Pie Of The Month Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Slightly less mention of this than normal due to the fact we've got a Euros in Germany to win but the draw is on Thursday and we're League A for the first time so thought it was worth a thread. Draw is on Thursday at 5pm UK time and live on UEFA.com. Format has changed this year with top 2 from the group going into the Nations League quarter finals, 3rd going into a playoff with 2nd placed teams from League B for promotion/relegation and 4th being relegated. Italy, Hungary and Poland for me please. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Hoping for Spain, Portugal and France. Would a lot of fun games. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Algebraist Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 20 minutes ago, Iain said: Hoping for Spain, Portugal and France. Would a lot of fun games. A visit to Madame Whiplash would likely be cheaper if that's your thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbaxters Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Somehow, we'll end up with Israel again. Are any of the matches scheduled before the Euro finals? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2426255 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Probably Italy, Portugal and Poland for me as we haven't played any of them overly recently. In my opinion avoiding relegation would be success this year and help us build ourselves into the division. In my view, the easiest way to do that is to be better than one League-A team (Poland) and see what 2nd placed League-B team turn up in the play-offs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 As someone who won't be travelling so not needing to hope for good away trips, Croatia, Hungary and Poland I guess. Although to be honest, there's not too many combinations where we'd be expected to do much. Avoiding relegation would be a massive achievement. Shame we can't go Friends Across the Euros and draw Germany, Hungary and Switzerland again. I'd settle for Hungary and Switzerland though, so we can pump them again. 10 minutes ago, jimbaxters said: Somehow, we'll end up with Israel again. Are any of the matches scheduled before the Euro finals? It'll be in the Autumn, September, October, November windows I'd imagine, with the World Cup Qualifiers beginning in the Spring through to the next Autumn. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Nice - I'd forgotten this was coming up. Hopefully we won't draw England, as they'll be European champions by then. Oh, wait! Italy, Portugal, and Poland would probably be the most interesting as we've recently played quite a few of the other countries. It's not really worth thinking about who's easier or harder at this level, as they're all tough and could be on totally different form by next year. Looks like quite a huge drop in quality between Pot 4 and the rest, though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matty-RCFC Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Portugal, France and Italy. We’re not going to be in this bracket long - just give us the biggest tests possible please, barkeep. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSJ.84 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Haven't been to Croatia before so would quite like them, although I’d happily take Italy. If we weren’t playing Hungary in the summer I’d have said them, but leaning towards Portugal now. Poland from pot three just to keep costs down a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch Stanton Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Croatia, Hungary and Poland. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB_Bino Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 2 hours ago, jimbaxters said: Somehow, we'll end up with Israel again. Are any of the matches scheduled before the Euro finals? No, Nations League starts after the Euros. Croatia, Hungary and Poland for me as well, sod seeing the stars at Hampden, I just want to see Scotland win and this group would be competitive. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I think Croatia, Hungary and Poland would be the nicest mixture of “non-sameyness” and a decent chance of at least avoiding automatic relegation if not avoiding relegation altogether. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Algebraist Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 53 minutes ago, JS_FFC said: I think Croatia, Hungary and Poland would be the nicest mixture of “non-sameyness” and a decent chance of at least avoiding automatic relegation if not avoiding relegation altogether. I feel like we've played Croatia A LOT over the last 20 years. We do seem to get some joy out of them but meh. Out of the four it's only Spain I would really like to avoid. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 2 hours ago, The Algebraist said: I feel like we've played Croatia A LOT over the last 20 years. We do seem to get some joy out of them but meh. Out of the four it's only Spain I would really like to avoid. We played them in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers and then again in the 2014 qualifiers, but it’s been over a decade since the last meeting so I wouldn’t mind playing them again. When I talk about avoiding sameyness I really just want to avoid teams we’ve played in the last couple of campaigns or the likes of Georgia and Israel who we’ve been drawn with several times over the past 15 years or so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
German Jag Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 3 minutes ago, JS_FFC said: We played them in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers and then again in the 2014 qualifiers, but it’s been over a decade since the last meeting so I wouldn’t mind playing them again. When I talk about avoiding sameyness I really just want to avoid teams we’ve played in the last couple of campaigns or the likes of Georgia and Israel who we’ve been drawn with several times over the past 15 years or so. They beat us 3-1 at Hampden in the last Euros. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 3 hours ago, German Jag said: They beat us 3-1 at Hampden in the last Euros. Of course they did! When I was racking my brains about all the qualifying and nations league groups over the past few years I managed to completely forget the euros itself. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 13 hours ago, Matty-RCFC said: Portugal, France and Italy. We’re not going to be in this bracket long - just give us the biggest tests possible please, barkeep. I don't see it that way at all, we absolutely have it in us to establish ourselves as a League A team. There are teams across all three pots who we would have a chance of beating, and the Nations League can throw up some more weird results than qualifiers, If we got a draw like Croatia, Denmark, Poland then we'd have a decent chance of not just avoiding automatic relegation, but actually making it to the top two and having a play-off for the finals rather than having to worry about playing a League B team. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eez-eh Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 One Nations League cycle without UEFA fucking about with the format is all I ask for. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 The World Cup qualification draw will presumably be after the Nations League campaign and if it's like last time seeding will be based on FIFA ranking. We're 19th in Europe just now and need to be in the top 24 to avoid dropping to pot 3, so it would be good to get the least difficult draw possible. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeMan Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 1 hour ago, eez-eh said: One Nations League cycle without UEFA fucking about with the format is all I ask for. This. I love the Nations League but the addition of extra relegation/playoff places is too much. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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