So who we getting in play off currently

[Gary Stirling]

What I can't figure out is how we are supposed to attend the final of the play offs (if we get there and it's away) when we wouldn't know the opponent until the 26th March and the final is on the 31st March? Very expensive last minute trip.

[AndyDD]

13 minutes ago, Gary Stirling said:

What I can't figure out is how we are supposed to attend the final of the play offs (if we get there and it's away) when we wouldn't know the opponent until the 26th March and the final is on the 31st March? Very expensive last minute trip.

Aye it's dreadful, but entirely unsurprising, how little care is given to the travelling fans of whomever ends up the away team in the final. 

I think we can more than take care of Bulgaria, Romania or Isreal at home, so long as we do not allow complacency to set in. The final will be a tough prospect but, in all reality, that's as it should be. What an occasion it will be to go into a one-off game knowing that winning it takes us to a tournament. There'll be no sleep at all and butterflies the size of fucking Mothra. 

Buzzin like a second hand fridge for it already. 

[mrniaboc]

1 hour ago, AndyDD said:

Aye it's dreadful, but entirely unsurprising, how little care is given to the travelling fans of whomever ends up the away team in the final. 

I think we can more than take care of Bulgaria, Romania or Isreal at home, so long as we do not allow complacency to set in. The final will be a tough prospect but, in all reality, that's as it should be. What an occasion it will be to go into a one-off game knowing that winning it takes us to a tournament. There'll be no sleep at all and butterflies the size of fucking Mothra. 

Buzzin like a second hand fridge for it already. 

Love this post mate. I'm almost starting to feel the same. I think we've hit such a low over the last few months that the only way is up now. 

I think the away match to Cyprus will be a test but if we win that, then beat Kazakhstan at home, by the time March comes around there will be some real excitement built up. That semifinal at Hampden will be a spectacle, and if we do win that (which I think we're well capable of doing) then the confidence and excitement levels will be through the roof going into our biggest single match of the century. 

It's not all doom and gloom. Come on Scotland! 

[Bino's]

8 hours ago, infamous said:

I see us losing to Serbia or Norway in the final (Home or away).

Golovin, Dzyuba, Fernandes, Cheryshev, (Didn't play in the two matches with us) are all class. 

I think you're over rating some of those Russians

We are just poor afraid

[Orraloon]

12 hours ago, magicTs said:

Was looking at the play offs for Nations League A, B and D and of course the irony is that due to us now having been promoted the play off scenario for any future campaign will be harder on the back of it. For example Group B is currently Bosnia, Wales, Slovakia and Norther Ireland. 

 

Path A: Switzerland, Iceland, Bulgaria/Israel/Romania*
Path B: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Wales, Slovakia, Northern Ireland
Path C: Scotland, Norway, Serbia, Bulgaria/Israel/Romania*
Path D: Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Belarus

*In the current scenario, a draw would decide which of Bulgaria, Israel or Romania would fill the empty slot in Path C, and which two would go into Path A.

Do you know why Romania are now in the mix when Hungary had a higher Nations League ranking. They seen to be making it up as they go along.

I think Romania have a decent chance of qualifying directly. They still have to play both Norway and Sweden at home. If they could win those two games they are in with a shout.

 

[wanderer]

2 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Do you know why Romania are now in the mix when Hungary had a higher Nations League ranking. They seen to be making it up as they go along.

I think Romania have a decent chance of qualifying directly. They still have to play both Norway and Sweden at home. If they could win those two games they are in with a shout.

 

Its something to do with Bucharest being one of the venue's for Euro 2020, but its on the basis of other results going their way (at moment they will take up a spot in the League A play off's).

[Orraloon]

25 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Do you know why Romania are now in the mix when Hungary had a higher Nations League ranking. They seen to be making it up as they go along.

 

 

Forget that question. I see Hungary are currently in 2nd place in their group. Don't think they will stay there?

[Orraloon]

22 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Its something to do with Bucharest being one of the venue's for Euro 2020, but its on the basis of other results going their way (at moment they will take up a spot in the League A play off's).

Budapest is a host city too. I managed to answer my own question. Couldn't believe Hungary are currently in 2nd place in that group. I guess they will come back into the play off mix when Slovakia and/or Wales overtake them.

[Squirrelhumper]

Fuck know how they'll deal with tickets for an away game at 3 days notice!

Norway or Serbia are going to be pricey as fuck last kick.

[wanderer]

1 minute ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Fuck know how they'll deal with tickets for an away game at 3 days notice!

Norway or Serbia are going to be pricey as fuck last kick.

I imagine the SSC will probably do a pre-sale booking system, where you have to "buy" your ticket a few weeks in advance, and the SSC will do a deal with both of the opponents in advance as per what they usually do, and basically charge you for your ticket the next morning (with a option to cancel if you can not make it).... kind of like what it used to be like when you would send in a blank cheque for matches.

Hopefully this is something that UEFA will look to tweak for future, and make it just one host, eg Scotland gets selected, so SFA book Hampden for the Scotland game, and Easter Road for the opposition match, then Hampden and Tynecastle booked for the "final" and wooden spoon match a few days later (given you will have two teams kicking around with nothing planned).

[Orraloon]

Since it is a "final" it should be a 50:50 split and pay at the gate for away fans.

[teecee-]

If we win at Hampden it will be a chaotic last dash for flights and hotels if we are drawn away in the final. Do both matches kick off the same time? Do we gamble and book cheap flights before we play semi?  Going to be an expensive trip no matter who we possibly play. 

[AlfieMoon]

So if I understand correctly someone said there's a draw next month to determine where the final would be. 

Does that mean that it's a draw between all 4 semi-finalists - meaning that the final could be a neutral venue / home advantage / away game depending on results? 

or

Is it a draw between the winners of the 2 semi-finals?  In which case 2 teams (the semi-final which wins the draw) would need to make provisions for hosting a match a few days later which may or may not come to fruition?

Edited October 15, 2019 by AlfieMoon

[wanderer]

Just now, AlfieMoon said:

So if I understand correctly someone said there's a draw next month to determine where the final would be. 

Does that mean that it's a draw between all 4 semi-finalists - meaning that the final could be a neutral venue or home advantage depending on results? 

or

Is it a draw between the winners of the 2 semi-finals?  In which case 2 teams (the semi-final which wins the draw) would need to make provisions for hosting a match a few days later which may or may not come to fruition?

Draw between the 4 semi-finalists takes place next month, so we are not going into March totally blind... so for example its going to be one from Glasgow-Helsinki-Oslo-Belgrade.... but it will be the same as the Celtic Cup "final" back in Dublin, in that its not going to be natural and one team is getting home advantage depending on who makes the final (ie Winner of Norway and Serbia win the toss, so we will not know until FT in our game v Finland if we are going to Oslo or Belgrade)

[AlfieMoon]

24 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Draw between the 4 semi-finalists takes place next month, so we are not going into March totally blind... so for example its going to be one from Glasgow-Helsinki-Oslo-Belgrade.... but it will be the same as the Celtic Cup "final" back in Dublin, in that its not going to be natural and one team is getting home advantage depending on who makes the final (ie Winner of Norway and Serbia win the toss, so we will not know until FT in our game v Finland if we are going to Oslo or Belgrade)

Yeah that's what I thought it would be. 

So unless we win the toss, we need to wait until the conclusions of those semi-finals to know where we'd be booking to travel to. Also, the 2 nations who had won the toss would both need to make provisions to host the final but only 1 of them (the semi-final winner) would actually have to follow through on that.

[AndyDD]

2 hours ago, mrniaboc said:

Love this post mate. I'm almost starting to feel the same. I think we've hit such a low over the last few months that the only way is up now. 

I think the away match to Cyprus will be a test but if we win that, then beat Kazakhstan at home, by the time March comes around there will be some real excitement built up. That semifinal at Hampden will be a spectacle, and if we do win that (which I think we're well capable of doing) then the confidence and excitement levels will be through the roof going into our biggest single match of the century. 

It's not all doom and gloom. Come on Scotland! 

Haha well it's easy to see why so many are fearing the worst after the way things have gone over the last two months, but when you look at our likely rivals for the semi-final, which we already know is at Hampden, I mean, McLeish's side did the job against Isreal, Bulgaria look rank and if Romania are of that ilk, we are not being arrogant to think that should be a home win. 

And once you make that reasoned assumption, you are looking at a winner takes all game against teams that, yup, are better than Bulgaria/Isreal/Romania but are not by any stretch a major nation or daunting prospect. There will not be any game as tricky as the russian games, so that's why I'm able to largely look past them as rather unfair arbiters on how we will do in the playoffs. 

As you say, if we can win the last two games it will build a positivity in the group who do seem to still be hanging together despite the Russia-Belgium-Russia debacle and also around the group, in the nation at large. Cyprus are probably on a par with the teams we are looking like playing in the final, or at least between the teams we are looking like playing in the semi final and the teams in the final. So a really good test, albeit they will not have as much to play for as the other playoff teams, who are also going to know they have an incredible chance to reach the tournament. 

Like you i'm confident we will win our semi-final (famous last words) and anyone who isn't excited at the prospect of a one-off game against a mediocre-ish team for a place in the euros isnae really a fitba fan. Imagine the atmosphere in that game. The excitement, then nerves, the tension. The whole fucking point of being a fan. 

I can't wait for Cyprus, it'll be class trip in a beautiful place and we are getting some good players back for it (he says, optimistically).

But once these two games are over i'm going to be dying for it to be March already.

Two games, at least one at home, away from the Euros?

Bring it on. Bring it fucking on. 

 

[mccaughey85]

3 hours ago, AndyDD said:

Haha well it's easy to see why so many are fearing the worst after the way things have gone over the last two months, but when you look at our likely rivals for the semi-final, which we already know is at Hampden, I mean, McLeish's side did the job against Isreal, Bulgaria look rank and if Romania are of that ilk, we are not being arrogant to think that should be a home win. 

And once you make that reasoned assumption, you are looking at a winner takes all game against teams that, yup, are better than Bulgaria/Isreal/Romania but are not by any stretch a major nation or daunting prospect. There will not be any game as tricky as the russian games, so that's why I'm able to largely look past them as rather unfair arbiters on how we will do in the playoffs. 

As you say, if we can win the last two games it will build a positivity in the group who do seem to still be hanging together despite the Russia-Belgium-Russia debacle and also around the group, in the nation at large. Cyprus are probably on a par with the teams we are looking like playing in the final, or at least between the teams we are looking like playing in the semi final and the teams in the final. So a really good test, albeit they will not have as much to play for as the other playoff teams, who are also going to know they have an incredible chance to reach the tournament. 

Like you i'm confident we will win our semi-final (famous last words) and anyone who isn't excited at the prospect of a one-off game against a mediocre-ish team for a place in the euros isnae really a fitba fan. Imagine the atmosphere in that game. The excitement, then nerves, the tension. The whole fucking point of being a fan. 

I can't wait for Cyprus, it'll be class trip in a beautiful place and we are getting some good players back for it (he says, optimistically).

But once these two games are over i'm going to be dying for it to be March already.

Two games, at least one at home, away from the Euros?

Bring it on. Bring it fucking on. 

 

Glad to see your excited, play offs for a tournament should always get a Scotland fan excited. Sadly I think alot of ppl on here feel that we have little hope of beating any team outwith proper minnows like Gibraltar or San Marino and going by our performances recently thats understandable. Your right that we won't face a side as tricky as Russia but the manor in which we lost those games were bad and we looked like a mentally broken team imo. Of course I am happy to see Clarke given the chance to turn things around and hopefully we can build confidence with these two games but it's gunna be tough ask to get through these play offs. Thankfully most of these play off teams are quite poor.

[AndyDD]

1 minute ago, mccaughey85 said:

Glad to see your excited, play offs for a tournament should always get a Scotland fan excited. Sadly I think alot of ppl on here feel that we have little hope of beating any team outwith proper minnows like Gibraltar or San Marino and going by our performances recently thats understandable. Your right that we won't face a side as tricky as Russia but the manor in which we lost those games were bad and we looked like a mentally broken team imo. Of course I am happy to see Clarke given the chance to turn things around and hopefully we can build confidence with these two games but it's gunna be tough ask to get through these play offs. Thankfully most of these play off teams are quite poor.

Aye, well we did only lsoe the home game to Russia by one but frankly it should have been more. 

That being said, Cyprus are not in the same bracket as Gibraltar or San Marino and we have beaten them, as well. If the current regime finish with two wins over Cyprus and a win over Kazakhstan, also above the likes of San Marino and Gibraltar et al, then we ought to feel confident of at least winning the semi final. Especially since we recently beat Isreal and Albania, again superior to the minnows and, if the Nations League itself is any gauge, not too far away from the teams we will be facing. 

Hell, Isreal might very well be the team we will be facing at Hampden. 

So ultimately I just don't think it's logical of those who do (I know you don't) argue that the recent performances are some harbinger of doom, at least relative to the playoffs. It is illogical to argue we will struggle against Bulgaria, Romania or Isreal... based on getting a chasing off Belgium and Russia. 

 

 

 

[Squirrelhumper]

4 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Since it is a "final" it should be a 50:50 split and pay at the gate for away fans.

Cool, should do same for the Semi Final too then.

Season ticket holders up first....

 

[mccaughey85]

50 minutes ago, AndyDD said:

Aye, well we did only lsoe the home game to Russia by one but frankly it should have been more. 

That being said, Cyprus are not in the same bracket as Gibraltar or San Marino and we have beaten them, as well. If the current regime finish with two wins over Cyprus and a win over Kazakhstan, also above the likes of San Marino and Gibraltar et al, then we ought to feel confident of at least winning the semi final. Especially since we recently beat Isreal and Albania, again superior to the minnows and, if the Nations League itself is any gauge, not too far away from the teams we will be facing. 

Hell, Isreal might very well be the team we will be facing at Hampden. 

So ultimately I just don't think it's logical of those who do (I know you don't) argue that the recent performances are some harbinger of doom, at least relative to the playoffs. It is illogical to argue we will struggle against Bulgaria, Romania or Isreal... based on getting a chasing off Belgium and Russia. 

 

 

 

Yeh the problem is what version of Scotland turns up. It's been a problem for a long time now. I have seen us look excellent in games over the years, when Strachan first took over we looked really good and played some nice football. Then it went sour for a period where we looked dreadful, then we went back to looking Decent again before Strachan was sacked. Another example of this is our double win against Croatia where we played really well. Those games were some of the best football I have seen us play but we still managed to finish last in the group. How can a team beat the top seed twice but finish last in the group. To me that shows a problem with mentality which should be addressed by the management staff.

Recently we looked really good in the nation's league, but then went back to being terrible when the qualifiers came round.

Imo we have a mentality problem which needs to be addressed, wether Clarke is able to that I don't know yet. On paper we should be able to compete or even win against the potential play off opponents but we have looked really poor recently even by our standards which is why alot of ppl on here are slightly pessimistic on our chances.

Edited October 15, 2019 by mccaughey85

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Cool, should do same for the Semi Final too then.

Season ticket holders up first....

 

Aye, seems fair. 

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

Yeh the problem is what version of Scotland turns up. It's been a problem for a long time now. I have seen us look excellent in games over the years, when Strachan first took over we looked really good and played some nice football. Then it went sour for a period where we looked dreadful, then we went back to looking Decent again before Strachan was sacked. Another example of this is our double win against Croatia where we played really well. Those games were some of the best football I have seen us play but we still managed to finish last in the group. How can a team beat the top seed twice but finish last in the group. To me that shows a problem with mentality which should be addressed by the management staff.

Recently we looked really good in the nation's league, but then went back to being terrible when the qualifiers came round.

Imo we have a mentality problem which needs to be addressed, wether Clarke is able to that I don't know yet. On paper we should be able to compete or even win against the potential play off opponents but we have looked really poor recently even by our standards which is why alot of ppl on here are slightly pessimistic on our chances.

Well, losing home and away to the 6th (sixth) seed didn't help.

[mccaughey85]

6 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Well, losing home and away to the 6th (sixth) seed didn't help.

How many countries manage that though, it's clear that we shouldn't be losing to bottom seeds twice if we're able to beat the top seeds twice. Especially as it was a very talented Croatia team.

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

How many countries manage that though, it's clear that we shouldn't be losing to bottom seeds twice if we're able to beat the top seeds twice. Especially as it was a very talented Croatia team.

Even good teams have an off night, or two.

I think you've got a point with the mentality thing. When we beat Croatia we were already out, and for us, those games were no more than glorified friendlies. No pressure.

[Texas Pete]

12 hours ago, Gary Stirling said:

What I can't figure out is how we are supposed to attend the final of the play offs (if we get there and it's away) when we wouldn't know the opponent until the 26th March and the final is on the 31st March? Very expensive last minute trip.

Hopefully it will be at Hampden and we won’t need to worry about that if we win the first match. 

If it is away and you feel it’s too expensive/difficult to go to the match at short notice then there’s always the telly.

It’s not that much different for teams that qualify for finals and get out of their group and don’t know who/where they’ll be playing in the second round until the group is finished. 

It’s not ideal by any means but it’s really the only way they could have worked it if all group winners were to get a playoff place. Like I said though, let’s hope the playoff final is to be played at home for the winner of our semi final. 

Edited October 15, 2019 by Texas Pete