Euro 2024 - Qualification Thread

[Bairnardo]

10 hours ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

England are a very decent team these days, as much as I hate to see it. That’s North Macedonia’s heaviest ever defeat. England will be there or thereabouts again next year, they are bound to win one soon. They should really get rid of Gareth and bring in someone competent, though.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that England will win a tournament within the next three available. 

Like you say, they seem only a competent manager away from it but even then, they are capable of doing it under the waistcoat.

The only player issues they really have are who plays striker if Kane is out and at centre half. 

As far as what's stopping them doing it, I only really see not knowing their best line up amongst a pretty strong mid to front cast, but again, a competent manager.......

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

14 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that England will win a tournament within the next three available. 

Like you say, they seem only a competent manager away from it but even then, they are capable of doing it under the waistcoat.

The only player issues they really have are who plays striker if Kane is out and at centre half. 

As far as what's stopping them doing it, I only really see not knowing their best line up amongst a pretty strong mid to front cast, but again, a competent manager.......

I think the biggest difference between now and bygone eras (particularly the ‘golden’ era of Gerrard, Rooney, Scholes, Beckham, Ferdinand, Cole etc.) is who’s going to stop them, particularly in UEFA? France are a good team but aside from that most of the traditional ‘big’ countries are in a transitional phase (Spain, Italy, Germany) or are ageing/past their peak (Belgium/Croatia). Portugal are decent too, I suppose, and they’ll be a much better team once they stop selecting Ronaldo IMO.

[Bairnardo]

43 minutes ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

I think the biggest difference between now and bygone eras (particularly the ‘golden’ era of Gerrard, Rooney, Scholes, Beckham, Ferdinand, Cole etc.) is who’s going to stop them, particularly in UEFA? France are a good team but aside from that most of the traditional ‘big’ countries are in a transitional phase (Spain, Italy, Germany) or are ageing/past their peak (Belgium/Croatia). Portugal are decent too, I suppose, and they’ll be a much better team once they stop selecting Ronaldo IMO.

Yeah. It's France atm but I don't know if there's as much open road in front of even them in terms of an already good set of players hitting their peaks as England have. They are painfully close to the finished article, with a huge squad of young but already experienced players. 

The only criticism I can really lay at Englands players door is that there's a whiff of flat track bully about a few of them and it might leech into the collective that. 

[BFTD]

It's a bit sad that, even when our national side is doing better than at any other time in the 21st century, we're still worrying that England might win something.

Relax. They'll pull their usual trick, lads - batter f**k out of everybody, convince themselves they're the best, then go out to the first form side they play. It appears that even playing at home doesn't get them across the line anymore.

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

25 minutes ago, BTFD said:

It's a bit sad that, even when our national side is doing better than at any other time in the 21st century, we're still worrying that England might win something.

Relax. They'll pull their usual trick, lads - batter f**k out of everybody, convince themselves they're the best, then go out to the first form side they play. It appears that even playing at home doesn't get them across the line anymore.

This is a thread to discuss the other Euro 2024 qualification groups. If you want to read about Scotland’s performances, there’s an entire sub forum dedicated to our national team. 

[velo army]

Ach aye, I reckon England will win the next Euros, and possibly the world cup afterwards too. The only thing that might stop them is a historical psychological fragility, but I'm trying not to care. 

The rest of the big nations being a bit average is good for the neutral, and for us. Who would you want to avoid right now? Maybe Portugal, possibly France, but not that much. It's shite for those of us who would adore seeing England evade a major championship, but they're going to win one in the next decade or so, sadly.

Wales getting hounded by Armenia last night was absolutely gorgeous though.

[Bairnardo]

I see Belgiums recently deceased Golden Era has now transformed into a full blown minter with Courtois throwing his toys all over the place and leaving camp over the captaincy. 

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

1 hour ago, velo army said:

Ach aye, I reckon England will win the next Euros, and possibly the world cup afterwards too. The only thing that might stop them is a historical psychological fragility, but I'm trying not to care. 

The rest of the big nations being a bit average is good for the neutral, and for us. Who would you want to avoid right now? Maybe Portugal, possibly France, but not that much. It's shite for those of us who would adore seeing England evade a major championship, but they're going to win one in the next decade or so, sadly.

Wales getting hounded by Armenia last night was absolutely gorgeous though.

I actually thought they were going to shitfest their way to another tournament after the first couple of results but that seems unlikely now. P&B can relax.

[Richey Edwards]

Moldova beating Poland and Luxembourg beating Bosnia-Herzegovina.

[The Naitch]

Tremendous away win for Luxembourg if they hold out.

[BFTD]

Decent start by Moldova; took a point from the Czechs too. Bit worrying for Poland.

Luxembourg continuing their slow, but impressive progress. Slovakia have been well dodgy of late, so their return game is worth keeping an eye on.

[highlandmac]

1 hour ago, Richey Edwards said:

Moldova beating Poland and Luxembourg beating Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In lieu of the Scotland game I enjoyed this,a stirring comeback-the Moldova game,that is

Edited June 20, 2023 by highlandmac

[Marten]

9 hours ago, BTFD said:

Decent start by Moldova; took a point from the Czechs too. Bit worrying for Poland.

Luxembourg continuing their slow, but impressive progress. Slovakia have been well dodgy of late, so their return game is worth keeping an eye on.

Looking at that group and upcoming fixtures it's not impossible that Luxembourg will actually qualify.

[Brummie Clyde]

Think the Nations League has been a very good idea.

Obviously helped us to qualify for first tournament in over 20 years.

Gets rid of a lot of meaningless friendlies. 

Helps to give competing matches to smaller nations, such as Luxembourg and even meant that San Marino can get the odd result, rather than being hammered evert match.

[Dunning1874]

With the current calibre and age of their squad along with some big nations going through a rough patch just now England should win a major tournament in the next five years, we can't depend on the one European nation who are stronger just now in France playing them and managing to edge them out every single time, but I'm not having that it's definitely happening.

There are simply too many variables in major tournaments to say that someone is a guaranteed winner. One injury to a key player, one daft red card, one mistake, one inspired performance from a lesser team or one unlucky draw can f**k it: how many great teams of big nations that were pre-tournament favourites have ultimately won f**k all over the years?

They're now in the position for the first time since Euro 96 that being eliminated in the quarter finals at tournaments would actually be a failure as opposed to performing to reasonable pre-tournament expectations, but this doesn't guarantee winning anything. That was true of 70s Netherlands, 80s Brazil (who didn't even make the semi-final of either World Cup then the Copa America win in 89 came with the spine of that team retired) 00s Portugal, late 00s Germany, 10s Argentina who nevertheless didn't win trophies in those periods.

Edited June 21, 2023 by Dunning1874

[TheScarf]

21 hours ago, Brummie Clyde said:

Think the Nations League has been a very good idea.

Obviously helped us to qualify for first tournament in over 20 years.

Gets rid of a lot of meaningless friendlies. 

Helps to give competing matches to smaller nations, such as Luxembourg and even meant that San Marino can get the odd result, rather than being hammered evert match.

I agree.  I always hated international friendlies as countries used to use them strategically to play certain teams who, if they beat them, could move them up the world rankings to get better qualification seedings.  I think Wales and Romania used to do this.  

Every international game should be competitive IMO (apart from host nations of tournaments having to play then of course).  Like you say, it makes for better games, smaller nations have a chance to qualify for tournaments. They're just better overall.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

England are not winning a major tournament anytime soon.  They just dont have the balls to get over the line, regardless of how shite the other big teams are.

Bookmark that.

[BFTD]

12 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

I agree.  I always hated international friendlies as countries used to use them strategically to play certain teams who, if they beat them, could move them up the world rankings to get better qualification seedings.  I think Wales and Romania used to do this.  

Every international game should be competitive IMO (apart from host nations of tournaments having to play then of course).  Like you say, it makes for better games, smaller nations have a chance to qualify for tournaments. They're just better overall.

Switzerland made good use of their friendlies to maximise their position on the rankings too. We were notoriously dreadful at it, playing games that we could've won 10-0 and it wouldn't have improved our position for tournament seedings. I remember people on here being furious that we played Luxembourg or similar when a win against a better side would've likely seen us in a higher pot for upcoming qualifiers.

It may have been made to squeeze in more games between the big guns, but the Nations League has been much better than expected, and negates the damage of having a clueless FA. It's producing interesting, competitive games, countries can make relatively fast progress between leagues, and I like the aspect where the smaller nations can get themselves an unexpected qualification berth. League A actually feels like the least interesting part, although Hungary ripping through England and Germany was the kind of fun you didn't get to see often until now.

[RossBFaeDundee]

On 19/06/2023 at 21:52, badgerthewitness said:

Big teams don't, mate.

I totally agree with the sentiment, but that screenshot is when my backbone crumbled to dust in that game. Never had been more certain of an undeserved goal going in in my life. God bless McGinn and his no-nonsense clearance!

[ClydeTon]

On 22/06/2023 at 08:52, TheScarf said:

I agree.  I always hated international friendlies as countries used to use them strategically to play certain teams who, if they beat them, could move them up the world rankings to get better qualification seedings.  I think Wales and Romania used to do this.  

Every international game should be competitive IMO (apart from host nations of tournaments having to play then of course).  Like you say, it makes for better games, smaller nations have a chance to qualify for tournaments. They're just better overall.

I think we've employed friendlies fairly well. England is a special case, but in the last year we've played the similarly-matched Austria, Turkey and we'll be playing France soon, of course.

Austria and Turkey were just games to keep the squad's "pals" structure going, and France will be SC's chance to really test our strength as a squad, probably leaning towards NL League A & Euro 2024.

Compare that to a few years ago when we played sides like Costa Rica, Peru and Mexico - nothing games against teams we're unlikely to play otherwise, no real competitive value. Then again, we were probably around CR/Peru's level around that period.