tartanpar

I agree.

That is true but some of the games where we have dropped points have not been so called must wins. We dropped points away to the Faroes and Lithuania early on the the campaign.

It is a strange one. It is easy to say we weren't good enough and on the match days where we dropped points to the lower seeds we certainly weren't. However, in those qualification campaigns we have beaten Croatia home and away, drawn with Germany, beaten France home and away. However, we have drawn with the Faroes, lost to Lithuania, Belarus and Georgia and drawn with Moldova! It's crazy stuff. I think a lot of it is to do with attitude. When we play those so called weaker teams we seem to freeze and are not able to beat them whereas other teams similar to us are able to overcome these teams. I think we should be playing those sort of teams away from home in friendlies until we manage to get it right. Moldova away, Belarus away, Estonia away, Latvia away, Montenegro away, Azerbaijan away. When the players start moaning about going to these places in November and March the reason is simple! Start delivering against them in qualification and we wont need to in the future. If we want to start qualifying again or at least make the play offs then 12 points v the bottom 2 teams are a minumum requirement.

I posted something similar on twitter last week but thought I would go into more detail here. Our failure to beat the bottom 2 teams in our group has been the main reason why we have missed out on play offs or automatic qualification. Euro 2016. Results v bottom 2: Scotland 1-0 Georgia Scotland 6-1 Gibraltar Georgia 1-0 Scotland Gibraltar 0-6 Scotland A win v Georgia would have meant we finished 3rd and we would have made the play off. WC 2014 Scotland 1-1 Macedonia Wales 2-1 Scotland Scotland 1-2 Wales Macedonia 1-2 Scotland 12 points v the bottom 2 teams would have had us finish 2nd and a play off place. Euro 12 Lithuania 0-0 Scotland Scotland 2-1 Lichtenstein Scotland 1-0 Lithuania Lichtenstein 0-1 12 points v the bottom 2 wouldn't have made any difference. We would have still been 3rd but would have been on the same points as the Czechs. WC 2010 Macedonia 1-0 Scotland Iceland 1-2 Scotland Scotland 2-1 Iceland Scotland 2-0 Macedonia 12 points would have us finish 2nd and have secured a play off. Euro 2008 Scotland 6-0 Faroes Scotland 2-1 Georgia Faroes 0-2 Scotland Georgia 2-0 Scotland 12 points would have seen Scotland qualify automatically. WC 2006 Moldova 1-1 Scotland Scotland 2-0 Moldova Belarus 0-0 Scotland Scotland 0-1 Belarus 12 points would have seen Scotland finish 2nd and qualify for the play off. Euro 2004 Faroes 2-2 Scotland Lithuania 1-0 Scotland Scotland 3-1 Faroes Scotland 1-0 Lithuania 12 points would have seen Scotland win the group ahead of Germany. WC 2002 Latvia 0-1 Scotland San Marino 0-2 Scotland Scotland 4-0 San Marino Scotland 2-1 Latvia This was the last time we got 12 points v the bottom 2 teams but we finished 3rd. Scotland 3-2 Estonia Scotland 2-1 Faroes Faroes 1-1 Scotland Estonia 0-0 Scotland We finished 2nd in this group but again failed to get 12 points against the bottom 2 teams in the group. So since we last qualified for a tournament in 1998 we have only once managed to get 12 points v the bottom two teams in the group. In most of the groups it we had got maximum points v the weakest 2 teams we would have qualified for at least the play offs nearly every time. Will we get 12 points v Malta and Lithuania? I am not sure and history would suggest it's unlikely. If we want to qualify again we really have to beat the weakest teams in the group.

I agree but it would be very expensive to change flights or book again if they do.

As wanderer said above - being on Fifa doesn't mean it will happen. They put up an fixture that is mentioned in the press.

Remember there could be a game before the Malta game which would likely be played on the Wednesday or Thursday.

The Serbian media seem very confident that the game will happen. Hopefully there will be an away game too.

Have to agree with that. Some of the smaller countries like Andorra (who played in November), San Marino and the Faroes don't play much but I think that is because they struggle to find opponents. Israel also don't play many games either but that might also be to do with them struggling to find an opponent.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/paul-mcshane-determined-to-put-hole-in-hulls-promotion-drive-371774.html "Martin O’Neill’s side plan to play a fourth and final friendly away from Dublin before the European Championship starts, though the opponents and venue have yet to be finalised." The 2nd game will be more than likely in June. The Dutch game is a full 2 weeks before your first game. You would be mad not to have another game nearer the time. I am not saying you are going to play Russia (who are looking for games in Europe potentially in nutreal venues) but you are certainly going to play another game. It has been talked about in the Irish press for ages.

Yes they are playing the USA in Los Angeles on the 31st of January and likely to play at least one other game in January. They don't have any fixtures confirmed for March or May/June yet.

Ireland will play at least one more game in May/June in addition to the Netherlands game. It will be an away game as the FAI have confirmed they have all their home games in place.

There are loads left. We can only rule out about 14 UEFA countries.

Most of them are on the FIFA website.http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/international-tournaments/fixtures-results/date=20160301/index.html

Northern Ireland are playing Slovenia at home on the 28th of March (according to the Slovenian FA).

I am sure a lot of games will be announced over the next week or so after the Euro draw. Today Switzerland announced their 2nd March game against Bosnia and Herzegovina (they have already confirmed Ireland away on the first date). Yesterday Gibraltar also confirmed their 2nd game too with Latvia the opponents with Liechtenstein already confirmed previously.

It would certainly not surprise me if the warm weather training camp and match were two different trips. When we played Brazil it was a few days in Spain then they flew into London for the Brazil game. We could fly anywhere in Europe for the game towards the end of the international week from Spain/Portugal.

Scotland will get loads of decent offers to play matches in May/June. UEFA limit the number of games that each qualified team can play against each other to 1 in the month before the finals. As such, Scotland, Norway, Serbia, Netherlands etc will all get loads of offers to play games. Most teams will look to play 2 or 3 or even 4 friendly games in the weeks before the tournament.

I doubt many of the extra places will come from Europe unfortunately.

Doubt it. Italy are playing Spain and Germany while Korea Republic are playing World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon and Kuwait.

This is from the FIFA regulations in respect to the qualification games. 1. The relevant host association is responsible for the ticketing and shall manage the ticketing operations in a manner that meets all applicable security and safety standards. It shall set aside an appropriate number to be fixed by mutual agreement and in writing of complimentary and purchasable tickets for the visiting association. At least five representatives from the visiting association shall be seated in the VIP box. The visiting association shall inform the host association no later than 15 days before the match and in writing of the total number of tickets to be unused and thus returned upon arrival at the venue. 2. The host association shall, upon request and free of charge, provide FIFA with ten VIP box tickets and up to 40 category 1 tickets for each match. Such tickets shall be provided no later than 30 days prior to each match. 3. FIFA reserves the right to require certain terms and conditions to be included in the terms and conditions which apply to preliminary competition match tickets.

Yes I am sure.

We will get as many tickets as we need. Malta have a very small home support and we wont take a huge amount so no need to worry.

Yes. There is no longer a minimum allocation. It is to be decided between the FAs.

That was my thinking too. Perhaps they will have their warm weather training camp in Spain/Portugal/Cyprus etc from Mon - Sat then fly somewhere to play a game (just like they did with the Brazil game in March a few years back).