*Official Euro 2008 Qualifying Thread*

[Droogie]

[ QUOTE ]
On Greece vs Netherlands:
The Dutch just don't seem comfortable with the efficient style they are supposed to play and quite frankly I want to see them play their amazing offensive football, too. Make no mistake they are one of the best teams if it comes to pure skill but something just seems wrong with the way they have played during the qualifiers.


[/ QUOTE ]

Van Basten has literally no clue what he is (supposed to be) doing.

With a competent manager we'd have a shot, with van Basten we have a 0,1% shot. Unless he gets lucky again and we get a really weak group (we arguably had (by far) the easiest qualification group and still struggled) he might (might!) make it past the group round.

PLEASE [censored] OFF TO AJAX ALREADY YOU USELESS SACK OF [censored]!

[THEOSU]

one thing i'm not really seeing enough of:

england really aren't very good. their #1 goalie has had a crisis of confidence for a year now. their top defender has been alternately injured, off form, and scheming in the backroom of his club. their top striker didn't score internationally for two years, then got hurt. their best right wingers either play in mls (lol) or can't get a game for their club. their best central midfielders can't work together, and haven't been in the best of form for their club (lampard last year, gerrard this year).

i mean, there's a theme here. you'd thnk with stuff like this that the manager would be willing to experiment more in earlier qualifiers, becasuse obviously the first choice eleven aren't going to get the job done.

then again, you'd think that the manager wouldn't revert to beckham-lampard-gerrard-cole in the midfield when it hasn't worked for the past 3 years.

[Pontuan21]

I was debating whether to start a new thread for this but I figure this is probably the best spot for now.

Here's the European pots for World Cup 2010 qualifying:

Pot 1

Italy
Spain
Germany
Czech Republic
France
Portugal
Netherlands
Croatia
Greece

Pot 2
England
Romania
Scotland
Turkey
Bulgaria
Russia
Poland
Sweden
Israel

Pot 3
Norway
Ukraine
Serbia
Denmark
Northern Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Finland
Switzerland
Belgium

Pot 4
Slovakia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Hungary
Moldova
Wales
FYR Macedonia
Belarus
Lithuania
Cyprus

Pot 5
Georgia
Albania
Slovenia
Latvia
Iceland
Armenia
Austria
Kazakhstan
Azerbaijan

Pot 6
Liechtenstein
Estonia
Malta
Luxembourg
Montenegro
Andorra
Faroe Islands
San Marino

I'm not an England supporter but its pretty unfair that they got leapfrogged by Greece into the 1st pot.

I guess FIFA decided against the old rules where they would take team's past experiences in World Cups when deciding the seedings. For England, who were a penalty shootout away from making the World's final four in 2006; this is a disaster as only one team automatically gets through without needing a playoff.

Also, take a look where Switzerland (who had a good 2006) and Austria are. They both got penalised big time for not playing big games having had a bye to host Euro 2008.

[thesilkworm]

I was considering starting a new thread for this too, but since you've posted it here, I'll keep it in here.

As a Scotland supporter, my ideal (easiest) group would be:

Greece
Scotland
Northern Ireland
Moldova
Azerbaijan
San Marino

My "group of death" (like we got for Euro 2008) would be:

Italy
Scotland
Ukraine
Hungary
Austria
Liechtenstein

What are everyone else's thoughts for their own teams?

[JaredL]

Looking at those pots, it's hard to say. Perhaps they should be in over Greece, but other than them England are worse than every other team in that pot. Their level is much more similar to the teams in the pot they are in (the exception being Israel who I think is too high) so in that sense they are fairly seeded. Also, it could be argued that Romania should be in pot 1 over England anyway.

Israel I think is too high. They have shown in qualifying that they can pretty consistently beat bad teams and compete with good European sides. But they have also shown that they are not as good as these European sides. I think that they should be in pot 3. I'm not really sure which team should replace them (one of Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine I guess) but they just seem to be about on par with the teams in that pot. They did finish even with England on points in Euro 2008 qualifying, so maybe I underrate them.

silkworm,

To be honest I don't know much in terms of comparing say Cyprus and Macedonia. For Spain I think Romania would be the worst draw from pot 2 with England just behind them. Israel is the team you would like to draw here. From 3, Ukraine would be the worst draw. Pot 3 is pretty even. I think having to travel across the entire continent pushes them ahead. Northern Ireland is the weakest team there.

[sharkstevie]

Please let Ireland be drawn with England,If we beat them in a big World Cup Qualifier game which mattered or prevented them for qualifying I would die a happy man.

Or just give us Greece & Israel from pots 1&2 that would be more ideal to actually give us a great chance of qualification.

[LuckyLloyd]

[ QUOTE ]

Or just give us Greece & Israel from pots 1&2 that would be more ideal to actually give us a great chance of qualification.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT.

[TCEgor]

In recent past they never used result of finals for seeding. Last few times they just add all points they got in last euro and last WC qual and divide them by the number of games. This time they used FIFA rating instead and England is just one point behind Greece.