Missing Haaland is probably a bit of a drawback mind you
2 is hardly a golden generation
Good for Ireland. Wales getting second spot behind Croatia is important for Irelandās play-off prospects. But worryingly Turkey won 2-1 in Armenia earlier.
Do Ireland have to finish 3rd to get a play off?
No. This group is irrelevant for playoff chances.
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I can just hear Spock and his defenders trotting out that line when we finish 4 points behind Greece
The worrying thing is that if we do get a playoff, weāll have to beat a team of a similar level which is the thing weāve really struggled with.
Kazakhstan beat Denmark today. Thatās probably bad for us, I suppose.
They came from 2 down as well
I just had a look at how the Nations League qualifying aspect works and had just got my head around it when I realised that Cheasty had already explained it.
My predictions have us not getting any play-off spot. Which would be an utter disaster tbqh.
The groups that really interest us are:
D- We want Croatia & Wales to finish as the top two over Armenia & Turkey.
F- Ideally, we want Sweden to do as badly as possible. Belgium & Austria qualifying is the ideal scenario.
G- We want Serbia & Hungary qualifying over Montenegro & Bulgaria.
H- We really really want N. Ireland not to qualify. Need 2 from Denmark, Slovenia & Finland to finish ahead of them.
I- This is probably one of the most open groups. We need Switzerland & Israel to qualify over Romania.
J- Definitely do not want Slovakia qualifying. Need 2 from Portugal, Bosnia & Herzegovina or Iceland qualifying.
From those 6 groups, I think only 1 of those can go wrong or we miss out completely. And it looks like we would almost certainly be in a League A qualifier against theoretically tougher teams like Austria, Wales, Scotland/Norway, Finland/Slovenia as well as most likely Estonia as the highest League D side.
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If all the other groups went our way (bar ours obviously) with all the Nations League sides above us qualifying directly over the teams below us, we would likely end up in a League A play-off with only weaker teams: ourselves, Albania, Montenegro & Estonia. Would we negotiate that? I donāt know but that would involve a lot of luck.
The teams we really really donāt want to qualify straight are Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Turkey, Armenia, Albania, Sweden, Montenegro, Bulgaria, N. Ireland, Romania, Kosovo, Slovakia, Luxembourg as well as the real minnows.
Most likely, 2 of those qualifying would be okay. 3 and weād be out.
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Our only choice then would be to take down the Dutch in 2001 fashion. Itās highly unlikely on all known evidence though.
Obviously that should be our number 1 aim; perhaps we got a little unlucky with the draw but weāve largely been very poor against sides of a similar calibre to us or weaker and actually played better against stronger teams.
The Dutch are no great shakes.
Some comeback from the Kazahks today.
That Rasmus fella with another two against them. Thatās 5 in the 2 games for him.
Finland bet of the month for me if not the year.
Turncoat Bradley is good for the nordies.
Slovakia 2-0 up against Bosnia is bad for us. Early in the group but thatād be a big boost for Slovakia.
The most shameless cunt Ronaldo giving it welly after scoring twice against Luxembourg. Did the same against Liechtenstein.
Absolutely pathetic.
Uncle Tom Gerry Armstrong takes bias to a whole new level.
Fantastic result. The North as good as out already. Happy days.
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