International Break Thread

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From the BBC live page:

Get Involved - Where were you in 1998? published at 22:44 GMT
FT: Scotland 4-2 Denmark

First year going into second in 98. 13 years old. 40 now and I’ve left the house to go to the pub to soak in the reaction. What a day. We’ll never see it again.

Hazy in Motherwell


It was the summer before I started primary school, sat in our wee flat a stones throw from Hampden. I've done my entire education, uni included, since then waiting for another chance to watch us play a world cup. Didnae ken it'd be this long a wait!

Philip


Last time Scotland were in the World Cup I just started secondary school that summer, one of my best friends weren't even born yet! Every day I'd sneak my dad's portable TV into school to watch the matches. This time, it'll be a big tv and beers!

Colin in Kirkcaldy


I was 11 when Morocco sent us crashing out of France 98. Now I'm 38 and crying happy tears! This is generational.

Robert in Dumfries
 
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LD19SAFC said:
I’m not saying a word about him before we play them, just can’t knock his goalscoring record so far this season.
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True, but 3 non penalty goals in the PL isn’t great. Less than Isidor and Jaidon Anthony. I’m sure his only CL goal was that deflection off the back of his heel anarl.

I’d much rather face them with him up top than Isak
 
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E.T. Fairfax said:
But being in a group when Denmark are the best team, Scotland had never had a better chance in topping a group than this
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Denmark are a decent team, but I don't think they're as good as they were 4 years ago at Euro 2020, they look to me to be in a bit of a transition losing the likes of Eriksen and Simon Kjaer. It's probably been a good time to catch them in a group.

To be honest there's a few teams been surprisingly underwhelming. England, France, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands have qualified comfortably. Italy can be looked as unlucky to get drawn with a very good and improving Norway, I think Italy would have won most other groups (apart from the first three mentioned above), but otherwise Portugal haven't been that impressive to me, Germany won the group but lost to Slovakia and were pushed closely twice by Northern Ireland. Belgium won their group but looked vulnerable at times (maybe age finally catching up with them). Id have expected a lot more from Sweden who've flopped badly and are lucky to have a play off birth to fall back on, Poland seem to be going backwards as do Hungary. Romania were being talked of as an up coming improving team but haven't really done much and have missed out all together.

The play offs will be interesting, there some in there who've under performed in qualifying and will need to get it together quickly because there's a few teams there who will be difficult to play against. Albania are a decent team with some good technical players and will cause problems especially if teams underestimate them. Wales have some momentum right now, though I'm not convinced they have enough quality in depth they'll still take the game to opponents. Ukraine are probably at where you'd expect them and you know what you'll get from them. Turkey could be dangerous, they seem to score a lot of goals but also concede a lot. Only Spain beat them in qualifying and they drew with Spain tonight.

Italy need to get out of the blocks quickly otherwise the monkey in their back could weigh them down after failing in the last two play offs. Denmark id be worried about, they bosses Scotland over two games, yet only picked up 1 point. Despite having more possession and almost twice as many shots tonight, they only had 3 shots on target, that and being held by a very poor Belarus team ultimately cost them. If the don't improve they won't get to the world cup. Czechia are there by being runners up in a weak group but don't seem all that much themselves, I doubt they'll do much.
 
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E.T. Fairfax said:
But being in a group when Denmark are the best team, Scotland had never had a better chance in topping a group than this
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Maybe. And we were in a group with Serbia, who are ranked lower than Scotland, and seventeen places lower than Denmark.
 
rowley said:
Maybe. And we were in a group with Serbia, who are ranked lower than Scotland, and seventeen places lower than Denmark.
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Yeah. But Serbia weren't the number one seed in that group. Denmark were in theirs.

Personally, as I said yesterday, I think Denmark are a decent team but one going through a bit of a transition and have dipped a bit in the last year or so. Scotland were able to take advantage of that and fair play to them for doing it. It shows that if you're not on the top of your game there are enough competitive teams in Europe who can take advantage.

The play offs will be very interesting, a lot depends on they way the draw works out, but I'd not be surprised if Denmark failed to qualify. Because of the play off seedings they would be pitched against either Northern Ireland, North Macedonia, Romania (who I thought were out all together) or Sweden. On paper they should be more than a match for most of them, Sweden in decent form would be a hard game but they've been abysmal in qualifying. If the Danes produce a performance like the did in their last two games and those others are on top of their game it could be very awkward.
 
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