*Official Euro 2008 Qualifying Thread*

[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.