2nd Place

[macy37]

Not a chance of 2nd. Lithuania at home was our Georgia moment.

Also fancy them to take a point off England next week.

[ParisInAKilt]

There's definitely a chance. Shame we didn't have another 2 or even 4 points. 

[they've_been_suckered]

9 hours ago, COLT NY said:

I'd have taken any other result first, but Slovakia winning may be no bad thing. Knowing that we have no option but to win the last two games makes the gameplan that much clearer. We have to just go out now and do it.

That makes no sense. A draw or Slovenia win would have put us slightly ahead and allowed for a draw in the final game. Now we cannot afford a single dropped point. 

If Slovakia beat England, its over. 

[vanderark14]

43 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said:

There's definitely a chance. Shame we didn't have another 2 or even 4 points. 

We will no doubt head into the Slovakia match with a chance, we will all find that blind hope again and then.....................well, it's Scotland we will probably do what we do best in football.

[Malcolm]

If England beat Slovakia will a draw do us in Slovenia if we win our next two? Frankly, aside from the 1st seeds if you can't win home games you don't deserve to go

[ParisInAKilt]

8 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

We will no doubt head into the Slovakia match with a chance, we will all find that blind hope again and then.....................well, it's Scotland we will probably do what we do best in football.

I know. Can't help but get interested in the October games even though deep down I expect failure once again. 

[ParisInAKilt]

6 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

If England beat Slovakia will a draw do us in Slovenia if we win our next two? Frankly, aside from the 1st seeds if you can't win home games you don't deserve to go

Think we'd need a dramatic switch in goal difference 

[vanderark14]

1 minute ago, ParisInAKilt said:

I know. Can't help but get interested in the October games even though deep down I expect failure once again. 

That's exactly how I feel, all morning I've been thinking about teams like Wales and Northern Ireland who have done what seemed impossible a few years back. Surely it's our turn to go on a winning run and create some history of our own.............then I think of all the glorious failure moments we've had 

i hate being a Scotland fan 

[ParisInAKilt]

1 minute ago, vanderark14 said:

That's exactly how I feel, all morning I've been thinking about teams like Wales and Northern Ireland who have done what seemed impossible a few years back. Surely it's our turn to go on a winning run and create some history of our own.............then I think of all the glorious failure moments we've had 

i hate being a Scotland fan 

Haha I know.

Northern Ireland sitting with 16 points. Tremendous effort from them again. 

Typical Scotland, takes us over half a campaign to find a quality performance. 

[Malcolm]

15 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said:

Think we'd need a dramatic switch in goal difference 

So if we Roger Slovakia by three or four at hampden we might be ok...  ffs when you see how poor Lithuania were its a crime we didn't get 3 points at home

[C Mc]

If we end up on 18 points with Slovakia, is it goal difference or head to head?

[ParisInAKilt]

12 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

So if we Roger Slovakia by three or four at hampden we might be ok...  ffs when you see how poor Lithuania were its a crime we didn't get 3 points at home

They are 7 goals ahead of us, I know the points from Malta disappear at the end so I'm assuming goals against them do as well. I'd guess it's unlikely that we can beat them on GD at this stage. 

[er yir macaroon]

We'll win or remaining games. We've now get 4 or 5 very good players. Only Robertson played in the first Lithuania match. Phillips and Armstrong give us a new dimension, as do Tierney and Robertson. Next campaign (or finals) we'll almost certainly see Burke and McKay competing for a place. We'll be lightening quick, dangerous and altogether a different prospect from the start of this campaign.

[ErsatzThistle]

4 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

We'll win or remaining games. We've now get 4 or 5 very good players. Only Robertson played in the first Lithuania match. Phillips and Armstrong give us a new dimension, as do Tierney and Robertson. Next campaign (or finals) we'll almost certainly see Burke and McKay competing for a place. We'll be lightening quick, dangerous and altogether a different prospect from the start of this campaign.

No, he wasn't the only one - Ritchie, C Martin, McArthur, Forrest and Griffiths all played in that match too.

Forrest still isn't doing it for Scotland, Ryan Fraser has to be given a chance. 

Liam Lindsay, Callum McGregor, Liam Cooper and Stevie May also have to be tried out in friendly matches.

Although it's still too early to say, Anthony Ralston is worth keeping an eye on.

[Toepoke]

 

8 hours ago, Malcolm said:

If Slovakia beat England (which they may well do) are we ####ed?

If Slovakia can win at Wembley then fair play to them, they deserve second place.

57 minutes ago, C Mc said:

If we end up on 18 points with Slovakia, is it goal difference or head to head?

18 points would probably mean missing out as worst runner up though.

[Toepoke]

10 hours ago, romanticscot said:

 

18 June 1996	Park, Birmingham (N)	Switzerland	1–0	Euro 1996	Ally McCoist	34,926	[5]
31 August 1996	Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna (A)	Austria	0–0	World Cup qualification		29,500	[5]
5 October 1996	Stadionas Daugava, Riga (A)	Latvia	2–0	World Cup qualification	John Collins, Darren Jackson	9,500	[5]
10 November 1996	Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow (H)	Sweden	1–0	World Cup qualification	John McGinlay	46,738	[5]
11 February 1997	Stade Louis II, Monaco (N)[note 1]	Estonia	0–0	World Cup qualification		3,766	[5]
29 March 1997	Rugby Park, Kilmarnock (H)	Estonia	2–0	World Cup qualification	Tom Boyd, Own goal	17,996	[5]
2 April 1997	Celtic Park, Glasgow (H)	Austria	2–0	World Cup qualification	Kevin Gallacher (2)	43,295

Some other stats for you, Slovenia have never beaten us........we also have never beaten Slovakia.

We've only played them once!

[Orraloon]

10 hours ago, romanticscot said:

 

 

........we also have never beaten Slovakia. 

That is true, but we have only played them once.

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, C Mc said:

If we end up on 18 points with Slovakia, is it goal difference or head to head?

It's GD first then goals scored. This has changed for this tournament. It used to be head to head first.

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, ParisInAKilt said:

They are 7 goals ahead of us, I know the points from Malta disappear at the end so I'm assuming goals against them do as well. I'd guess it's unlikely that we can beat them on GD at this stage. 

The results against Malta don't drop of until it comes to deciding who are they best 8 2nd place teams. So goals against Malta are just as important as goals against Lithuania in deciding who gets 2nd place within a group. Goals against Slovakia will be doubly important. Mind you so are any goals that they score against us.

I think there is now a decent chance that Scotland and Slovakia will both finish on 18 points

We beat Malta 5-0. Then we beat Slovakia by 2 goals. The pressure is then on Slovakia to score a few against Malta in their last game. That's assuming England beat Slovakia and we can get at least a point in Slovenia. Should be a piece of piss really.

[Orraloon]

28 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

We've only played them once!

 

26 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

That is true, but we have only played them once.

Does that make it twice noo?  Great minds and awe that....

[Caledonian Craig]

One game at a time.

Monday night should be our first focus. Keep the momentum building and win by three or four goals and I am confident England will beat Slovakia. Why? Well it is a must win for England or else they run the risk of being knocked down into a play-off spot.

Thereafter Slovakia come to Hampden. Okay they thrashed us over there but we were dire that night and change of personnel and a good string of results plus a rocking Hampden and I will feel pretty good. Slovakia are likely to come to Hampden and play for the draw which may be a good thing for us. If we don't get the desired result then no complaints but lets be positive eh? 

If we win that match we will go to Slovenia knowing a win in that match will seal a play-off spot. At Hampden against them they were very disappointing and we could have won far more comfortably than we did. Also by that time Slovenia will have nothing to play for which must help us.

Fasten your seat belts folks it is going to be exciting from here on in.

[wanderer]

9 hours ago, TartanSpice said:

Is that based on this: https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/index.html ?

If so, does that mean, based on that ranking of 23rd we'd be in League B, pot D, for the draw?

That's club coefficient, which is different than national coefficenet and used for Champions League and Europa League ranking.

National coefficient uses your results over previous European Championships.

[Orraloon]

17 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

One game at a time.

Monday night should be our first focus. Keep the momentum building and win by three or four goals and I am confident England will beat Slovakia. Why? Well it is a must win for England or else they run the risk of being knocked down into a play-off spot.

Thereafter Slovakia come to Hampden. Okay they thrashed us over there but we were dire that night and change of personnel and a good string of results plus a rocking Hampden and I will feel pretty good. Slovakia are likely to come to Hampden and play for the draw which may be a good thing for us. If we don't get the desired result then no complaints but lets be positive eh? 

If we win that match we will go to Slovenia knowing a win in that match will seal a play-off spot. At Hampden against them they were very disappointing and we could have won far more comfortably than we did. Also by that time Slovenia will have nothing to play for which must help us.

Fasten your seat belts folks it is going to be exciting from here on in.

You didn't stick to your "One game at a time" mantra very long.  Within a few sentences you've got us winning an away game in Slovenia. I hope Strachan can stay more focused that that.

[Caledonian Craig]

Just now, Orraloon said:

You didn't stick to your "One game at a time" mantra very long.  Within a few sentences you've got us winning an away game in Slovenia. I hope Strachan can stay more focused that that.

Obviously, the player/team mindset should be one game at a time. We don't want them assuming three points are already in the bag before a ball is kicked on Monday.

The rest of it is the opinion of how things stand from my point of view and likely scenarios.

[Bobby Russell's Lovechild]

Slovakia result last night doesn't bother me. A draw or loss would have given England some breathing space, they have to beat them to get that back. England will win by a couple of goals