Donathan Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Pot 1: Netherlands: On the swing up after a few years of being very poor. Would rather avoid. Croatia: Their golden generation still seems to know how to get results. Avoid. Italy: Honking since winning the Euros but got a lot of key players coming off the treatment table in the next few months. Avoid. Spain: Avoid. Enough said. Denmark: I know we beat them last year but they’re still an improving side and would probably have more key players back from injury next time. I’d still rather avoid them. Belgium: I know they’re about to regress but would still rather avoid. Portugal: They tend to make a bit of a pig’s ear of qualifying plus we’ve not played them competitively in a long time so I’d take them. Hungary/Switzerland/Poland: Yes please. Pot 3: Ukraine: Avoid at all costs. Not only is playing them again incredibly boring, but they’ll have Zinchenko back. Iceland: Would take them. Long past their best of 2016. Norway: Avoid at all costs. Our defence has pocketed some excellent forwards but Haaland might be a step too far. Slovenia: Improving team. Would rather avoid. Republic of Ireland: Honking but have a knack for raising their game in local derbies against us. I’d rather avoid them, but still massively preferable to Ukraine or Norway. Sweden: Not too clued up on their squad at the moment but they did honking in league B this time. Have they regressed or are they still an avoid? Montenegro/Albania/Armenia/Romania: Would happily take any of those Pot 4: Georgia/Faroes/Kazakhstan/North Macedonia: These places invoke nightmares. Hard avoid. Greece/Turkey: Both improving. Avoid. Luxembourg/Azerbaijan/Kosovo/Bulgaria: Yes please Pot 5: I’d rather avoid Slovakia because I can’t shake the impression that they’re a decent team who just had a mare of a UNL campaign and have crashed down the pots. I’d rather avoid Lithuania for the same reason as Georgia/Faroes/Kazakhstan/North Macedonia. Any of the others would be fine. Pot 6: My main hope is that we just get a pot 6 team full stop (only 30% chance). Partly because it’s more games to pad out caps and goal stats for the players, a chance of dishing out some humpings etc, but also it means you cannot play Netherlands/Croatia/Italy/Spain as they’re guaranteed to be in five team groups. Happy days. Out of the pot 6 teams I’d rather get Andorra for variety, but would be happy enough to play Liechtenstein or San Marino again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donathan Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Norway and Ukraine are probably the two most important teams to avoid in the entire draw. In a group where two teams qualify, it’s the pot 3 and 4 opponents that are the most important. I’d honestly accept Spain if it meant we get Armenia rather than Poland and Norway. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estragon Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Are Spain back on the roids again? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 In the (fairly unlikely) event that all the pot 1 and 2 teams qualify directly then the playoff games will be, I believe Georgia v Kazakhstan Greece v Turkey Ukraine v Slovenia Iceland v Norway Estonia v Albania Latvia v Republic of Ireland It was a random draw for all the League A and B play-off vacancies last time, assume it would be the same again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donathan Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 12 minutes ago, craigkillie said: It was a random draw for all the League A and B play-off vacancies last time, assume it would be the same again. Yes with the caveat that the two league D winners would have to go into league A playoffs. There’s a rule that if four or more teams from one league are playoff eligible, then a path containing four of them must be formed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggyness Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Want... Hungary, Scotland, Irelandor Iceland, Faroes, Gibraltar, San Marino Nightmareish... Italy, Scotland, Norway, Turkey, Slovakia, Turkey just lost to the faroes, I know they won their group but I don't think they're a team to fear. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2426255 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Happy to see no triple headers. I think it's just a bit excessive. a camp needs to allow the team to train and work on ideas. Triple Headers don't leave much room for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendricks Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 4 minutes ago, 2426255 said: Happy to see no triple headers. I think it's just a bit excessive. a camp needs to allow the team to train and work on ideas. Triple Headers don't leave much room for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying If you draw a 5 team group (and there will be 7 of them and only 3 of 6 countries) there are only 8 match days required as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donathan Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 No triple headers for now. The way the world has been in recent years, it’s impossible to say whether there will be a sudden need for one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 15 hours ago, qos_75 said: What pot are Bulgaria in? Fourth. Bulgaria have been proper diddies for a few years now; wouldn't mind drawing them just to see how bad they are. I don't know if their results have ever been this poor before. IIRC, they once held a record for most World Cup games without a win (17), but they were still qualifying, I suppose. Plus, they got to the semis after finally breaking their duck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2426255 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) No home nations, and teams we haven't played in a while please. That's always my preference. Something like this: Portugal, SCOTLAND, Sweden, Bulgaria, Latvia. (Andorra) And less like this: Italy, SCOTLAND, Republic of Ireland, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland. (Liechtenstein) Alternatively the easiest 3rd and 4th seeds is fine too. Edited September 28, 2022 by 2426255 -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Do you look for a no nonsense first seed. One that will romp through all their games and not fail to beat the 3rd seeds away from home. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 2 hours ago, 2426255 said: No home nations, and teams we haven't played in a while please. That's always my preference. Something like this: Portugal, SCOTLAND, Sweden, Bulgaria, Latvia. (Andorra) And less like this: Italy, SCOTLAND, Republic of Ireland, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland. (Liechtenstein) Alternatively the easiest 3rd and 4th seeds is fine too. Italy will be in a five team group. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donathan Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 1 minute ago, ropy said: Do you look for a no nonsense first seed. One that will romp through all their games and not fail to beat the 3rd seeds away from home. I’d rather have either one of the no nonsense ones like you mention for that reason or one of the worst ones so that we could try and win the group, but preferably not in between. The nightmare scenario is the other teams in the race to second get something off the top seed and we don’t. I have nightmares thinking of 2016 where we had Germany (the 2nd highest ranked team overall at the time and world champions) and the thinking was they’d scoosh the group leaving us to fight with Republic of Ireland and Poland for the 2nd spot or worst case scenario, 3rd still got you playoffs because this was before the Nations League. Germany proceeded to lose away to Poland and only take a single point off Ireland but they beat us home and away, meaning we failed to finish in the top 3 despite matching Poland and ROI in the head to head matches. Contrast that to the recent World Cup qualifiers where we became that annoying team that pinches something off the top seed. IMO you really want a winnable group in WC qualifiers because finishing second only gives you a one-in-four chance through the playoffs, so if this was a World Cup qualifying campaign I’d be wanting a Hungary or a Switzerland or a Poland. With it being the Euros though and two qualification spots on offer, there’s more merit to the idea that it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing to draw one of the better pot 1 sides. One thing we absolutely cannot do is treat the group how Austria treated the World Cup qualifying. They looked pretty half arsed in the knowledge they were effectively guaranteed a playoff. We can’t allow that to happen to us. Playoff should be seen as a backup only. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 32 minutes ago, Donathan said: One thing we absolutely cannot do is treat the group how Austria treated the World Cup qualifying. They looked pretty half arsed in the knowledge they were effectively guaranteed a playoff. We can’t allow that to happen to us. Playoff should be seen as a backup only. I dunno, they looked pretty on it at Hampden. We did well to escape with a draw. I think it's maybe just more that they're generally inconsistent and not good enough to get away with it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donathan Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 50 minutes ago, BFTD said: I dunno, they looked pretty on it at Hampden. We did well to escape with a draw. I think it's maybe just more that they're generally inconsistent and not good enough to get away with it. I think once they realised Denmark were going to stroll it, they chucked it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 They looked half arsed because they were a shite team with a bad manager. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 9 hours ago, Hendricks said: If you draw a 5 team group (and there will be 7 of them and only 3 of 6 countries) there are only 8 match days required as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VincentGuerin Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 I think this will be a bit of a strange qualifying campaign, due to the rollover effect of the World Cup and the schedule top-end players have had. So, I don't think there's the normal reason to fear the games against the Pot 1 side. Looking at the schedule, the opening games will come at the tail end of the league/Champions League season and the next spell of games in the June after the season finishes. Top end players and teams are going to be on their fucking arses by that point, and it would be a great time to play them. I don't think a team like Spain would be a bad draw. They're a side that often plays to the level of their opponent, and I'd fancy a March or June game against them at Hampden. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Of The Month Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 (edited) 26 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said: I think this will be a bit of a strange qualifying campaign, due to the rollover effect of the World Cup and the schedule top-end players have had. So, I don't think there's the normal reason to fear the games against the Pot 1 side. Looking at the schedule, the opening games will come at the tail end of the league/Champions League season and the next spell of games in the June after the season finishes. Top end players and teams are going to be on their fucking arses by that point, and it would be a great time to play them. I don't think a team like Spain would be a bad draw. They're a side that often plays to the level of their opponent, and I'd fancy a March or June game against them at Hampden. If you are wanting Spain then it would need to be a March game as Spain, Croatia, Italy and Netherlands will all be in 5 team groups so they get June off to play the Nations League finals. I'd prefer to avoid all 4 for that reason, they'll be having a jolly in the summer whilst us and the pot 3 side we draw are on our arses after a long season and we may end up with another Ireland away situation. Edited September 29, 2022 by Pie Of The Month 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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