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Soooooo.. The play off then.


bonny78

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Looking at the groups after the last few nights, its actually likely we will play Israel at home in the playoffs. Finland look like qualifying and its likely at least one team from League C will get bumped up to the League B playoffs, leaving us at home to Israel. Serbia won't make it now, Norway might but they'll need a result in Sweden tonight which seems a big ask. So nothing's guaranteed yet, but even McLeish beat Israel at home.

Then, our the fate of 22 years exiled from major tournaments seems to be on a coin toss. I believe Clarke needs time and will improve us, so by March at home to Serbia/Norway maybe. Away to Serbia/Norway, no chance.

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1 hour ago, ghtresa said:

Looking at the groups after the last few nights, its actually likely we will play Israel at home in the playoffs.

The only way that can happen is if two out of Finland, Norway, Serbia and Bulgaria qualify automatically. Finland are looking good. Norway and Serbia still have an outside chance and Bulgaria have no chance. 

I am fairly confident that we will be playing Bulgaria at Hampden for the semi final. Then it will be either home or away to Norway or Serbia. Norway will be at home in the other semi, so I think we will be looking at a trip to Oslo. But, as you say, if Norway do something in Sweden tonight it might all change

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55 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

The only way that can happen is if two out of Finland, Norway, Serbia and Bulgaria qualify automatically. Finland are looking good. Norway and Serbia still have an outside chance and Bulgaria have no chance. 

I am fairly confident that we will be playing Bulgaria at Hampden for the semi final. Then it will be either home or away to Norway or Serbia. Norway will be at home in the other semi, so I think we will be looking at a trip to Oslo. But, as you say, if Norway do something in Sweden tonight it might all change

That's not correct, they need 8 teams for playoffs A and B. So if at least 17 of the teams from League A and B qualify automatically, teams from C will move up and the first team in line would be Bulgaria. 

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8 hours ago, Dave78 said:

Living in Ireland for the past 12 years, and comparing their relative success and national self-confidence with ours, i've come to the conclusion that our problem stems with Scotland's political arrangement.

I have zero scientific measurement of this, let alone any way to prove it... but it remains my resolute belief.

 

I am as big a believer in scottish self determination as you will get, but I dont get that, unless of course you are suggesting finances are holding us back rather than us feeling mentally inferior. 

How do you explain Wales’s success, they are arguably more suppressed than we are.  Admittedly they have Gareth Bale, but we also have a world class player. 

Do you think the problem only exists within football or includes other sports? I am asking this whilst thinking about the incredible comeback from the rugby team against England, there was little sign of confidence issues there.    

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19 hours ago, mrniaboc said:

I'm a golfer, and recently after 20 years of playing I developed real problem. On the putting green I would get all my putts close or hole them with no thought about it, but once I stepped on the course I couldn't do it. Not only could I not do it, but my entire style and mindset changed. Mentally I fell to bits, even over the easiest of putts. 

I'm sure most of you will know in sports this condition is called the yips. It's a mental issue that manifests itself in your physical performance and can completely destroy sporting careers. The Scotland national team have the yips BIG STYLE and it's hard to watch. 

I firmly believe our teams have mental barriers to deal with and Clarke mentioned it after Friday game. ( I am not allowed to use the word ‘alluded’due to a previous post which upset a reader.)

I think Southgate recognised it in his English team and brought people in to help. We need to too IMO.

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34 minutes ago, ghtresa said:

That's not correct, they need 8 teams for playoffs A and B. So if at least 17 of the teams from League A and B qualify automatically, teams from C will move up and the first team in line would be Bulgaria. 

They fill up the League C playoff spots first. So, as Bulgaria are currently the highest ranked non qualifier who are not in the play offs, they would move up to take Finland's spot in the League C play off. I am assuming Finland qualify automatically here (that's not a certainty). The empty places in the League B playoffs will be filled up by the highest ranked League C teams after the League C playoff spots have been filled. First in line for that is currently Israel. If Finland and Norway both qualify automatically, Bulgaria and Israel move up to take their places in the League C playoffs. Hungary would then be first in line to take up the empty League B playoff spots.

 

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If Im correct the final could be at any of the 4 semi finalists. So we could end up playing Serbia in Sofia or Oslo?

Im convinced that as a host nation UEFA will give us every chance to be there. Wouldn’t shock me if the play off venue was ‘randomly’ drawn as Glasgow.

Edited by bossman4
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We certainly can't say our players lack a strong mentality at club level. My new line of thinking after Friday is simply, have the top national teams just gotten even better over the past day 5-10 years? I'm talking about football intelligence as well as technical ability. There was some passages of play in the second half from Russia that I could only describe as a masterclass in how to win games. They dominated the game for just over an hour away from home. I'm not saying they were Brazil 1970 here but they were seriously slick and efficient - a level away above us. I certainly never appreciated they were that good. Our midfield are lauded here for their clubs here and in England. You can draw your own conclusions from that.

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44 minutes ago, infamous said:

Sorry, question, why are we playing in Oslo? Are we not the higher ranked side in the seeding?

I just assumed we would lose the toss. Because that's what we do.:lol: I was just having a wee joke about us always being unlucky in the draw.

There is a draw to decide the venue of the final on 22nd November (thanks teecee). If we get to the final, there is a 50:50 chance the final will be at Hampden. 

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8 minutes ago, bossman4 said:

If Im correct the final could be at any of the 4 semi finalists. So we could end up playing Serbia in Sofia or Oslo?

 

No, If we play Serbia the game will be in Serbia or Hampden. If we play Norway it will be in Norway or Hampden.

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10 minutes ago, bossman4 said:

 

Im convinced that as a host nation UEFA will give us every chance to their. Wouldn’t shock me if the play off venue was ‘randomly’ drawn as Glasgow.

That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. I just assumed that they would be corrupt against us, but on this occasion the corruption might go in our favour. You've convinced me. Both games at Hampden. :ok:

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Norway would be quite a fitting play off I think.

Said it before but to me they're like Scotland's brothers in international football. Look back to the 90s and they made both World cups and also I think 96 and 2000 euros, was a squad stacked full of premier league quality and I think they even got as high as 2nd in the world rankings for a short spell.

Since euro 2000....nothing. Last World cup in 1998 like Scotland and think they've just been in two play offs in all that time.

However they now have Lars Lagerback in charge which is always worthy of notice and they now have interesting group of young players established in top leagues. Martin Odegaard was hyped at 16, picked up by Real Madrid and he is now playing every week at Real Sociedad. He is a good passing midfielder. Also got Josh King at Bournemouth and Ajer at Celtic as very promising young players.

At least it would give a chance of one of the two forgotten 90s nationals teams another chance at major tournament. Neither would have a chance v Serbia imo.

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9 hours ago, Dave78 said:

Living in Ireland for the past 12 years, and comparing their relative success and national self-confidence with ours, i've come to the conclusion that our problem stems with Scotland's political arrangement.

I have zero scientific measurement of this, let alone any way to prove it... but it remains my resolute belief.

 

Couldn't agree more. I've been preaching this for some time. It's all psychological.

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26 minutes ago, bisland boy said:

According to UEFA website, as things stand just now, would be a draw between Bulgaria and Israel to see who would be playing us and who would go into Group A playoff https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2581807.html

Hmmm.. That's strange? Bulgaria got 7 points and Israel only got 6 in the nations league.

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1 hour ago, TDYER63 said:

I am as big a believer in scottish self determination as you will get, but I dont get that, unless of course you are suggesting finances are holding us back rather than us feeling mentally inferior. 

How do you explain Wales’s success, they are arguably more suppressed than we are.  Admittedly they have Gareth Bale, but we also have a world class player. 

Do you think the problem only exists within football or includes other sports? I am asking this whilst thinking about the incredible comeback from the rugby team against England, there was little sign of confidence issues there.    

I believe that Scotland has taken the fullest force of England's psychological shaming and humiliation over the years as they have perceived Scotland as their biggest threat.

That rugby match was a good example of Scotland ALMOST beating England. As was our last football match against them. I would argue that these are prime examples of us lacking belief.

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14 minutes ago, Dogbiscuit said:

I believe that Scotland has taken the fullest force of England's psychological shaming and humiliation over the years as they have perceived Scotland as their biggest threat.

That rugby match was a good example of Scotland ALMOST beating England. As was our last football match against them. I would argue that these are prime examples of us lacking belief.

Good Post.  

We are losers. 

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