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Serbia Next


Caledonian Craig

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13 hours ago, thesaint said:

Let's be more positive.Serbia lost at home to the mighty Hungary.They are bottom of the league,and very ordinary.Get into tjhem.

They made 6 changes from the play-off match.  Maybe their strength in depth isn't as good as we might think.

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2 hours ago, RabtheBruce said:

I agree with you, Texas. This is, unequivocally, our best chance of qualifying  since we headed to Amsterdam with our dreams intact in 2003. Beating a top Italy side in 2007, who had just won the World Cup the year before, was always an uphill task.

What about heading to Georgia in ´07?

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6 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

And we never had our full side out last night but still fashioned a win against a team ranked higher than us whereas Serbia lost to a team ranked below us.

Exactly. You could argue that only 5 of our players last night would be in the normal first 11. However, a few boys have certainly staked strong claims to be first picks against Serbia. 

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26 minutes ago, Frugal said:

What about heading to Georgia in ´07?

Winning there would have put us in a really strong position in the group, but wouldn’t then have guaranteed qualification with a game to spare (if I remember correctly). As it transpires, had we won in Georgia, we would have qualified as France drew with Ukraine.

So in the context of knowing that a win would guarantee qualification, the Serbia game is the first since that game against the world champions, Italy, which was a big ask.

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7 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

They play Turkey away next.  That isn't an easy match.  

Indeed. Results matter for confidence-wise as it has shown with us. Serbia's results have been patchier than ours and results cannot just be turned on and off like a tap. They could conceivably go into that play-off final having one just one match in their last five.

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24 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Serbia didn't play Mitrovic. Milinkovic Savic or Koralov, probably their best three players.

Hopefully the Norway game was one of those night when everything went right for them and nothing went right for Norway.

Recent results hopefully suggest that they are not as good as they were against Norway.

Well all three of them played when they hammered Luxembourg 3-2 last year.

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2 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Well all three of them played when they hammered Luxembourg 3-2 last year.

Well Luxembourg hammered Cyprus 2-0 on Saturday, what was the score the last time we played Cyprus?

It's all if's and but's. Based on the way they played against Norway they will win. Based on the way they played against Luxembourg we will win.

Fingers crossed the Serbians that turn up are the latter.

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1 minute ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Well Luxembourg hammered Cyprus 2-0 on Saturday, what was the score the last time we played Cyprus?

It's all if's and but's. Based on the way they played against Norway they will win. Based on the way they played against Luxembourg we will win.

Fingers crossed the Serbians that turn up are the latter.

Yes point is it is all a one-off game. They've shown in recent times that they are beatable. I don't think we should be painting them as something they are not - like unbeatable. They are a patchy side I'd say on the way down with patchy results too. Better players than us I won't disagree there but we are the opposite to them. Awful times over the last couple of years but we are showing signs of improvement and confidence returning which will go in our favour.

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2 hours ago, RabtheBruce said:

Winning there would have put us in a really strong position in the group, but wouldn’t then have guaranteed qualification with a game to spare (if I remember correctly). As it transpires, had we won in Georgia, we would have qualified as France drew with Ukraine.

So in the context of knowing that a win would guarantee qualification, the Serbia game is the first since that game against the world champions, Italy, which was a big ask.

Fair play ;)

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11 hours ago, RabtheBruce said:

Winning there would have put us in a really strong position in the group, but wouldn’t then have guaranteed qualification with a game to spare (if I remember correctly). As it transpires, had we won in Georgia, we would have qualified as France drew with Ukraine.

We actually could have qualified for Euro 2008 on the night of the Georgia game if we'd won and France failed to beat Lithuania a couple of hours later. 

The French never scored until after 80 minutes that night, who knows what might have happened if we'd put extra pressure on them?...

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Toepoke said:

We actually could have qualified for Euro 2008 on the night of the Georgia game if we'd won and France failed to beat Lithuania a couple of hours later. 

The French never scored until after 80 minutes that night, who knows what might have happened if we'd put extra pressure on them?...

 

 

 

If we had beaten Georgia in Tbilisi, I'm convinced Italy would have played for a draw at Hampden - thus eliminating France from the finals.

 

Firstly, it would remove a major contender from the finals; but secondly, there was a lot of ill-feeling between Italy and France at the time (it wasn't so long after Zidane-Matterazzi) and the Italians could have stitched up the French.

Edited by Rich NATA
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On 10/12/2020 at 2:02 PM, Caledonian Craig said:

Not going by most recent evidence:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43466396

They're a hit and miss team for sure but fact remains they qualified for last world cup by winning their group and finished ahead of ROI, Wales and Austria with this set of players.

Last euro group they actually drew 1-1 away to Portugal but Ukraine coming flying out of the blocks and losing 5-0 away killed their top 2 bid.

Seems the feeling from Serbs is their players don't really care much about playing for NT compared to their clubs (now where have I heard that before....) and interested to see Matic retired from duty in September.

Have to respect their forward line though, it's lightyears ahead of what Israel put out the other night. Couldn't name a single attacker for them whereas Serbs have Tadic who was in amazing form for Ajax not long ago, Mitrovic with a fantastic international record and backup is Jovic who was scoring loads in Bundesliga but struggled more at Real Madrid.

Would be amazed keeping a clean sheet against that so have to hope the counter attack will be lively given they do ship in goals against moderate opposition on occasions.

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1 minute ago, Tartan Chris said:

They're a hit and miss team for sure but fact remains they qualified for last world cup by winning their group and finished ahead of ROI, Wales and Austria with this set of players.

Last euro group they actually drew 1-1 away to Portugal but Ukraine coming flying out of the blocks and losing 5-0 away killed their top 2 bid.

Seems the feeling from Serbs is their players don't really care much about playing for NT compared to their clubs (now where have I heard that before....) and interested to see Matic retired from duty in September.

Have to respect their forward line though, it's lightyears ahead of what Israel put out the other night. Couldn't name a single attacker for them whereas Serbs have Tadic who was in amazing form for Ajax not long ago, Mitrovic with a fantastic international record and backup is Jovic who was scoring loads in Bundesliga but struggled more at Real Madrid.

Would be amazed keeping a clean sheet against that so have to hope the counter attack will be lively given they do ship in goals against moderate opposition on occasions.

You are plucking up form from three or four years ago though with regards their form. It is current form that matters most and in the last year ours is actually better than theirs.

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14 hours ago, Rich NATA said:

If we had beaten Georgia in Tbilisi, I'm convinced Italy would have played for a draw at Hampden - thus eliminating France from the finals.

 

Firstly, it would remove a major contender from the finals; but secondly, there was a lot of ill-feeling between Italy and France at the time (it wasn't so long after Zidane-Matterazzi) and the Italians could have stitched up the French.

Wasn't there still even a small chance of qualifying even after the Italy game e.g. France losing in Ukraine or have I misremembered that? Finished 2-2 anyway.

Frustrating but the team did massively overperform in that group and gave some fantastic memories. One of the few times Uefa just put the top 2 through rather than 2nd having to get through in a play off for a 16 team euros. France and Italy actually ended up in same euros group for 2008.

Georgia in 2015 remains the biggest missed opportunity in recent times. Win there and not sure if ROI could've done anything to get 3rd and would've likely set up a winner takes all final game at Hampden v Poland which of course was a win until the 94th minute when I think Lewandowski poached one on the goal line.

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