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Soooooo.. The play off then.


bonny78

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4 hours ago, Dogbiscuit said:

A general sense of superiority and ownership.

 

Well I didn't specifically say it was about being in the union. But I don't think it's a coincidence that a country that's not quite a country and is in the unusual position of being 'governed' by a neighbouring country suffers from a failure mentality. It's really not a normal position to be in in the first place. The British are well known for their psychological warfare so due to our position in relation to them (geographically, politically, socially, etc) I have no doubt that our national psyche bears the burden. An everyday example was on Friday at around 7pm I went on the BBC sport site to check our line up and there was nothing about the game. But of course, after suffering a disappointing defeat it was featured as the top story through into the next day.

I do agree with you that we're in a vicious cycle though. And I think the best starting point is to question the old narrative that we're shite and our players are shite and we're losers etc etc.

Next time your in London drop me a message and I’ll buy you a beer explain how we don’t own you and don’t feel in any way superior to you. That is except for your football team 😉

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So its now ALL about March, so now have to rebuild for then properly.  We need a right back and a central defensive pairing with 4 games to get it sorted.  We should send a gift to McLeish for getting us that play off, if we didnt it would be 10 times worse. 

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23 hours ago, Sheach said:

I've updated the Playoff picture after last night's results - https://www.thetartanscarf.com/post/preview-scotland-v-belgium-playoff-picture

Also got an opposition scouting report on Belgium (it's pretty scary) - https://www.thetartanscarf.com/post/opposition-focus-belgium

Do you know why there is to be a draw for which playoff Israel and Bulgaria go into (assuming Finland qualify directly) when Bulgaria are the higher ranked team in the Nations League rankings? 

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On 9/8/2019 at 7:50 AM, duncan II said:

I genuinely believe this to be the case, too.

How ironic that we can now use the remaining  ‘proper’ Euro qualifiers as friendly matches to prepare for our back door attempt at qualification by way of a competition designed partly to make friendlies more meaningful. 

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3 minutes ago, Jacques Hunt said:

How ironic that we can now use the remaining  ‘proper’ Euro qualifiers as friendly matches to prepare for our back door attempt at qualification by way of a competition designed partly to make friendlies more meaningful. 

:lol: Aye, it is a bit ironic.

But hopefully these next 4 "friendlies" will be a bit more meaningful than normal friendlies? Unless half the squad call off with toothache and the fear of getting skint knees and stuff like that.

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18 hours ago, Nobby said:

Next time your in London drop me a message and I’ll buy you a beer explain how we don’t own you and don’t feel in any way superior to you. That is except for your football team 😉

Thanks so much Nobby. I'm actually heading to London next week. Let me know what part you're in.

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21 hours ago, Rich NATA said:

Am I correct in saying there are only 3 days between the play-off and the play-off final?

Leaving the fans less than 72 hours to book flights and accommodation and to travel?

Not to mention the host stadium preparation, security, ticket sales, etc... needing to be arranged by the host FA's.

 

 

 

I still maintain that the best way of dealing with the playoffs would have been to have them at a neutral venue, probably one of the host cities would be ideal. Scotland, Norway, Serbia and Finland all go to Amsterdam for example, each play our respective semi finals  in the same stadium and the winners play 3 days later at the same venue.

Fans know when and where they need to be, and the FA's can organise tickets more easily.

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4 hours ago, Lion Rampant said:

I still maintain that the best way of dealing with the playoffs would have been to have them at a neutral venue, probably one of the host cities would be ideal. Scotland, Norway, Serbia and Finland all go to Amsterdam for example, each play our respective semi finals  in the same stadium and the winners play 3 days later at the same venue.

Fans know when and where they need to be, and the FA's can organise tickets more easily.

It's only a few thousand fans who will be inconvenienced and we all know that the football authorities don't give a fuk about the fans.

 

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Thursday 26 March 2020 through to the 31st are the allocated dates to complete the play offs. 

It surely has to be one neutral venue for all the matches. Even if we played on the Thursday and somehow managed to win a spot in the final you couldn’t organise travel & ticketing. That goes for UEFA too not just the fans unless there’s some bags of money being thrown around at UEFA towers if you know what I mean!

Edited by Leg-End
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1 hour ago, Leg-End said:

Thursday 26 March 2020 through to the 31st are the allocated dates to complete the play offs. 

It surely has to be one neutral venue for all the matches. Even if we played on the Thursday and somehow managed to win a spot in the final you couldn’t organise travel & ticketing. That goes for UEFA too not just the fans unless there’s some bags of money being thrown around at UEFA towers if you know what I mean!

 

It's not, it will definitely be at the ground of one of the semi final winners. The draw for this takes place on November 22nd so we will know if there is a possibility of us playing any 'Final' at Hampden or whether we will immediately be flying off to, in all likelihood either Serbia/Norway. Not sure how people will decide whether to book flights if when the draw takes place we are drawn away given we could lose meaning they won't necessarily be required in any case. If we are drawn at home for any 'Final' then the SFA will 100% sell a package for both games ahead of time with refunds should we lose the semi-final. It is the only way to logistically do it and whilst it would create some work should we lose its a fairly straightforward process. 

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2581807.html

On another note bizarrely the group draw for 2020 itself takes place on Saturday 30th November, 4 months before the play offs are played. 

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/draws/round=2001024/

Edited by magicTs
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Cheers for the links.

Pretty baffling making that draw in November for the tournament - then again sides probably need time to prepare for who or who they may not play.

Surely the best thing regards the POs would be to play all the games at the best seeded teams stadium(s)

League A - is it a coin toss to see who makes up the rest of this? You may well have all 12 League A sides qualifying directly - although I think Iceland will come third in their qualifying group.  So there may well be 3 sides from B in the A playoffs? Is it a coin toss?

So for example if going by current standings ; they really should have done something similar to the Nations League final this summer e.g one host but rather than a draw ; the best ranked sides host it so e.g

A- Iceland

B- Bosnia and Herz

C-Scotland

D-Georgia

The Playoffs will be almost a week too. 26-31st of March, much like this week of football thing - and I'm guessing the finals will be the only game showing that day/time which is great.

I'm blagging it big time by making up scores too (especially for the B and A groups - just making up teams for there) but this would make a great week of football and exposure for the wee teams too  e.g.

Thurs 26 March :

18:00 North Macedonia 0 - 1 Kosovo

20:00 Georgia 3 - 0 Belarus

Fri 27 March :

18:00 Norway 3-4 Serbia

20:00 Scotand 2 - 0 Bulgaria

Sat 28 March:

14:00 Austria 1-2 Ireland

16:00 Bosnia 2-0 Wales

18:00 Slovakia 2-1 Czech Rep

20:00 Iceland 1-0 Northern Ireland

Then...

Sun 29th March - Georgia v Kosovo

Mon 30th March - Scotland v Serbia

Tues 31st March - Ireland v Bosnia and Iceland v Slovakia - one KO of at 6pm and the other at 8?

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The idea that the games are all played in the top seeds city is an extremely good one and makes a lot of sense. However its the footballing authorities remember and the fans are as always at the bottom of the list when it comes to priorities.

It might be they see what the teams are and how far travel is before deciding. It might be they do Thursday and Monday or Friday and Tuesday giving an extra day to organize and allow fans to travel than they have for the qualifiers. 

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1 hour ago, magicTs said:

 

It's not, it will definitely be at the ground of one of the semi final winners. The draw for this takes place on November 22nd so we will know if there is a possibility of us playing any 'Final' at Hampden or whether we will immediately be flying off to, in all likelihood either Serbia/Norway. Not sure how people will decide whether to book flights if when the draw takes place we are drawn away given we could lose meaning they won't necessarily be required in any case. If we are drawn at home for any 'Final' then the SFA will 100% sell a package for both games ahead of time with refunds should we lose the semi-final. It is the only way to logistically do it and whilst it would create some work should we lose its a fairly straightforward process. 

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2581807.html

On another note bizarrely the group draw for 2020 itself takes place on Saturday 30th November, 4 months before the play offs are played. 

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/draws/round=2001024/

Haha will be a good laugh finally watching a tournament finals draw with Scotland still involved. Take it we’d find out which group we’d potentially slot into with fixtures and venues etc? Ffs this is going to be such a huge incentive going into these 2 playoffs if any more motivation was actually required.

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8 hours ago, Scotsdeutsch said:

Haha will be a good laugh finally watching a tournament finals draw with Scotland still involved. Take it we’d find out which group we’d potentially slot into with fixtures and venues etc? Ffs this is going to be such a huge incentive going into these 2 playoffs if any more motivation was actually required.

Scotland will DEFINITELY be in the League C Play-Off’s because Nations League Group winners cannot ‘form a path with a team from a higher league'

They draw the Play-Off paths, starting with League D and working up to League A

So if they groups were finished now, the teams would be allocated as follows…

League D

Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo & Belarus (no changes as none of these teams are currently qualifying automatically, so the same four Nations League group winners)

League C

Scotland, Norway, Serbia & Bulgaria (who would replace Finland if they qualify automatically)

League B

Bosnia and Herzogovina, Austria, Wales & Israel (next League C ranked team because no other League B teams are currently failing to qualify)

League A

Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland & Hungary (who are the next League C ranked team because no other League A & B teams are currently failing to qualify)

It is the teams who are highlighted blue on the attached link who currently occupy the sixteen Play-Off spots..

Current Play-Off Spot Holders

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I’m utterly convinced we will qualify through the play offs. This is based on the fact that I applied for finals tickets for Euro 2020 in the first ballot. Didn’t get any Hampden matches in the first shake up so I’m now heading to Rome, Bucharest & Budapest in the same week the first two Hampden matches take place. 

I then got a second chance e mail offering me Hampden on the 15th & 19th of June. I can’t attend now as we’ve already booked up flights and accommodation. 

My only hope is that Scotland can make the last 16 and engineer themselves a tie in Budapest if I’m going to get a shot at seeing them play in a major finals. Failing that I’ll be our ambassador in Bulgaria as I’ll be sunning it up on the Black Sea coast and watching on tv . 

We may just not qualify of course. 

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God, the thought of having to play Serbia away from home in a play off just fills me with dread. Our players just would not cope with it, think everyone would admit the same. Just reminds me of Slovenia and Slovakia away from home in the last campaign where our players just mentally collapsed in both. Its got that ring to it. I always thought we would potentially end up with an easier team than fking Serbia

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Things could look a lot better for us if we can go into the play-offs on the back of wins against San Marino, Cyprus and Kazakhstan, especially if we can put in some good performances in those three matches.

I'd fancy us to beat Bulgaria at home, even in current form as they are even worse than we are.  

After that, I think the home team for the final will probably go through.  

 

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1 hour ago, PASTA Mick said:

Things could look a lot better for us if we can go into the play-offs on the back of wins against San Marino, Cyprus and Kazakhstan, especially if we can put in some good performances in those three matches.

 

 

We will get 5 points out of those three games if we are lucky.

 

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1 hour ago, PASTA Mick said:

 

I'd fancy us to beat Bulgaria at home, even in current form as they are even worse than we are.  

 

 

Don't underestimate them. That's a tough group they are in. If we had been given that draw we would be bottom as well. I think Scotland and Bulgaria are at a similar level at the moment.

 

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On 9/11/2019 at 9:53 AM, Reggie said:

Scotland will DEFINITELY be in the League C Play-Off’s because Nations League Group winners cannot ‘form a path with a team from a higher league'

They draw the Play-Off paths, starting with League D and working up to League A

So if they groups were finished now, the teams would be allocated as follows…

League D

Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo & Belarus (no changes as none of these teams are currently qualifying automatically, so the same four Nations League group winners)

League C

Scotland, Norway, Serbia & Bulgaria (who would replace Finland if they qualify automatically)

League B

Bosnia and Herzogovina, Austria, Wales & Israel (next League C ranked team because no other League B teams are currently failing to qualify)

League A

Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland & Hungary (who are the next League C ranked team because no other League A & B teams are currently failing to qualify)

It is the teams who are highlighted blue on the attached link who currently occupy the sixteen Play-Off spots..

Current Play-Off Spot Holders

Mate I wasn’t talking about that. The draw for the actual tournament is in November isn’t it?🤔

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Think it's already been said Scotland and England are in the same provisional group (or at least League C play off team). Coin toss to determine who plays at home if Scotland qualify.

Have to say it's really odd not to complete all the games before a December draw as is always the case. WIll be very little preparation time for the actual tournament for four of the teams given March in tournament years is usually the last chance to fine tune things before a squad is named.

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