World Cup 2018 Qualifiers - Draw

[Basil II the B.S]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ying-draw-live

UEFA groups in:

Group A: Netherlands, France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Belarus, Luxembourg
Group B: Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Andorra
Group C: Germany, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Norway, Azerbaijan, San Marino

Group D: WALES, Austria, Serbia, Eire, Moldova, Georgia

Group E: Romania, Denmark, Poland, Montenegro, Armenia, Kazakhstan
Group F: England, Slovakia, Scotland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Malta

Group G: Spain, Italy, Albania, Israel, FYR Macedonia, Liechtenstein
Group H: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Estonia, Cyprus
Group I: Croatia, Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland


For those who didn't know, thanks to genious tier indexes created by mathematicians working for FIFA, Wales is now a powerhouse of European football, thus deserving pot A with world champions Germany. Regular qualified Sweden in comparison pales and is in pot C.

Thus: Netherlands faces France and Sweden, England vs Scotland, Spain vs Italy and noone else.

Indeed indexes take into account friendlies as serious games.

[Gatsby]

England (as is usual) are the clear favourites in their group, so 1st is tied up. The 3 S's are reasonably equal competitors for 2nd in the group. Lithuania and Malta should basically be GD-boosters for the other 4.


I want to think that Scotland are overall a slightly better team than Slovenia and Slovakia and so we have a good chance at 2nd, but we don't have any stand-out individuals like Hamsik, Skrtel, Handanovic, or Kampl.

Even though in Euro qualifying we've actually been quite good I'd still say our only realistic chance of beating England is at home, at Parkhead specifically, playing creative football and hopefuly they have an off-day. I'm just happy regardless because its a fun set of matches. All the pressures on them. If they win, its to be expected. Anything less than that and its a disaster for them.

[Sir Adrian]

Groups E and H seem to be the most balanced. This will be interesting.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ying-draw-live

UEFA groups in:

Group A: Netherlands, France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Belarus, Luxembourg
Group B: Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Andorra
Group C: Germany, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Norway, Azerbaijan, San Marino

Group D: WALES, Austria, Serbia, Eire, Moldova, Georgia

Group E: Romania, Denmark, Poland, Montenegro, Armenia, Kazakhstan
Group F: England, Slovakia, Scotland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Malta

Group G: Spain, Italy, Albania, Israel, FYR Macedonia, Liechtenstein
Group H: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Estonia, Cyprus
Group I: Croatia, Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland


For those who didn't know, thanks to genious tier indexes created by mathematicians working for FIFA, Wales is now a powerhouse of European football, thus deserving pot A with world champions Germany. Regular qualified Sweden in comparison pales and is in pot C.

Thus: Netherlands faces France and Sweden, England vs Scotland, Spain vs Italy and noone else.

Indeed indexes take into account friendlies as serious games.

The Fifa rankings list is a catalog of current form, not an index of football history so previous qualifications are moot - that being said Sweden haven't qua;lified for a WC since 2006. In 2015 Wales IS a football powerhouse.

[Wulfburk]

Powerhouse? Big stretch.....

[Basil II the B.S]

I like Wales too much to be rude to them. They aren't really a football powerhouse anyways.

[Sir Adrian]

Powerhouse? Big stretch.....

They've won most of their matches for several years in a row.

[Halie Satanus]

They've won most of their matches for several years in a row.

The only teams they've beaten are the likes of Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Israel, Scotland. Though they did beat Belgium recently. In the last WC qualifiers they were spanked 6-1 and 3-0 by Serbia, lost to Belgium (twice), Croatia (twice) and Macedonia (who they beat in the return), other than that most of their games are draws.

That's just going back to the last WC qualifiers and Euro's, before that they were no better, a few decent results against small teams but generally spanked by the bigger nations.

But! They do have (Bale) the worlds most expensive player and I'd guess that had something to do with their ranking..

[Gatsby]

Wales' Euro qualifying group is fairly easy - you would expect them to be 2nd and they are only first because Belgium are seriously underperforming. At home they barely scraped a 1-1 draw, they were gifted a goal and held on for dear life: hardly a pot 1 performance. Otherwise their performances have been pretty much perfunctory considering their opposition. They were held to 0-0 at home by Bosnia-Herzegovina, and were fairly pleased. For any other pot-1 side that's a disaster.

In Bale and Ramsey they have 2 of Europe's finest players but I seriously wonder if they would be in pot 1 right now if they were in a tough group, like ours, and were playing against Poland and Germany, going away to Georgia, and having goals wrongly given against them against O'Neill's thuggish team.

As for friendlies: the USA beat Oranje and Germany but just got beaten by Jamaica and Panama when it came to a serious competition: Wales can win as many friendlies as they like but I don't see how it can matter.


I like Wales and I think they're a good team, but it hardly seems fair that they have been put on a fast track to WC qualification largely because they got a lucky Euro qualification draw.

[Gallus]

Wales and Romania over France and Italy? What is Blatter smoking?

[Gatsby]

Wales and Romania over France and Italy? What is Blatter smoking?

Apparently if you are top of your Euro qualifying group you are one of the best teams in the world, regardless of who is in your group.

[Basil II the B.S]

To be clear, Wales ended up in pot A because they've beaten Belgium recently, and recent games victories count twice. At the time Belgium was very high in the ranking so Wales got a ton of points.
Obviously this shows how the whole system doesn't make any sense.
I get it that a bad performance in the World Cup makes you lose points, but if not playing at all and winning friendlies counts more than participating, it's time to rethink it.

Also,Eire pot 4? Ok, they might have not played great lately, they are still an upper tier in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised to see Eire and Serbia winning that group.

[Annúminas]

Group A is surely 1.NED 2.FRA.
Portugal will struggle.
Germany got to easy opponents.
Hope Croatia will pass.

Also,Eire pot 4? Ok, they might have not played great lately, they are still an upper tier in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised to see Eire and Serbia winning that group.

I agree.

[Gatsby]

So long as O'Neill is there, Ireland are not a team to admire.

On paper they have a good team but in practice they are nothing but aimless crosses, long balls, knock-ons, corners and generally ugly, thuggish football.

Its a shame that they poached two of our best players just to play crap football with them whilst we, with not so much talent, actually play decently and do better than them.

[Knight of Heaven]

Portugal will struggle

LOL what are you smoking?

Portugal must have be the most beneficiary of all this lottery. Couldnt have asked for an easier group.

[Annúminas]

LOL what are you smoking?

Portugal must have be the most beneficiary of all this lottery. Couldnt have asked for an easier group.

Portugal has some periods
when he plays against weaker teams.

[Knight of Heaven]

I dont think that is a rule in this case.... The team is, and has been in the process of renewal. By then , i hope you will see a much more proper and balanced team, with young blood. U21 recent stars will have a role for sure.

If you are refering to the Albania match... well Albania isnt as weak as it used to be. It made trouble to other teams as well. Still we are leading the group regardless....
I dont see how we are expected to strugle with even an weaker group in World Cup Qualifying round.

[Annúminas]

Yeah, U21 Portugal is great, we'll see. GOOD LUCK

[Sir Adrian]

Apparently if you are top of your Euro qualifying group you are one of the best teams in the world, regardless of who is in your group.

A team is the best in the world when it can beat everyone, correct? How can you claim to be better than Wales and Romania when you can't win group matches against lesser opposition?

[Gallus]

A team is the best in the world when it can beat everyone, correct? How can you claim to be better than Wales and Romania when you can't win group matches against lesser opposition?

Wales and Romania didn't even qualify for the World Cup. France was in quarter final. How does this make sense?

[Mausolos of Caria]

You can say what you want about the ranking, but everyone knew beforehand that the July ranking would determine the pots for the draw, so the last games before the summer were a good chance to improve your ranking. Ireland drew with England and Scotland, which isn't bad per se, but had they won both games they would have certainly been in pot 3. Had Scotland won at Dublin, they would have been in pot 2, and had Belgium beaten Wales, Wales would have only been in pot 2 as well. Italy lost to Portugal in a friendly and only drew twice in the qualifiers this year- taking into account that they did not survive their group at the World Cup it's logical that they slipped into pot 2. Finally France lost to Belgium and to Albania, and they have the disadvantage of being hosts, thus getting less points from their group games, which are essentially friendlies.
Of course the list could be improved, but if you look at the results, everyone only get themselves to blame for the pots they are into, since it was known before the most recent games. Now looking at the groups, group A will certainly be a challenge for all sides involved and the chances for Sweden to qualify are very little. But in general it's very difficult to predict the groups now. Let's look at group F: On current form, Slovakia could easily challenge England for 1st, but it's more than a year until the WC qualifiers start and many teams will play at the Euro before that. By then, Slovakia might be mediocre again, and Scotland's fortunes could change as well- for the better or the worse remains to be seen. And who knows if England has slid into another crisis by September 2016... so let's just wait and see.