A positive from this group is that it should give Roy a chance to do the decent thing and blood in new players instead of the normal ****e.
Sadly I fear you are correct, but as I said, it gives him a chance to do the decent thing. If he is picking Man Utd players such as Cleverley and Smalling still, I've 100% lost hope in the team.
Here are my predictions for the top 2 in each group (qualifiers in bold, winners in italic and bold): Group A: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Turkey, Latvia, Iceland, Kazakhstan. Group B: Bosnia-Hercegovina, Belgium, Israel, Wales, Cyprus, Andorra. Group C: Spain, Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus, FYR Macedonia, Luxembourg. Group D: Germany, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Georgia, Gibraltar. Group E: England, Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, San Marino. Group F: Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Northern Ireland, Faroe Islands. Group G: Russia, Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, Moldova, Liechtenstein. Group H: Italy, Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Malta. Group I: Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, Albania. Greece will probably get best third place and also qualify automatically.
It’s been said lots of times, but there needs to be a big reform of qualifying. Split the two season qualifying period and keep the top eight from the first round of groups. Then introduce them in phase 2 into stronger, smaller groups along with the victors from the first phase. This would largely ensure meaningful and competitive qualifying matches whilst giving chance for the dogshit teams to enhance themselves. Perhaps, whilst the lower teams are in phase 1 of qualifying, the top 8 teams could play some sort of friendly competition at the host nation to help them prepare for running the tournament (a bit like the Confed Cup for the WC or summat like Le Tournoi pre ’98). Absolutely, no way TV would allow it though, they even wouldn’t allow England, Germany, Spain and Italy to be in that last group of five teams for ‘contractual’ reasons.
Our first fixture is Switzerland away as well. The hardest fixture is out of the way first. Also, there is the Hodgson factor with Switzerland - the Swiss love him, he was their manager for 4 years and took them to their first tournament since 1966 with USA 94 where they got to the R16, and he took them to Euro 96 too. They also hit 3rd in the world rankings under him.
Yeah. FA said a while ago they are writing off this World Cup so they can plan long term for 2018/2022.
Nice to see some real positive ambition from the suits running the game in this country. Apart from the conditions being very unfavourable, there's no reason we can't go far, we've easily got the 3rd best pool of players to pick from in the world. It's just getting it right on the day, we can't go on under-performing forever, one day we'll start getting it right when it matters.
Greg Dyke didn't quite "write us off" - he just said we're unlikely to win - and we are. This is what he said: "I don't think anyone realistically thinks we are going to win the World Cup in Brazil. I asked a bunch of journalists what would be seen as doing well in Brazil. The consensus was if we reach the quarter-finals we'll do very well. That's not to say we can't win. But let's not kid ourselves, it's pretty hard to win in Latin America anyway for a European side. We're certainly not going to go there as odds-on favourites, that's for sure."
UEFA seem to think it's more important to make money than have a proper competition - just look at the Champions League and now the European Championships. Having said that - the finals are in France and it should be easy to go to games without getting ripped off too much.
Weird that Euro 2016 is in France, with Platini as UEFA President.... ....just like when Euro 2008 was in Austria/Switzerland, when Blatter was Uefa President. Definitely coincidence.
Yeah, until Euro 2020 which is going to take place at multiple venues across Europe as a one off.... ****ing ridiculous.
Ireland's fixture dates, nice time to visit Gib, a bit of sunshine on the rock, the Scotts in sunny Dublin too! https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/international/2014/0223/506164-oneill-excited-by-euro-2016-draw/ Anyone seen the English fixtures yet?
Cheers Macca, Will be in a Dublin pub for Brighton game along with a few other city fans, let the good times roll
Should probably post ALL of the fixture for England tbf. Monday Sep 8: Switzerland (A) Thursday Oct 9: San Marino (H) Sunday Oct 12: Estonia (A) Wednesday Nov 15: Slovenia (H) Friday March 27: Lithuania (H) Sunday June 14: Slovenia (A) Saturday September 5: San Marino (A) Tuesday September 8: Switzerland (H) Friday October 9: Estonia (H) Monday October 12: Lithuania (A) Seriously, if we don't get through that group, the entire squad needs shooting.
