Texas Pete

Or being nowhere near even the playoffs which was the usual for nearly 20 years.

Aye I hate VAR but I doubt it’s going anywhere. I think what we need is full visibility on decisions. We should be able to hear what the VAR people are saying to the referees so we know what’s going on.

They have also beaten us a couple of times. If we never play them again I wouldn’t miss them but also wouldn’t be that bothered if we drew them in Germany although we could probably do without the controversy that would go along with playing them at a major tournament.

I wouldn’t mind Wales (depending on what other options were available from their pot) but England can GTF.

Good. Jossy’s Giants were awesome. Sid Waddell was a legend even if he didn’t pronounce his name properly.

I doubt Doig would have been promoted from the U21s if he had been fit. Their qualifier is more important than a friendly against France and I think Taylor would be starting anyway. I would much rather have Robertson at LWB or LB obviously but Taylor did OK when he stepped in against Belgium (although it was 4 years ago now) so I’m not that concerned. We’ll likely get skelped tomorrow regardless of who plays on the left.

😂😂😂 As long as we’re not in England’s group I don’t care who they get. I’m sick of the sight of them. Surely we can’t get them 3 Euros in a row?

😂😂😂 If Putin attacks Germany a football tournament will be the least of our worries I think.

I assume Taylor and Patterson will start against France but it’s good to have some cover with our fullbacks dropping like flies.

The problem with automated offside is it can’t really say if someone was interfering with play. For this one VAR confirmed Hendry was offside but I would imagine they weren’t sure if he was interfering with play and wanted the ref to make the call.

We could theoretically still end up in pot 4 ourselves I think if we lose our last 2 games although it is pretty unlikely. By the looks of it we could end up with a horrible group regardless of which pot we are in. There are worse situations to be in though.

It wasn’t 3am for me. 😂 Technically it is possibly for all 3 teams to be in pot 2 but only if we win our group and if by some miracle we manage to do that it’s pretty certain we would be in pot 1. Pot 2 would be fine by me. We could theoretically end up with a harder group if we were pot 1 and England and Italy were in Pot 2. We could end up with Turkey or someone like that as our pot 1 team although I suspect France or Portugal will be more likely with our luck in finals draws.

Wouldn’t that depend on the score when Italy go to Wembley? If Italy beat England by a single goal and England and Italy win their remaining games it would come down to goal difference and England’s GD is much better that Italy’s at the moment. Or am I missing something?

I only had a quick look earlier but I’m pretty sure Italy could catch us on GD if they win their last 3 games and we get 4 points from our last 2 games (assuming England win their group). I think Denmark or Slovenia could also finish second in their group on 19 points. We have a superior goal difference to all of them at the moment though so that’s in our favour.

Croatia are guaranteed a playoff as they won their Nations League group.

Norway were probably the strongest pot 3 team we could get but they turned out to be pretty average. If they do improve over the next couple of years we will hopefully end up in the same qualifying pots for at least a while and we will avoid them.

They could still get a playoff but they will need some results to go their way.

Our only chance of winning the group is for something outrageous to happen like Spain getting 2 men sent off early against Georgia or Cyprus. Or for us to beat Georgia and Norway 8-0 or something. 😂 4 points might be enough for pot 2 but I think 2 wins would guarantee it and that’s what we should be aiming for.

The first time we have qualified for a tournament automatically and without having to rely on being best runner up or anything like that since 1996. 5th (joint 5th with Spain) team to qualify for Euro 2024. What a difference from being the first European team eliminated from the World Cup 10 years ago.

Should be doable. Norway will be deflated and I can’t see Haaland turning up at Hampden and we are due a result in Georgia. I’d like to see us winning both games and finishing off the group in style though.

Yeah got to agree with that but you can only beat the teams you draw. Spain are a good team but they are a shadow of the team they were 10-15 years ago and are nowhere near as good as France/England/Netherlands/Belgium etc. are at the moment. They are still going to win the group though unless they have a disaster against Georgia or Cyprus. Norway have picked up 10 points from 7 games (6 of those were against Cyprus) which is pretty shocking really considering they have (arguably) the best striker in the world.

We didn’t qualify because of tonight’s result on its own. We qualified because we have won 5 of our 6 games and Norway, Georgia and Cyprus have not.

We need to win our last 2 games to give us the best chance of getting into pot 2 so I wouldn’t be blooding too many young players if I was Clarke.

😂😂😂 Time to take your tinfoil hat off and go for a lie down in a dark room I think. We’ve qualified tonight and that’s all that matters.

No I think you’re probably right. I’m just waiting on the overall standings to be updated before I definitely believe it. 😂 It might be possible for a current group leader to drop into second place next month and push us down but I’m not 100% sure. Winning 7 out of 8 games and finishing second must be pretty rare though?