Texas Pete Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 18 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said: Sorry lets be accurate here. If we pick up only 4 points there is no way on Earth we are finishing as runners-up unless you are suggesting Malta are going to draw or beat Slovakia in the last match. The only scenario left open to us now (unless you believe in tooth fairies) is win our last two matches. Unless we beat Slovakia 9-0 or something. ??? Yeah people are having a hard time with this for some reason. 4 points will not be enough for a playoff without 3-4 amazing upsets, including Malta getting at least a point from Slovakia. Ain't gonna happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonny78 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 2 wins required then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: Unless we beat Slovakia 9-0 or something. ??? Yes and that is believing in tooth fairies territory again or 4-0 win for us against Slovakia and Malta beating them 5-0. Edited September 5, 2017 by Caledonian Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 1 minute ago, bonny78 said: 2 wins required then. Even that might not be enough for a playoff. We'd be pretty unlucky though I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonny78 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 1 minute ago, Texas Pete said: Even that might not be enough for a playoff. We'd be pretty unlucky though I think. Naw. That aint right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Just now, bonny78 said: Naw. That aint right. You ain't right, brother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 All we can do is win our last two games and hopefully that will be enough to get us into the play-offs. Anything less than that and we are out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 6 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said: Yes and that is believing in tooth fairies territory again or 4-0 win for us against Slovakia and Malta beating them 5-0. After the France - Luxembourg result the other night, 0-0 between Malta and Slovakia is possible I suppose. Mind you, it's also possible that I'll win the lottery on Saturday. There's about as much chance of aliens landing on the centre circle at Hampden during the Slovakia game than there is of Malta getting a point in this campaign. We were quite poor last night I thought and we still won easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 3 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: We were quite poor last night I thought and we still won easily. We won without having to get out of second gear. That is how I'd say it went. We got the early goal (thankfully) and that settled us down. Once we got the second it was game over and the real intensity went out of our game. They seemed content to sort of protect what they had and not run the risk of a nervous last 10 minutes or so. Understandable considering past calamities against minnows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grim Jim Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 47 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said: Sorry lets be accurate here. If we pick up only 4 points there is no way on Earth we are finishing as runners-up unless you are suggesting Malta are going to draw or beat Slovakia in the last match. The only scenario left open to us now (unless you believe in tooth fairies) is win our last two matches. Aye, too busy looking at other 2nd placers to consider getting over the line ourselves first. Told you it was late Acht, but it is time Malta got something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Pete Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said: We won without having to get out of second gear. That is how I'd say it went. We got the early goal (thankfully) and that settled us down. Once we got the second it was game over and the real intensity went out of our game. They seemed content to sort of protect what they had and not run the risk of a nervous last 10 minutes or so. Understandable considering past calamities against minnows. I haven't watched the highlights yet but I thought we gave the ball away far too easily and definitely weren't clinical enough in the final third. Like you say, we did what we had to without having to work too hard. The flat atmosphere definitely didn't help. Slovakia will be a whole different matter. If we can get at least 40,000 in the door making a racket I fancy us to take the game to them. Edited September 5, 2017 by Texas Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 2 minutes ago, Texas Pete said: Slovakia will be a whole different matter. If we can get at least 40,000 in the door making a racket I fancy us to take the game to them. I said this elsewhere but Slovakia are in a tricky position (sooner be in their shoes though) where they will come to Hampden and would prefer to keep it tight and settle for the draw if needs be but Slovenia are still in the mix and if they were to get a result against England on the same night then Slovakia may be out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 13 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said: I said this elsewhere but Slovakia are in a tricky position (sooner be in their shoes though) where they will come to Hampden and would prefer to keep it tight and settle for the draw if needs be but Slovenia are still in the mix and if they were to get a result against England on the same night then Slovakia may be out. I think it's impossible for Slovakia to be out following the games on October 5th? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 1 minute ago, Toepoke said: I think it's impossible for Slovakia to be out following the games on October 5th? Well was thinking of the scenario of us beating Slovakia and Slovenia beating England. Tooth fairy territory I know but thinking on now that would leave Slovakia hoping for a draw between us and Slovenia in order for them to get through with a win over Malta. I don't think they'd take that scenario so they may be forced into being a little more ambitious against us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookerman Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 I could be wrong but if Slovakia dont beat us they could end up as the worst second place team. So they have to come for the win ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaggycoo Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 10 minutes ago, bookerman said: I could be wrong but if Slovakia dont beat us they could end up as the worst second place team. So they have to come for the win ? Well they'd be on 13 points so a very distinct possibility of finishing as worst 2nd place. Beeb have ran an article explaining.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/scotland/41164082 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orraloon Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 3 hours ago, Toepoke said: Further to what Grim Jim said I didn't realise Sweden and Holland play each other twice on the last weekend. Opportunity for some serious mutual throat cutting there! Eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 3 minutes ago, Orraloon said: Eh? They dinnae. They played each other first game and will play each other last game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orraloon Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 2 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said: Yes and that is believing in tooth fairies territory again or 4-0 win for us against Slovakia and Malta beating them 5-0. If we beat Slovakia 4-0 we will be on +8 and they will be +4. If we were to draw in Slovenia they would need to beat Malta by at least 4 goals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 1 minute ago, Orraloon said: If we beat Slovakia 4-0 we will be on +8 and they will be +4. If we were to draw in Slovenia they would need to beat Malta by at least 4 goals. And we would be out as weakest runners-up. Face it - must win our last two games. End of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 11 minutes ago, Orraloon said: Eh? My bad, the Luxembourg flag looks awfie like the Dutch one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orraloon Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 4 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said: And we would be out as weakest runners-up. Face it - must win our last two games. End of. We do now, but if we had gone for a few more goals in the last two games, instead of fannying aboot with 30 minute s still to go, we could have already overtaken them on GD. Then a 2 goal victory for us over Slovakia would have set them a decent target to try to get against Malta in the event that we didn't quite manage to win in Slovenia. We should have been going for more goals against Lithuania and Malta. I just don't think Strachan understood how important GD could be. None of us know for sure how the other groups are going to finish but going for more goals in the previous two games has no impact on how we perform in the next two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Orraloon said: We do now, but if we had gone for a few more goals in the last two games, instead of fannying aboot with 30 minute s still to go, we could have already overtaken them on GD. Then a 2 goal victory for us over Slovakia would have set them a decent target to try to get against Malta in the event that we didn't quite manage to win in Slovenia. We should have been going for more goals against Lithuania and Malta. I just don't think Strachan understood how important GD could be. None of us know for sure how the other groups are going to finish but going for more goals in the previous two games has no impact on how we perform in the next two. There are many what ifs we could ponder right now. All that matters is how things stand now and that is that we must win our last two games. Even with a bucket-load of goals last night a draw V Slovenia would not have been enough as we'd still be out as worst runners up. Edited September 5, 2017 by Caledonian Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Russell's Lovechild Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 According to Sky sports on twitter, if we win our last two, we will finish as the second best runners up, so no problem getting a play-off place. The World Cup Qualifiers play-off table- Scotland will finish second if they win their final two matches. #SSN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordyA88 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 If we win 2 games we will definitely be in the play offs. No chance we will miss out. Seen the standings last night, Slovakia are currently the 3rd ranked second place team. Bosnia are the team currently set to miss out, they have basically 8 points. They are last by a long way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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