Today's Football 2015 / 16

[Rook]

Now Turkey are through as best 3rd place team and the play offs are between the rest I take it with Ireland still in the unseeded half????


Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 A

Turkey 8 5 1 2 12 7 +5 16 Qualification to final tournament
2 F

Hungary 8 4 3 1 8 5 +3 15 Advance to play-offs
3 C

Ukraine 8 4 1 3 11 4 +7 13
4 H

Norway 8 4 1 3 8 10 −2 13
5 I

Denmark 8 3 3 2 8 5 +3 12
6 G

Sweden 8 3 3 2 11 9 +2 12
7 D

Republic of Ireland 8 3 3 2 8 7 +1 12
8 B

Bosnia and Herzegovina 8 3 2 3 11 12 −1 11
9 E

Slovenia 8 3 1 4 10 11 −1 10


IF this is the case (and of course open to usual correction) then we face one of Hungary (grand) Ukraine (grand) Norway (grand) or Denmark (also grand).

Chickens are not being counted by any means but qualification is very much in our hands. Many a slip........


COYBIG !!!!

The unseeded teams look stronger than the seeded sides.

 

[Eggs]

koff!


i was there, great stuff. hope the andorran guy who was seriously injured is better. heard it was horrific. so proud of our little country though, wonderful acheievemnt, such a tough tough group as well. bosnia starting sluggishly helped us, but 4 conceded and only 1 defeat when you have israel (who won their first 4 games) and cyprus who won away at bosnia and israel being not the type of banana skin estonia are

on another note, they probably should sack off teams like andorra and san marino, it's just a waste of football. I know people say they're never going to improve if they don't play against better players, but spending every game of every competition with 11 men packed in front of their goal is no real use to anybody. I mean it's been decades and these teams just don't improve whatsoever. They're semi-pros, should they really be competing against professionals?

.....chuffed for Wales but disagree with your final point. All country's deserve to be involved in the competition, the game needs to be spread and it's very important for football supporters in those lands. It's a bit like the part timers being involved in the FA Cup. It wouldn't be too bad if there was qualifying rounds for those nations as long as they took part and had the opportunity to play the big boys.

 

[Bluerover]

Confused by how this works but now it seems we can get one of

Ukraine, Hungary, Bosnia or Sweden !!

Hungary for me please.

 

[Ashtonian]

koff!


i was there, great stuff. hope the andorran guy who was seriously injured is better. heard it was horrific. so proud of our little country though, wonderful acheievemnt, such a tough tough group as well. bosnia starting sluggishly helped us, but 4 conceded and only 1 defeat when you have israel (who won their first 4 games) and cyprus who won away at bosnia and israel being not the type of banana skin estonia are

on another note, they probably should sack off teams like andorra and san marino, it's just a waste of football. I know people say they're never going to improve if they don't play against better players, but spending every game of every competition with 11 men packed in front of their goal is no real use to anybody. I mean it's been decades and these teams just don't improve whatsoever. They're semi-pros, should they really be competing against professionals?

With that being said they should cut the premier league in half then because the bottom half wont ever compete with the top! Or the F.A cup, the amount of semi pro teams that qualify but arent going to beat arsenal in the final so whats the point?

One year the likes of san marino will shock the world and win games, is it not fair for them to have the chance to do that? If nothing else it gives your country a game to score a few goals and stick some squad players in, hardly terrible if the likes of vardy and shelvy and such can prove their worth rather than sitting on the bench?

 

[jal123]

Ashtonian is right. And funny how now the taffs are half decent they're calling for the small nations to be jibbed. Wasn't that long ago they'd have found themselves in that pot!

 

[toffeejack]

.....chuffed for Wales but disagree with your final point. All country's deserve to be involved in the competition, the game needs to be spread and it's very important for football supporters in those lands. It's a bit like the part timers being involved in the FA Cup. It wouldn't be too bad if there was qualifying rounds for those nations as long as they took part and had the opportunity to play the big boys.

they barely ever get to the competition proper and even when they do they've won a fair few games to qualify so it's kind of deserved. I just think having a second tier european league would serve them better as they can actually explore the possibility of attacking.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

on another note, they probably should sack off teams like andorra and san marino, it's just a waste of football. I know people say they're never going to improve if they don't play against better players, but spending every game of every competition with 11 men packed in front of their goal is no real use to anybody. I mean it's been decades and these teams just don't improve whatsoever. They're semi-pros, should they really be competing against professionals?

You say that but look at the strides that teams like Malta, Luxembourg, The Faroes and Albania have made

Albania were an easy three points for years but now they've qualified. 5 of the their first team play in the top European Leagues

They're proof that you shouldn't bar the lower ranked teams from mixing it with the bigger sides

Faroe Islands did the double on Greece, Luxembourg gave a couple of sides a genuine fright and Malta almost got an upset win over Italy away from home

 

[The Cowboy]

You say that but look at the strides that teams like Malta, Luxembourg, The Faroes and Albania have made

Albania were an easy three points for years but now they've qualified. 5 of the their first team play in the top European Leagues

They're proof that you shouldn't bar the lower ranked teams from mixing it with the bigger sides

Faroe Islands did the double on Greece, Luxembourg gave a couple of sides a genuine fright and Malta almost got an upset win over Italy away from home

San Marino should be banned, simply because they have never ever tried to attack. What's the point of sitting in your own half when you still get tonked 7-0? Just get out there, try and attack, and lose 10-1, at least your fans might enjoy the game a bit.

I have always advocated a repechage or prelim round, but seeing how the lesser sides have performed this campaign has made me change my mind.

 

[admirschleck]

Yep. Absolutely makes sense. Just because someone plays the way they play, they should get banned. Perhaps Netherlands should be banned from next qualifications because they played awful football this time or BPL title should be taken away from Chelsea for their ultra-defensive football. Also Brazil should be removed from any FIFA competitions because they lost 7-1 to Germany at home, looking like they aren't even arsed.

 

[The Cowboy]

With that being said they should cut the premier league in half then because the bottom half wont ever compete with the top! Or the F.A cup, the amount of semi pro teams that qualify but arent going to beat arsenal in the final so whats the point?

One year the likes of san marino will shock the world and win games, is it not fair for them to have the chance to do that? If nothing else it gives your country a game to score a few goals and stick some squad players in, hardly terrible if the likes of vardy and shelvy and such can prove their worth rather than sitting on the bench?

But that's not how it works though. In essence, the premier league is like sticking all the best European sides in one group. The conference contains San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra etc. As those at the bottom get better they rise up through the groups.

The current set up in the Euro qualifiers is like having 2 teams from the prem, then 1 from the Championship, L1, L2 and the conference, and you wonder why the team from the conference gets spanked all the time.

I don't know what the answer is, but having a conference side pitched against vastly superior opposition time after time does nothing to develop the conference side.

 

[Ashtonian]

But that's not how it works though. In essence, the premier league is like sticking all the best European sides in one group. The conference contains San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra etc. As those at the bottom get better they rise up through the groups.

The current set up in the Euro qualifiers is like having 2 teams from the prem, then 1 from the Championship, L1, L2 and the conference, and you wonder why the team from the conference gets spanked all the time.

I don't know what the answer is, but having a conference side pitched against vastly superior opposition time after time does nothing to develop the conference side.

Perhaps an intelligent solution could be to run a pre qualifier then for those sorts of countries, kind of like what africa do? Have them all group up or player each other knock out style until you get down to the best of the worst so to speak then have them enter the qualifying groups? If nothing else it would give the worst teams more chance to win more games!

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

I just think it's outrageous snobbery to demand that the lower ranked teams play in their own little league away from everyone else

They have every right to compete with the other sides and this campaign has shown that the tomato can list in UEFA is getting shorter with every decade. I'd name San Marino, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein as the only truly poor sides left. Everyone else, even Andorra, have a chance in a competitive fixture. Andorra giving Wales a fright in the home leg is proof of that

You can't exclude those three sides, you'd have to do the whole of pot 6 and that's unfair to the other sides in that pot who actually have a go

 

[The Cowboy]

Perhaps an intelligent solution could be to run a pre qualifier then for those sorts of countries, kind of like what africa do? Have them all group up or player each other knock out style until you get down to the best of the worst so to speak then have them enter the qualifying groups? If nothing else it would give the worst teams more chance to win more games!

Indeed. Then their co-efficient should rise a bit to enable to them to join the latter stages.

 

[The Cowboy]

I just think it's outrageous snobbery to demand that the lower ranked teams play in their own little league away from everyone else

They have every right to compete with the other sides and this campaign has shown that the tomato can list in UEFA is getting shorter with every decade. I'd name San Marino, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein as the only truly poor sides left. Everyone else, even Andorra, have a chance in a competitive fixture. Andorra giving Wales a fright in the home leg is proof of that

You can't exclude those three sides, you'd have to do the whole of pot 6 and that's unfair to the other sides in that pot who actually have a go

I trust you feel the same way about the African and Asian qualification process, which has several layers of prelims before the main group stages?

 

[toffeejack]

Ashtonian is right. And funny how now the taffs are half decent they're calling for the small nations to be jibbed. Wasn't that long ago they'd have found themselves in that pot!

probably should re-think your viewpoint if this is the case haha

i'm not on about the whole pot, just the couple of teams who are built up with semi-pros who are also builders. i'm on about these teams that don't score for about 6 years and haven't had a point in over a decade etc. Andorra yesterday bless them were time wasting even when they were losing, their only "shot" was a woeful speculative effort by their striker who was glad to see the ball in the welsh half so decided to have a pop whilst he had the chance.

i just can't see how they improve - if FIFA/UEFA are reluctant to fund them.

haven't the smaller nations in rugby union been funded by the IRB and the improvements they've made this world cup have been brilliant to see. but that is a much smaller sport played by a lot less teams.