infamous

hahaha, good point.

Yeah I assumed we would get through on goal difference. Being home and all.

@Bobby Russell's Lovechild oh I believe, just feel like he is full of shit. Sounds like he is searching for excuses. I have nothing against Clarke at the moment too.

Yeah all good, I love the 1982 World Cup. Real shame we were in such a bloody tough group. The second goal we conceded was a joke.

A good CIS team too, they conceded in stoppage time against Germany to draw 1-1, and drew 0-0 with the Dutch. Finished ahead of Italy in Euro 1992 qualifying too. Wonder how much better they would have played if USSR/Russia wasn't in such turmoil back then. Would be weird playing for a country that doesn't exist and having no anthem.

2-2 was the 1982 world cup right?

That sounds like bullshit.

Yep, I'm tipping 1-0 Russia with them dominating the majority of it. They are very wasteful (Except for the Kazakhstan 4-0 away win).

Midfield is ok, that backline is grim. We will probably see Devlin start

haha, I was going to say Moscow and St Petersburg are some of the safest cities I have ever visited. Gave me a good laugh though.

Grim result given we are hosting, but a win against Andorra and we are through to the next stage of qualifying. Hopefully this team can be the first one to qualify in 13 attempts.

Yeah, the Russians partly were screwed over due to hosting the World Cup, they went from 25 after Euro 2016 to 70 for the World Cup (Think Germany for 2006 dropped down to 20 from hosting). Agree on your point, FIFA rankings don't mean shit, qualifying regularly and doing stuff at these tournaments is what it is about.

Russia is missing a few key players (They were also missing some key players for the first game too). So we will be playing an even more weakened Russia side than the one we lost to. They are super strong at home which is why they are always at major tournaments. Russia 0-1, a spirited performance. San Marino 4-0

It is common though around the world right? La Liga regulations permit up to three "foreign" players per team (Players with ancestry of an EU country may also use this to be counted as an EU player, and therefore not as foreign) MLS has a foreign player limit of 8 in the squad. A League in Australia allows 5 foreign players. The Russians have a rule that no less than five players eligible to play for Russia should be on the field at all times.

No thanks, made his bed picking England.

Pretty sure none of the stadiums in the Russian league have plastic pitches.

All valid points tbh. I don't think Russia will smash us though. They are missing quiet a few players that are key to them.

Not judging him until the end of the campaign. Belgium x 2 were guaranteed losses Russia x 1 well it was an expected loss as they are the superior side. The performance was disappointing but i do feel we lack the cattle to compete. Cyprus x 1 got the result. Russia will likely take us lightly imo. They have a tendency to do that. In the Russia games Cyprus and kazakhstan both parked the bus and although heavily outplayed kept the Russians down to a goal. I would be happy if we can do the same. If we grab 7 points in our remaining 4 matches that would be a pass mark for me going into the play offs. Anything less and we are fucked. Kazakhstan and Cyprus have both shown to be tough teams to crack in this campaign. The ideal scenario us 9 points and a solid prep for the playoffs with a confident squad.

Insane season he is having... but it is hard to judge, it is effectively a farm league. Throw him on against San Marino imo.

From what i originally gathered the system was 1) First place in qualifying group -> WC (10 Teams) 2) Second place in WC Qualifying group -> Playoff (10 Teams) 3) Teams that had the highest two rankings in Nations league and did not make the play offs -> Play off (2 Teams) They would then combine 2 and 3 to have 12 Play off teams, then similair to the playoffs for Euro 2020 teams will be broken into 3 brackets of 4 with the winner of each bracket going to the World Cup. Is that how it will stay?

They are stalling so we continue to tumble down into Pot 4.

Russian players are tested by UEFA and FIFA lol. They don't dope, if they doped Russia would be a lot better at football than they are. They are generally a top sport country in most fields. They would be a lot better if they doped lol. Lucky for them we are so trash at football that we need to hope they dope lol. Anyway, CAS overturned a lot of the decisions WADA made and reinstated Russia's gold medals from the 2014 Olympics (Where this all started). The guy who revealed Russian doping barely said anything about football.

Doubt this would affect their football. Russian athletes (especially footballers) are the most tested athletes in the World. Dzyuba said he was tested 3 times a day at the World Cup.

Lost 10kg in 6 months doing intermittent fasting.