Jump to content

🌎 🏆 World Cup Group Stage Draw 🌎 🏆


Recommended Posts

8 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Smaller ground, close to the pitch, less of an away crowd... think the crowd will be a factor either way 

Maybe, but they could have quadrupled the home support if they wanted to. Instead they've shat it from the larger away crowd.

Hopefully they regret that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Maybe, but they could have quadrupled the home support if they wanted to. Instead they've shat it from the larger away crowd.

Hopefully they regret that.

They'll be losing a lot more than they'd gain by moving it.  I'd expect there's more chance of them regretting moving it rather than regretting not.  If they get put out, it won't be because there weren't enough home fans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Maybe, but they could have quadrupled the home support if they wanted to. Instead they've shat it from the larger away crowd.

Hopefully they regret that.

They might have doubled it, certainly not quadrupled it. Cardiff City holds 33k and the Millennium holds 74k.

Saying that I don’t think it’s even guaranteed that Wales would get 60-70k there. Their crowds at the Millennium were awful when they played there. You’d probably be looking at a massive away support with away fans buying tickets in the home end for it to be a sell-out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Anfield 1977 said:

Unless I've missed it don't think anyone has picked up on the fact should we make it the Auld Enemy fixture will be exactly 150 years - minus one day - since Scotland and England played the first ever international football match.

Naturally P&B unofficial resident historian HibeeJibee mentioned within minutes of the draw being made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're more used to the pitch and stadium and all the little things that go along with playing matches there. They have zero reason or incentive to move the game to the Millennium Stadium. It would only benefit one team, and it wouldn't be them.

Also some folk seem to be talking England down. Even saw one poster say that, after Qatar, they were the weakest top seeds. Utter nonsense. They're a very strong team. They got to a final and semi final in the last two tournaments and are on a lengthy unbeaten run, scoring plenty of goals. They'll easily win Group B and will reach the quarter finals at least. Have to hope that the draw isn't as favourable to them as it has been in the last two tournaments mind. Against a real top team they can be beaten, but if they've learned from the Euro 2020 final and have improved their game management accordingly then we should be concerned.

Saying that, I hope they get pumped and have to catch an embarrassingly early flight home, accompanied by a suitably amusing headline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

They're more used to the pitch and stadium and all the little things that go along with playing matches there. They have zero reason or incentive to move the game to the Millennium Stadium. It would only benefit one team, and it wouldn't be them.

Also some folk seem to be talking England down. Even saw one poster say that, after Qatar, they were the weakest top seeds. Utter nonsense. They're a very strong team. They got to a final and semi final in the last two tournaments and are on a lengthy unbeaten run, scoring plenty of goals. They'll easily win Group B and will reach the quarter finals at least. Have to hope that the draw isn't as favourable to them as it has been in the last two tournaments mind. Against a real top team they can be beaten, but if they've learned from the Euro 2020 final and have improved their game management accordingly then we should be concerned.

Saying that, I hope they get pumped and have to catch an embarrassingly early flight home, accompanied by a suitably amusing headline.

 

The thing with getting England in our group is that form tends to go out the window when it's a battle of Britain. Look no further than last summer's Euros. Over the course of the three games, we were comfortably the poorest team in the group, yet we were the only team England dropped points against. In fact I'd argue that the complexion of this group, should we qualify, is very similar to our group last year. 

 

I'd feel much more confident in us getting something off England than I would off any of the other seeded teams (excluding Qatar), even though England themselves are one of the strongest teams in the tournament.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Maybe, but they could have quadrupled the home support if they wanted to. Instead they've shat it from the larger away crowd.

Hopefully they regret that.

There was never any chance of the Welsh moving it  to a larger ground.

They did that in 1977 for financial reasons and have regretted it ever since acknowledging the decision was a mistake.

With Liverpool less than 100 miles from their border they assumed their fans would be in the majority which turned out to be a massive blunder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It won't be moved, but it's wrong to say that there is absolutely no incentive for Wales to move it. The Welsh FA would make an absolute fortune from shifting it to the Millennium Stadium compared to the Cardiff City Stadium. It's not worth it for many other reasons, but that's a fairly obvious incentive that does exist.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 01/04/2022 at 18:36, BFTD said:

All three would be favourites against us or Ukraine.

It's still as straightforward a group as a Pot 4 nation could hope for. It would be an achievement to make it out of the group, but it isn't the flight of fantasy that it could easily have been.

What are you waffling on about? Our squad is on a completely different level to USA and Iran. We're closer to England now that Iran and the US are to us. That is the best group we could have got.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, QwaarJet said:

What are you waffling on about? Our squad is on a completely different level to USA and Iran. We're closer to England now that Iran and the US are to us. That is the best group we could have got.

Certainly not whatever you seem to think I am.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, QwaarJet said:

What are you waffling on about? Our squad is on a completely different level to USA and Iran. We're closer to England now that Iran and the US are to us. That is the best group we could have got.

I agree its a good group, not quite as good as we could have got but still very good.

I've not really looked at the usa squad much recently, but there not doing great. But they certainly have players who would get in our squad and team.

The lad at celtic Carter Vickers would easily get in our team and doesn't make their squad. So Im not sure how we could be miles ahead of them.

But as I said, I've not really looked into it. Im open to being convinced were much better than the USA if you can.

As for Iran, I dont have a clue. But underestimating teams is something we don't want to be doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, BingMcCrosby said:

As for Iran, I dont have a clue. But underestimating teams is something we don't want to be doing.

Indeed. Fortunately Steve Clarke is not Ally McLeod, I would not expect playing Iran at midday in the desert to be comfortable viewing. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Lurkst said:

Indeed. Fortunately Steve Clarke is not Ally McLeod, I would not expect playing Iran at midday in the desert to be comfortable viewing. 

 

It’s basically a home game for Iran. They’re right across the Persian gulf from one another, so the locals will probably be cheering for Iran. They could be the dark horses to get through this group. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Donathan said:

It’s basically a home game for Iran. They’re right across the Persian gulf from one another, so the locals will probably be cheering for Iran. They could be the dark horses to get through this group. 

They definitely will as Iran forged strong ties when Qatar were blackballed by the other Arab nations a few years ago. However, there's a decent Scottish ex-pat/immigrant group in Doha.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Lurkst said:

Indeed. Fortunately Steve Clarke is not Ally McLeod, I would not expect playing Iran at midday in the desert to be comfortable viewing.

Noticed that... perhaps it doesn't make much difference but our potential game v Iran not only being an afternoon slot, but also at a stadium in the only host city which isn't on the coast, bodes well 🥵!

EDIT: Hadn't appreciated all 3 of our games would be in same city and stadium (other 2 in evening thankfully). Throwback to old tournaments. Chance seemingly... only South Korea and UAE/Australia/Peru winner have similar situations.

Edited by HibeeJibee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Just four more games left in qualifying now:

 

 Sunday 5pm: Wales v Ukraine (winner qualifies)


Tuesday 7pm: UAE v Australia (in Qatar)

 

Monday 13th June 7pm: UAE/Australia v Peru (in Qatar, winner qualifies)

 

Tuesday 14th June 7pm: Costa Rica v New Zealand (in Qatar, winner qualifies)

 

 

I fancy Wales, Peru and Costa Rica to make the last three spots. 


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...