Playoffs

[albathebrave]

So as it stands at the moment who with be in the semi playoff with us and who potentially will be in the final against us? sorry if this has already been discussed.

[Orraloon]

It will be Norway or Serbia in the final. Norway are at home for that semi final.

As it stands at present, our opponents in the Semi final will be Bulgaria, Israel or Romania. If Wales beat Hungary on Tuesday Hungary will take Romania's place in the play off draw. 

The draw is on 22nd Nov when we will find out who our opponents are in the semi. We are at home for that game. They will also do a draw for who will have home advantage in the final should we get there. 

[Orraloon]

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Edited November 17, 2019 by Orraloon

[ProudScot]

Bulgaria, Israel or Hungary at home with ET & pens possible.

Norway or Serbia in the final either home or away.

Based on recent performances I don’t think we will win the semi. If we did we’d get horsed in that final, even at home. 

[Texas Pete]

4 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

Bulgaria, Israel or Hungary at home with ET & pens possible.

Norway or Serbia in the final either home or away.

Based on recent performances I don’t think we will win the semi. If we did we’d get horsed in that final, even at home. 

That’s the spirit.

We beat Israel at home a year ago under McLeish so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again. The other possibilities aren’t exactly fantastic. If they were they would have qualified. In my opinion we have a great chance of winning the first playoff match based on the fact we’re at home, we should hopefully have fewer call offs and we should get more or less a full house at Hampden. 

Whether or not we can win the second match is another story and a lot will depend on the draw next week. If we are at home then we have a good chance. 

Serbia are pish. They were lucky to beat Luxembourg at home on Thursday night. 

Norway would be trickier I think and I reckon they’ll beat Serbia so Norway at Hampden would be tough but doable. 

I agree we’d struggle if the match was away. 

[ProudScot]

Just now, Texas Pete said:

That’s the spirit.

We beat Israel at home a year ago under McLeish so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again. The other possibilities aren’t exactly fantastic. If they were they would have qualified. In my opinion we have a great chance of winning the first playoff match based on the fact we’re at home, we should hopefully have fewer call offs and we should get more or less a full house at Hampden. 

Whether or not we can win the second match is another story and a lot will depend on the draw next week. If we are at home then we have a good chance. 

Serbia are pish. They were lucky to beat Luxembourg at home on Thursday night. 

Norway would be trickier I think and I reckon they’ll beat Serbia so Norway at Hampden would be tough but doable. 

I agree we’d struggle if the match was away. 

Haha I am so negative I know. I can’t help it.

It’s looking possible every home nation will be at the Euros again apart from us.

I do like your positivity. Serbia aren’t great but they have stand out players which we don’t have, apart from poor ones who are even worse than the others. 

[weekevie04]

Have a feeling we'll get Israel again thanks to the draw. That may well be our best draw too. Israel started qualifying well, but have gone off the boil off late - one win in six.

Bulgaria are stinking on and off the park ; but they are surely due a win or result at some point.

Norway/Serbia if we do get through our first tie will be a very difficult match. Away - you can almost forget it ; but let's hope the UEFA heated balls draw us out as the home team in any potential final. At Hampden, we've got a chance ; I feel an away game will be too much of an ask ; but we'll see.

Can only hope.

Edited November 17, 2019 by weekevie04

[todd]

14 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

Haha I am so negative I know. I can’t help it.

It’s looking possible every home nation will be at the Euros again apart from us.

I do like your positivity. Serbia aren’t great but they have stand out players which we don’t have, apart from poor ones who are even worse than the others. 

Norn iron won't be there.  Edit: Just found out that they are guaranteed a play off too!  Wtf? They got 0 points in the nations league and are still in a play off.  What a fuckin farce.  They still won't qualify mind.

Edited November 17, 2019 by todd
Update

[Texas Pete]

1 minute ago, ProudScot said:

Haha I am so negative I know. I can’t help it.

It’s looking possible every home nation will be at the Euros again apart from us.

I do like your positivity. Serbia aren’t great but they have stand out players which we don’t have, apart from poor ones who are even worse than the others. 

We do have stand out players. 

We’ve got a champions league winner (who will probably also be an EPL winner shortly after the playoffs).

We’ve also got Fraser, McTominay and Tierney who play at a high level (hopefully Tierney will establish himself in the Arsenal team).  Christie and Forrest are also very good players. 

These guys would get into most international teams outwith the top sides in the world. 

We also have weak areas of course which is why we are where we are but I think people need to realise that the level we are at is third in the group which is the same level (or higher) as most of the other teams in our playoff section. We finished top of that section and we have a damn good chance of progressing. 

We could also make a complete arse of it of course. 

[weekevie04]

6 minutes ago, todd said:

Norn iron won't be there

They might.

They might get drawn in the A playoff and beat Iceland away and then have a home time in Belfast as the final.

I believe O'Neill is still there for the playoffs as well (as part of his Stoke deal). Surely if they did get through that, he'd stay for the Euros too in the summer considering the domestic season is over.

 

[Orraloon]

2 hours ago, Orraloon said:

If Wales beat Hungary on Tuesday Hungary will take Romania's place in the play off draw. 

 

I think I got that bit wrong. If Hungary don't stay in second place in that group they will be added to the play off teams in the draw. They won't replace Romania. So we could still get Bulgaria, israel, Romania or Hungary in the semi final. 

I want Bulgaria or Israel. They are about the same level as us. I think Hungary and Romania are better then we are. 

For once I'm hoping that football corruption will work in our favour. They might want to give us a an easier draw because they would prefer the host nations to qualify. Then again, Hungary and Romania are also host nations so they might want to give them an easier draw by pairing them against Scotland? 

[Tartan blood]

1 hour ago, Texas Pete said:

We do have stand out players. 

We’ve got a champions league winner (who will probably also be an EPL winner shortly after the playoffs).

We’ve also got Fraser, McTominay and Tierney who play at a high level (hopefully Tierney will establish himself in the Arsenal team).  Christie and Forrest are also very good players. 

These guys would get into most international teams outwith the top sides in the world. 

We also have weak areas of course which is why we are where we are but I think people need to realise that the level we are at is third in the group which is the same level (or higher) as most of the other teams in our playoff section. We finished top of that section and we have a damn good chance of progressing. 

We could also make a complete arse of it of course. 

We also have McGinn, who has been a stand out in the EPL and a surprising goal threat for the national team.

Billy Gilmour will likely have been given more game time at Chelsea and maybe even be playing regularly out on loan by March.

All of our current best players are relatively young and are only going to get better. We will be a better team by March, barring very bad luck with injuries.

If we can find a way to play to our best player's strengths, then I'm confident we have the team to get through the playoffs.

[Texas Pete]

34 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

We also have McGinn, who has been a stand out in the EPL and a surprising goal threat for the national team.

Billy Gilmour will likely have been given more game time at Chelsea and maybe even be playing regularly out on loan by March.

All of our current best players are relatively young and are only going to get better. We will be a better team by March, barring very bad luck with injuries.

If we can find a way to play to our best player's strengths, then I'm confident we have the team to get through the playoffs.

Not sure why I didn’t mention McGinn. He’s scored more goals than our strikers in this campaign. 

[dohadeer]

18 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

We do have stand out players. 

We’ve got a champions league winner (who will probably also be an EPL winner shortly after the playoffs).

We’ve also got Fraser, McTominay and Tierney who play at a high level (hopefully Tierney will establish himself in the Arsenal team).  Christie and Forrest are also very good players. 

These guys would get into most international teams outwith the top sides in the world. 

We also have weak areas of course which is why we are where we are but I think people need to realise that the level we are at is third in the group which is the same level (or higher) as most of the other teams in our playoff section. We finished top of that section and we have a damn good chance of progressing. 

We could also make a complete arse of it of course. 

That’s completely deluded.

Andy Robertson is perhaps the best left back in the world, and would indeed walk into pretty much any club or international team’s starting eleven.

The other players you have mentioned may well get into ‘most’ international teams - given that there are 150 or so teams ranked below us, that’s no great achievement - but I don’t think that many of them would get into those teams which qualify for major finals, which is the level that we’re discussing here.

The majority of Serbia’s defenders play in the top half of Serie A and play Europa or Champions League football. The majority of our defenders play in the SPL and English Championship. That’s a big difference, surely you can see that?

 

Our strongest line-up has good players, including some of the players you mentioned, but also perhaps 2-5 players who aren’t of ‘qualify-for-major-tournament’ quality. Serbia don’t have those weaknesses. Hence why they were at the World Cup last summer, and a whisker away from the knockout stages of the World Cup. Hence why we’re a whisker away (Cyprus having the ball over the line, goal not being given) from finishing below Cyprus and Kazakhstan! That’s the difference in standard right there in a nutshell! We might have both finished third in our respective groups, and topped our Nations League groups, but any sensible and impartial delve into the facts, shows a huge discrepancy in quality.

You have to be able to step back and analyse things unbiasedly here.

 

(That’s not to say that we can’t finish ahead of Serbia and qualify. Just that it’s probably nearer 75/25 in their favour, than the 50/50 which some people are trying to claim.)

[mccaughey85]

26 minutes ago, dohadeer said:

That’s completely deluded.

Andy Robertson is perhaps the best left back in the world, and would indeed walk into pretty much any club or international team’s starting eleven.

The other players you have mentioned may well get into ‘most’ international teams - given that there are 150 or so teams ranked below us, that’s no great achievement - but I don’t think that many of them would get into those teams which qualify for major finals, which is the level that we’re discussing here.

The majority of Serbia’s defenders play in the top half of Serie A and play Europa or Champions League football. The majority of our defenders play in the SPL and English Championship. That’s a big difference, surely you can see that?

 

Our strongest line-up has good players, including some of the players you mentioned, but also perhaps 2-5 players who aren’t of ‘qualify-for-major-tournament’ quality. Serbia don’t have those weaknesses. Hence why they were at the World Cup last summer, and a whisker away from the knockout stages of the World Cup. Hence why we’re a whisker away (Cyprus having the ball over the line, goal not being given) from finishing below Cyprus and Kazakhstan! That’s the difference in standard right there in a nutshell! We might have both finished third in our respective groups, and topped our Nations League groups, but any sensible and impartial delve into the facts, shows a huge discrepancy in quality.

You have to be able to step back and analyse things unbiasedly here.

 

(That’s not to say that we can’t finish ahead of Serbia and qualify. Just that it’s probably nearer 75/25 in their favour, than the 50/50 which some people are trying to claim.)

You are pretty much spot on with that analysis but I think Texas Pete is right in saying we have some decent players at our disposal granted if we can get them turning up for the squads. We have players that could get into alot of countries teams outside of the elite ones.

Serbia have strength in all areas whereas we are very weak in central defence and strikers. Serbia would be easily favourites against us but we could cause an upset especially if we can mould our team into being better than the sum of its parts which is what Iceland and northern Ireland do.

Edited November 18, 2019 by mccaughey85

[dohadeer]

5 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

You are pretty much spot on with that analysis but I think Texas Pete is right in saying we have some decent players at our disposal granted if we can get them turning up for the squads. We have players that could get into alot of countries teams outside of the elite ones.

Serbia have strength in all areas whereas we are very weak in central defence and strikers. Serbia would be easily favourites against us but we could cause an upset especially if we can mould our team into being better than the sum of its parts which is what Iceland and northern Ireland do.

It takes a while to mould a great team to be better than the sum of its parts though, doesn’t it? I don’t think we can do that from the doldrums we are in just now, to the playoffs, with so few games in-between.

We have more and more weak spots in our team, without quality players, that the difficulty of qualifying is getting greater and greater. This was obviously reversed somewhat by both Euros increasing to 24 teams, and the Nations League providing qualifying spaces for lower-ranked teams. However if you look at World Cup qualification, with only around 14 European places, we are so far away from that, that it’s not even a realistic aim at the start of a campaign any more. Sad but true.

Also, if we fluke our way through the playoffs, then I hate to think what awaits us at the finals, as we’re not in any shape to put together a team which could compete at that level.

[Bzzzz]

I think we will beat Bulgaria at home, and then if we are lucky enough to get a home final then it's game on and I think we can do it. 
I am of course the eternal octopus but if you didn't believe then what would be the point!? 

[Texas Pete]

8 hours ago, dohadeer said:

That’s completely deluded.

Andy Robertson is perhaps the best left back in the world, and would indeed walk into pretty much any club or international team’s starting eleven.

The other players you have mentioned may well get into ‘most’ international teams - given that there are 150 or so teams ranked below us, that’s no great achievement - but I don’t think that many of them would get into those teams which qualify for major finals, which is the level that we’re discussing here.

The majority of Serbia’s defenders play in the top half of Serie A and play Europa or Champions League football. The majority of our defenders play in the SPL and English Championship. That’s a big difference, surely you can see that?

 

Our strongest line-up has good players, including some of the players you mentioned, but also perhaps 2-5 players who aren’t of ‘qualify-for-major-tournament’ quality. Serbia don’t have those weaknesses. Hence why they were at the World Cup last summer, and a whisker away from the knockout stages of the World Cup. Hence why we’re a whisker away (Cyprus having the ball over the line, goal not being given) from finishing below Cyprus and Kazakhstan! That’s the difference in standard right there in a nutshell! We might have both finished third in our respective groups, and topped our Nations League groups, but any sensible and impartial delve into the facts, shows a huge discrepancy in quality.

You have to be able to step back and analyse things unbiasedly here.

 

(That’s not to say that we can’t finish ahead of Serbia and qualify. Just that it’s probably nearer 75/25 in their favour, than the 50/50 which some people are trying to claim.)

It's hardly deluded mate. 

Just because you don't agree with someone's opinion does not make them deluded.

[Orraloon]

5 hours ago, Bzzzz said:

I think we will beat Bulgaria at home, and then if we are lucky enough to get a home final then it's game on and I think we can do it. 
I am of course the eternal octopus but if you didn't believe then what would be the point!? 

We might not get Bulgaria. You will need to use up some more of your tentacles to count the number of teams that we could get. 

[Templeton_Peck]

Is it possible that Norn Iron play the Rep of ireland in the group B play off final in the same week as Brexit ??

[todd]

14 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

You are pretty much spot on with that analysis but I think Texas Pete is right in saying we have some decent players at our disposal granted if we can get them turning up for the squads. We have players that could get into alot of countries teams outside of the elite ones.

Serbia have strength in all areas whereas we are very weak in central defence and strikers. Serbia would be easily favourites against us but we could cause an upset especially if we can mould our team into being better than the sum of its parts which is what Iceland and northern Ireland DID.

Ftfy 😉

[Bzzzz]

5 hours ago, Orraloon said:

We might not get Bulgaria. You will need to use up some more of your tentacles to count the number of teams that we could get. 

Tentacles are still fked after Saturday

[magicTs]

1 hour ago, Templeton_Peck said:

Is it possible that Norn Iron play the Rep of ireland in the group B play off final in the same week as Brexit ??

I don't think they can play each other in the semi-final. They would need drawn in the same pot first as there is going to be movement in pots A and B and then both would need to win their semi-finals. I think I'm right in saying that if Wales beat Hungary tomorrow then Northern Ireland have to travel to Bosnia in the semi-final however if Hungary get the required result then Rep Ireland will go to Bosnia.

 

 

[dohadeer]

18 minutes ago, magicTs said:

I don't think they can play each other in the semi-final. They would need drawn in the same pot first as there is going to be movement in pots A and B and then both would need to win their semi-finals. I think I'm right in saying that if Wales beat Hungary tomorrow then Northern Ireland have to travel to Bosnia in the semi-final however if Hungary get the required result then Rep Ireland will go to Bosnia.

 

 

I don't think that's correct. I'm not sure that Northern Ireland are guaranteed to be in the same playoff path as Bosnia, I think there would be a draw to determine whether they were in the same path or not.

[Orraloon]

13 hours ago, Bzzzz said:

Tentacles are still fked after Saturday

A wise man once said that the best jokes are the ones that people don't understand.

I'm not sure I agree with that so I will help you out.

Your name isn't Pau, by any chance? He was good at predicting results.

On 11/18/2019 at 10:03 AM, Bzzzz said:

I think we will beat Bulgaria at home, and then if we are lucky enough to get a home final then it's game on and I think we can do it. 
I am of course the eternal octopus but if you didn't believe then what would be the point!?