovo could be a tasty one. There's a decent chance the game will be moved from Skopje. Also potential for a North v South Ireland play off final, I think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 13 minutes ago, BingMcCrosby said: We should be beating any of those teams at home in the first game. It all hinges on the home/away draw for the second game. If we get 2 home draws it looks promising. I'd prefer to avoid Romania in the semi. They are inconsistent but very capable if they hit form. Agree on the final though, would fancy our chances against either Norway or Serbia at home but not so much away. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 2 hours ago, true_rover said: 10 hours ago, craigkillie said: Madness. Until the play-offs are completed, four teams won't know which country they're playing in. Surely they would. Draw for example would have Scotland or League D winner in the group at Hampden and Hungary or League D winner in the group at Budapest - venues would all be known but it would just be a case of fitting in an opponent. Aye, that makes more sense. Was thinking they'd have to swap around two groups of play-off winners. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IggyStooge Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 (edited) It's not rocket surgery, Craigie... What UEFA should have done is just moved everyone up one from the rankings, meaning we play Bulgaria while Israel, Romania and Hungary (being lower-placed in the rankings) are the ones who have to move up to Path A. That would have been simple (and fair) and in keeping with the rest of the system. I have no idea why this wasn't already part of the plan and I have to imagine it may have been an oversight. Edited November 20, 2019 by IggyStooge 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenny131 Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Norway away in the final qualifier please 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IggyStooge Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 (edited) This would have made the play-off semis as follows (with no need for any tombola shenanigans): Path A - Iceland v Romania Israel v Hungary Path B - Bosnia & Herzegovina v Northern Ireland Slovakia v Ireland Path C - Scotland v Bulgaria Norway v Serbia Path D - Georgia v Belarus North Macedonia v Kosovo So, hopefully that is the way the draw is fixed comes out. Hoping for Iceland, Ireland, Scotland and Kosovo to be gracing the finals come next summer. PS - Path A looks doable to any of those moving up. Iceland are not quite the grinding, Viking juggernaut they were were a couple of years ago, although you would still have them as favourites to come through. The Path A team should probably have been guaranteed two home games in fairness. Imagine you were Iceland and you had to pack up and head to the Middle East for your play-off final... You'd be pretty pissed-off. Edited November 20, 2019 by IggyStooge 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IggyStooge Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 5 minutes ago, kenny131 said: Norway away in the final qualifier please So, you are back to supporting Scotland for the first leg then? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 49 minutes ago, IggyStooge said: What UEFA should have done is just moved everyone up one from the rankings, meaning we play Bulgaria while Israel, Romania and Hungary (being lower-placed in the rankings) are the ones who have to move up to Path A. That would have been simple (and fair) and in keeping with the rest of the system. I have no idea why this wasn't already part of the plan and I have to imagine it may have been an oversight. I'm not sure this really is fairer - had Iceland qualified through their group then your system would end up with the Path A play-offs being significantly weaker than the Path C play-offs, since it would exclusively consist of the worst teams from Path C. I think they have specifically chosen to have a draw for exactly this reason. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuro Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 25 minutes ago, craigkillie said: I'm not sure this really is fairer - had Iceland qualified through their group then your system would end up with the Path A play-offs being significantly weaker than the Path C play-offs, since it would exclusively consist of the worst teams from Path C. I think they have specifically chosen to have a draw for exactly this reason. The whole thing isn't fair anyway. It's a ridiculous set up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IggyStooge Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 (edited) Well, if we are sticking with the 'move everyone up system' for a minute: Obviously if there was no-one left in Path A then that would mean Path B would be the highest-seeded group and you'd have to treat them as such. You wouldn't just allow everyone to leapfrog up from Pot C (or D) to have a party in Pot A just because they have an 'empty'. Move everyone up from the one directly below if the group above is empty. If Iceland had qualified at the expense of France then it would be France who had three weaker teams from leagues below in Path A with them anyway. If Iceland had qualifed at the expense of Turkey then Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Slovakia and Ireland would be the highest-seeded teams left but, yes, you could say that this would leave Northern Ireland with the advantage of having the three Pot C stragglers in with them. The revised play-offs (had Iceland thrown Craig's Spanner in) would have been: Path A - Bosnia & Herzegovina v Ireland Slovakia v Turkey Path B - Northern Ireland v Romania Israel v Hungary Path C - Scotland v Bulgaria Norway v Serbia Path D - Georgia v Belarus North Macedonia v Kosovo I don't see too much of a problem with that. There isn't much separating these revised top three 'tiers' anyway, now that the elite have all been whisked away by automatic qualification. You could argue that Path B is now slightly easier than Path C but then you could also say that of the current system with Pot A featuring Iceland and the three Path C stragglers. That's all I've got, so if there are any more gripes with what I see as a fairer system doing away with a pointless draw, then it's all UEFA's fault. Edited to include the full ranking tables below, so that people get a better picture of what is being suggested: Edited November 20, 2019 by IggyStooge 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarapoa Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 3 hours ago, DiegoDiego said: North Macedonia vs Kosovo could be a tasty one. There's a decent chance the game will be moved from Skopje. Has anyone checked on South Macedonia? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IggyStooge Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 6 minutes ago, tarapoa said: Has anyone checked on South Macedonia? It's all Greek to them. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coooombe Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Well, if we are sticking with the 'move everyone up system' for a minute: Obviously if there was no-one left in Path A then that would mean Path B would be the highest-seeded group and you'd have to treat them as such. You wouldn't just allow everyone to leapfrog up from Pot C (or D) to have a party in Pot A just because they have an 'empty'. Move everyone up from the one directly below if the group above is empty. If Iceland had qualified at the expense of France then it would be France who had three weaker teams from leagues below in Path A with them anyway. If Iceland had qualifed at the expense of Turkey then Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Slovakia and Ireland would be the highest-seeded teams left but, yes, you could say that this would leave Northern Ireland with the advantage of having the three Pot C stragglers in with them. The revised play-offs (had Iceland thrown Craig's Spanner in) would have been: Path A - Bosnia & Herzegovina v Ireland Slovakia v Turkey Path B - Northern Ireland v Romania Israel v Hungary Path C - Scotland v Bulgaria Norway v Serbia Path D - Georgia v Belarus North Macedonia v Kosovo I don't see too much of a problem with that. There isn't much separating these revised top three 'tiers' anyway, now that the elite have all been whisked away by automatic qualification. You could argue that Path B is now slightly easier than Path C but then you could also say that of the current system with Pot A featuring Iceland and the three Path C stragglers. That's all I've got, so if there are any more gripes with what I see as a fairer system doing away with a pointless draw, then it's all UEFA's fault. Edited to include the full ranking tables below, so that people get a better picture of what is being suggested: In your scenario NI are rewarded for being the worst team in League B by receiving a kinder draw than everyone above them. The only fairer way to do it that I can think of would be to give Iceland a bye as they're the only A team left and the top 4 remaining of each other league playoff against each other as was initially designed, but that feels a bit naff. ETA - just read it again and you've already addressed my point. I suppose of you 'locked in' the group winners then filled upwards from there it might be fairer, so Bosnia would be locked into group B and get the diddies that moved up from C, but the rest of B would move up to A with Iceland. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IggyStooge Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Coooombe said: In your scenario NI are rewarded for being the worst team in League B by receiving a kinder draw than everyone above them. The only fairer way to do it that I can think of would be to give Iceland a bye as they're the only A team left and the top 4 remaining of each other league playoff against each other as was initially designed, but that feels a bit naff. ETA - just read it again and you've already addressed my point. I suppose of you 'locked in' the group winners then filled upwards from there it might be fairer, so Bosnia would be locked into group B and get the diddies that moved up from C, but the rest of B would move up to A with Iceland. But that particular scenario was imagining that there was no Iceland because they had qualified (so no teams left in Path A). So, perhaps taking the essence of your (group winners being locked in) idea that would mean only Bosnia & Herzegovina would be moved up to the top pot and would then have the luxury of being the team surrounded by three Path C 'diddies...' They would be the new highest-ranked team left, so that would seem fairer. So now, with no need for any random draws, we would have: Path A - Bosnia & Herzegovina v Romania Israel v Hungary Path B - Slovakia v Northern Ireland Turkey v Ireland Path C - Scotland v Bulgaria Norway v Serbia Path D - Georgia v Belarus North Macedonia v Kosovo We've nailed it now. Orrrrr... maybe we should just let UEFA get on with it and make it up as they go along sort their own shitshow out. Edited November 20, 2019 by IggyStooge 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjc Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Would they not have been better just having an open draw of the Nation's League group winners that failed in Qualifying? Host Nations seeded perhaps? It all seems unnecessarily convoluted imo. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kejan Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Any idea why UEFA didn't turn this into a week of football? Could have been : Thur - D and C semi finals Fri - B Sat - A Sun - C and D finals Mon - B Tue - A. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blootoon87 Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 For once, UEFA might be thinking of the fans. 5 days to sort out potential flights and accommodation is going to be bad enough, 3 would be a nightmare. Any idea why UEFA didn't turn this into a week of football? Could have been : Thur - D and C semi finals Fri - B Sat - A Sun - C and D finals Mon - B Tue - A. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kejan Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 22 minutes ago, Blootoon87 said: For once, UEFA might be thinking of the fans. 5 days to sort out potential flights and accommodation is going to be bad enough, 3 would be a nightmare. Aye, probably ; and the teams too. Giving them a longer gap for nickles, knocks and fitness. Considering the jiggery-pokery involved in this so far, I'm amazed they haven't. Could have milked it a bit more as well e.g two finals on the Sunday - D final at 1700 and 1945 The C final. Footballing world starved of games all tuning in to see Georgia vs North Macedonia - actually should be a good game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordopolis Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Any confirmation yet of whether bookings carry into the playoffs? I think a few of our players are on one or two yellows. Wouldn't want to lose anyone crucial for the final (if we get there) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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