Sabiondo
Well-known member
is almost QF to WC, as they beat 2-1 If Saudi Arabia loses against
tonight at home, then the Oz team qualifed to Russia today! Also hoperfully
make history and beat at home and QF to WC for first time! 
FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 - RUSSIA
- Thread starter Sabiondo
- Start date
- Watchers 10
is almost QF to WC, as they beat 2-1 If Saudi Arabia loses against
tonight at home, then the Oz team qualifed to Russia today! Also hoperfully
make history and beat at home and QF to WC for first time!
Sabiondo
Well-known member
is the Oceania champion round and will play with 5th place team of South American zone ( or likely) for the half spot for WC 2018.
JamieBrown
Well-known member
But in 2015 we all got proven, that the 12 can go anywhere else if the greek offensive is weak^^
JamieBrown
Well-known member
Congrats Saudi-Arabia. Welcome back to the WC stage 
JamieBrown
Well-known member
Sabiondo
Well-known member
There are a strong posibility that may will face for the 5th spot at playoff match between Concacaf 5th runner up and AFC 5th round winner!
And FIFA will get a heart-attack if that happen! :twisted:
may will face for the 5th spot at playoff match between Concacaf 5th runner up and AFC 5th round winner! And FIFA will get a heart-attack if that happen! :twisted:
ShoeFlo
Well-known member
- 2:0We are back in business, bitches
The greatest possible reaction to that Finland disasterStill this Finland match was dire, it makes things complicated for us. Imagine we won that.. we would have excellent chances to win this group
Now all depends on the Turkey match. If we lose there, I think it's over for us. Well, maybe Finland helps us this time. If we draw we are heading for 2nd place, if we beat Turkey we can hope for winning the group considering Croatia is faltering and still gotta play in Ukraine
ShoeFlo
Well-known member
Lemme check the debutant chances again
They're out. Once again they bottled it. I thought this would happen. I only saw the highlights but they looked rather discouraged yesterday. I dont get this
Big respect
scoring twice against a team that kept the clean sheet for 9 matches... and equalizing in the last minute just makes it more emotional for the supporters and sympathizers. They'll be underdog against Australia but Australia is far from impressing. They hardly beat Thailand so what should Syria be afraid of? However, I think experience and routine will pay off for the favorite side
In case of success the intercontinental play-offs against one of Honduras/Panama/USA will follow. Only against 'Murica I see them losing for sure. The others might be beatable
World Cup chances imo: 25% as they have to eliminate two better teams
Great and convincing win over T&T I dont see them qualifying directly though cause I guess they will lose their away match in USA. It's probably more of a fight against Honduras for 4th place. They will face Costa Rica at home while Honduras faces Mexico at home. Both opponents will be qualified on that point so the question is: How much do these teams actually care about those matches? Hopefully Mexico cares more about it than Costa Rica
World Cup chances: 40% (cause they would be underdog against Australia)
2:2 draw against Senegal isn't probably the result they desired. Then again, Senegal is arguably the strongest rival in this group and they hold them at a distance. They are still leading the group, but the group is pretty much a bloodbath. Two points between first and last place, every match is crucial now. I have literally no idea how the remaining matches are gonna end, this is pretty random. I feel like a team I didn't consider before might make its debut, namely Cape Verde . I think their squad is better than Burkina Faso's, moreover they now have some momentum.
Burkina Faso chances: 30%
Cape Verde: 35%
Bad news for my favorite underdogs Uganda. As expected Egypt was too strong on their home ground. I have no doubt about that Egypt will beat Congo comfortably so Uganda is forced to beat Ghana on next match day, which requires a great and flawless performance - just like their home performance against Egypt. Are they able to pull off another perfect match? I don't think so.
WC chances: 15%
Look at my last post. Chances for the play-off spot are like 50% imo cause Iceland doesn't do very well in away matches and a loss to Turkey, sad but true, is a realistic scenario.
About the play-offs: I am not quite sure if Icelands ends up in the seeded pot. Teams will be seeded by the FIFA World Rankings and not by some weird coefficents. In that ranking, Iceland is behind Italy, Switzerland/Portugal, and both Wales and Sweden. But Wales might end up as the worst 2nd-placed team. So.. it will be really close. Poland better don't lose their 1st place cause they are much better ranked than Iceland. I think Iceland would have good chances to beat Slovakia (+ Slovenia, Scotland), Montenegro (I think they will lose their position to Denmark anyway) and even Bosnia. Northern Ireland is similar to Iceland, so this could be a tricky match. Iceland would lose to Italy, both Switzerland and Portugal, probably Sweden and - if they make it to the play-offs - also to Denmark. Well, I am not quite sure cause Denmark is inconsistent but if they are on fire they are a strong side as we could see in their match against Poland.
Iceland WC chances: I dont know... 40%? Depends so much on if they are seeded or not
For the sake of completeness:
Keeping the second place will be hard enough and in the play-offs they wouldn't be seeded for sure and they would fail against teams like Italy, Portugal and also Switzerland
WC chances: 5-10%
They're out. Once again they bottled it. I thought this would happen. I only saw the highlights but they looked rather discouraged yesterday. I dont get this
Big respect
scoring twice against a team that kept the clean sheet for 9 matches... and equalizing in the last minute just makes it more emotional for the supporters and sympathizers. They'll be underdog against Australia but Australia is far from impressing. They hardly beat Thailand so what should Syria be afraid of? However, I think experience and routine will pay off for the favorite sideIn case of success the intercontinental play-offs against one of Honduras/Panama/USA will follow. Only against 'Murica I see them losing for sure. The others might be beatable
World Cup chances imo: 25% as they have to eliminate two better teams
Great and convincing win over T&T
I dont see them qualifying directly though cause I guess they will lose their away match in USA. It's probably more of a fight against Honduras for 4th place. They will face Costa Rica at home while Honduras faces Mexico at home. Both opponents will be qualified on that point so the question is: How much do these teams actually care about those matches? Hopefully Mexico cares more about it than Costa RicaWorld Cup chances: 40% (cause they would be underdog against Australia)
2:2 draw against Senegal isn't probably the result they desired. Then again, Senegal is arguably the strongest rival in this group and they hold them at a distance. They are still leading the group, but the group is pretty much a bloodbath. Two points between first and last place, every match is crucial now. I have literally no idea how the remaining matches are gonna end, this is pretty random. I feel like a team I didn't consider before might make its debut, namely Cape Verde . I think their squad is better than Burkina Faso's, moreover they now have some momentum.
Burkina Faso chances: 30%
Cape Verde: 35%
Bad news for my favorite underdogs Uganda. As expected Egypt was too strong on their home ground. I have no doubt about that Egypt will beat Congo comfortably so Uganda is forced to beat Ghana on next match day, which requires a great and flawless performance - just like their home performance against Egypt. Are they able to pull off another perfect match? I don't think so.
WC chances: 15%
Look at my last post. Chances for the play-off spot are like 50% imo cause Iceland doesn't do very well in away matches and a loss to Turkey, sad but true, is a realistic scenario.
About the play-offs: I am not quite sure if Icelands ends up in the seeded pot. Teams will be seeded by the FIFA World Rankings and not by some weird coefficents. In that ranking, Iceland is behind Italy, Switzerland/Portugal, and both Wales and Sweden. But Wales might end up as the worst 2nd-placed team. So.. it will be really close. Poland better don't lose their 1st place cause they are much better ranked than Iceland. I think Iceland would have good chances to beat Slovakia (+ Slovenia, Scotland), Montenegro (I think they will lose their position to Denmark anyway) and even Bosnia. Northern Ireland is similar to Iceland, so this could be a tricky match. Iceland would lose to Italy, both Switzerland and Portugal, probably Sweden and - if they make it to the play-offs - also to Denmark. Well, I am not quite sure cause Denmark is inconsistent but if they are on fire they are a strong side as we could see in their match against Poland.
Iceland WC chances: I dont know... 40%? Depends so much on if they are seeded or not
For the sake of completeness:
Keeping the second place will be hard enough and in the play-offs they wouldn't be seeded for sure and they would fail against teams like Italy, Portugal and also Switzerland
WC chances: 5-10%
JamieBrown
Well-known member
I'm neither whiteshoes nor his croatian twin, but a far related cousin
Poland will still win the group. Welcome back to the WC stage
cegs5
Well-known member
- Joined
- March 6, 2012
- Posts
- 6,360
The real drama is in South America, the most competitive zone. Brazil is in, but still three more spots are unknown and one for the play-off against New Zealand. Anything can happen after some shocking results and an impressive recovery of underdog Peru.
Honestly, the European zone is sometimes a joke with those small countries filling up some pools with no chance. It's much harder to qualify in South America, even powerhouse Argentina is in danger to be out!
Honestly, the European zone is sometimes a joke with those small countries filling up some pools with no chance. It's much harder to qualify in South America, even powerhouse Argentina is in danger to be out!
ShoeFlo
Well-known member
Well regarding UEFA Qualification I support the idea of implementing a pre-qualification round with the worst let's say 12 nations that faces each other in six knock-out matches. It wouldn't even feel different at the end cause there would still be 48 teams in the main qualification round, so 6 teams a 8 groups. But at least six minor nations would be eliminated 
And tbh, I think the minnows in Europe have developped pretty well recently. I'd like to point out Luxemburg as well as Faroe Islands which are able to beat the likes of Belarus, Latvia and so on and bring trouble upon bigger nations (Luxemburg drawing with France, Faroe Islands beating Greece twice in last qualification). Azerbaijan are also heading in the right direction and might end up above Norway in this qualification. Heck, even Andorra won a match this year and Malta... well, they can defend solidly. Then again, their group is a joke.
The only minor nation I can think of that actually regresses is Liechtenstein, which were pretty good like 10 years ago with gathering 8 points in the qualifiers for WC 2006 and 7 in the qualifiers for Euro 2008. Now they are crap.. maybe their "golden generation" retired?
Anyway, right now there are only 3 1/2 nations in Europe I would consider uncompetitive: These are Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein and the half one is Andorra - cause I dont think an exceptional 1:0 win over Hungary is the beginning of an ongoing development.
And tbh, I think the minnows in Europe have developped pretty well recently. I'd like to point out Luxemburg as well as Faroe Islands which are able to beat the likes of Belarus, Latvia and so on and bring trouble upon bigger nations (Luxemburg drawing with France, Faroe Islands beating Greece twice in last qualification). Azerbaijan are also heading in the right direction and might end up above Norway in this qualification. Heck, even Andorra won a match this year and Malta... well, they can defend solidly. Then again, their group is a joke.
The only minor nation I can think of that actually regresses is Liechtenstein, which were pretty good like 10 years ago with gathering 8 points in the qualifiers for WC 2006 and 7 in the qualifiers for Euro 2008. Now they are crap.. maybe their "golden generation" retired?
Anyway, right now there are only 3 1/2 nations in Europe I would consider uncompetitive: These are Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein and the half one is Andorra - cause I dont think an exceptional 1:0 win over Hungary is the beginning of an ongoing development.
JSSArcos
Well-known member
I only saw this one now, what do you think?
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2498274.html
The UEFA Nations League kicks off in 2018, with UEFA's 55 member associations split into four leagues
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2498274.html
The UEFA Nations League kicks off in 2018, with UEFA's 55 member associations split into four leagues