World Cup Draw

[er yir macaroon]

49 minutes ago, robbo cop said:

It is a good draw which gives us a chance, but I am sure Denmark and Austria will be thinking the same. Have read comments that Israel will take points off other teams to help us, but surely there is every chance they will possibly do the same to us. Three or possibly four teams battling it out to finish top but all to play for. Have been on top of teams last few games but never finished them off so if this can be sorted I think we have a great chance.

The group is wide open and whichever team amongst the four hits best form for longest will win it. There are no teams that can underperform and still qualify, if you know what I mean. 

[ParisInAKilt]

It’s an exciting group, as others have said potentially very open and even Israel will be looking at it and thinking hey we have a chance here 

[Burj_Alba]

1 minute ago, ParisInAKilt said:

It’s an exciting group, as others have said potentially very open and even Israel will be looking at it and thinking hey we have a chance here 

don't think Israel can qualify but they might have a big say on who does.

[ParisInAKilt]

5 minutes ago, Burj_Alba said:

don't think Israel can qualify but they might have a big say on who does.

It’s unlikely but they’d probably say the same about us. 

[ThistleWhistle]

I think in the mini- league of games where Austria, Denmark and ourselves play each other will be fairly equal and its all going to come down to what happens vs Israel, Moldova and Faroes particularly away - 7-9 points in those is probably a must or then we'd be looking at beating Austria or Denmark away.

Every side in that group must be chuffed with it - even Moldova  and Faroes will see it as a chance to boost their ranking.  Hopefully we don't open with Moldova and Faroes away as that would be an absolute pain in the arse for the team travelling and be a right banana skin.   

[mccaughey85]

Austria, Denmark and us will likely take points of each other and even Israel will as well so its a pretty open group. Looking at Austrias squad they have some good players with lots of their squad playing for top bundesliga teams. They have sabitzer, alaba, arnautovic and several other quality players. They must fancy their chances at winning the group. 

[wee-toon-red]

Anyone who thinks we could win the group but Israel couldn't must have been on holiday for the last three years.

[Archiesdad]

44 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said:

It’s an exciting group, as others have said potentially very open and even Israel will be looking at it and thinking hey we have a chance here 

Aye, they do have a chance

However can u imagine if they qualify for the world cup in Qatar?!!!

The politics would be interesting to say the least...

[Hendricks]

33 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Austria, Denmark and us will likely take points of each other and even Israel will as well so its a pretty open group. Looking at Austrias squad they have some good players with lots of their squad playing for top bundesliga teams. They have sabitzer, alaba, arnautovic and several other quality players. They must fancy their chances at winning the group. 

And yet they still lost 4-2 in Israel and 1-0 in Latvia in the Euro qualifying. 

[davy-hay]

Let's just be in this for a long a possible. A late assault on 1st place might be all we need. 

 

Alas...Moldova or faro away 🤮 🤮 

[mccaughey85]

8 minutes ago, Hendricks said:

And yet they still lost 4-2 in Israel and 1-0 in Latvia in the Euro qualifying. 

Yeh they are not invincible but they will be a tough team to beat especially over in Austria. They will be looking at our results over the past couple of years and thinking they can beat us. Especially as we lost our last two games to Slovakia and Israel. 

[ceudmilefailte]

First bookie to price it up has us at 9/2 to win group 

As Toepoke said probably shorter odds than we would be to get in via playoffs. 

 

[robbo cop]

Let's just hope we get off to go a good start this time round. 

[Third Lanark]

43 minutes ago, wee-toon-red said:

Anyone who thinks we could win the group but Israel couldn't must have been on holiday for the last three years.

Israel are a good team, their ranking just does not make sense. We have no striker in the class of Zahravi.

[Toepoke]

43 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

Israel are a good team, their ranking just does not make sense. We have no striker in the class of Zahravi.

Certainly wouldn't rule them out. Hopefully we won't have to go there in September when it will likely be roasting hot too.

[Fish Supper]

When are the game dates released?

[wanderer]

10 minutes ago, Fish Supper said:

When are the game dates released?

Some time this afternoon.

Seen the Welsh version of ATAC saying they have been told 6pm, seen English fans sites saying 5pm

[Fish Supper]

19 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Some time this afternoon.

Seen the Welsh version of ATAC saying they have been told 6pm, seen English fans sites saying 5pm

Cheers Wanderer.

[Orraloon]

2 hours ago, ParisInAKilt said:

It’s an exciting group, as others have said potentially very open and even Israel will be looking at it and thinking hey we have a chance here 

I don't think Israel will win the group. They can cause problems for ourselves and others but they are not consistent enough to win the group. If we don't improve significantly from how we played in out last three games against them, then we won't be winning the group either. I think we can improve and make a challenge, but not if we continue at the level of our recent performances.

[ParisInAKilt]

3 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

I don't think Israel will win the group. They can cause problems for ourselves and others but they are not consistent enough to win the group. If we don't improve significantly from how we played in out last three games against them, then we won't be winning the group either. I think we can improve and make a challenge, but not if we continue at the level of our recent performances.

Agreed, I can’t see them winning it either for the lack of consistency as you say but they’ll be happy with the group as much as we are. 

Again agree that we will need to improve a fair bit if we’re to win it ourselves 

[Tartan Chris]

3 hours ago, ThistleWhistle said:

I think in the mini- league of games where Austria, Denmark and ourselves play each other will be fairly equal and its all going to come down to what happens vs Israel, Moldova and Faroes particularly away - 7-9 points in those is probably a must or then we'd be looking at beating Austria or Denmark away.

Every side in that group must be chuffed with it - even Moldova  and Faroes will see it as a chance to boost their ranking.  Hopefully we don't open with Moldova and Faroes away as that would be an absolute pain in the arse for the team travelling and be a right banana skin.   

I agree with the first part. However the last near miss in regular qualifying was obviously 2006-07 and started with Faroes at home and Lithuania away. Started with 6 points while Italy only somehow drew at home to Lithuania and then lost away to France so already had a 5 point lead over Italy although of course they pulled it back.

Get 5 points early on ahead of Danes or more likely Austria and that's a very strong early position to be in I think.

I always remember Wales somehow wrangled getting Andorra as their first and last game in the 2016 qualfiers. So they had a 3 point banker to get off the mark (which they very nearly didn't win) and then insurance for last game if they needed that but they qualified game before.

Would be pretty happy to have Faroes and Moldova in first two and last two but I doubt that will be possible.

[Tartan Chris]

3 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Austria, Denmark and us will likely take points of each other and even Israel will as well so its a pretty open group. Looking at Austrias squad they have some good players with lots of their squad playing for top bundesliga teams. They have sabitzer, alaba, arnautovic and several other quality players. They must fancy their chances at winning the group. 

Sabitzer and Alaba are very good. Arnautovic winding down in China now so won't be as sharp as previous years. Some solid players in other position but you wouldn't say they're a huge upgrade on a full strength Scotland squad whereas Denmark have better CBs for instance and Eriksen.

Can remember Austria being in the Wales and ROI group for last world cup and they were a fair bit off top 2, Wales took 4 points off them. Austria only drew at home to Georgia and won 1-0 in Moldova so they won't be confident of getting 6 points off Israel either.

[Mitre]

16 hours ago, davy-hay said:

Away to pharos first game 

Giza brek 

[mccaughey85]

23 minutes ago, Tartan Chris said:

Sabitzer and Alaba are very good. Arnautovic winding down in China now so won't be as sharp as previous years. Some solid players in other position but you wouldn't say they're a huge upgrade on a full strength Scotland squad whereas Denmark have better CBs for instance and Eriksen.

Can remember Austria being in the Wales and ROI group for last world cup and they were a fair bit off top 2, Wales took 4 points off them. Austria only drew at home to Georgia and won 1-0 in Moldova so they won't be confident of getting 6 points off Israel either.

Yeh I agree that their squad is only marginally better than ours. 

[ThistleWhistle]

11 minutes ago, Tartan Chris said:

I agree with the first part. However the last near miss in regular qualifying was obviously 2006-07 and started with Faroes at home and Lithuania away. Started with 6 points while Italy only somehow drew at home to Lithuania and then lost away to France so already had a 5 point lead over Italy although of course they pulled it back.

Get 5 points early on ahead of Danes or more likely Austria and that's a very strong early position to be in I think.

I always remember Wales somehow wrangled getting Andorra as their first and last game in the 2016 qualfiers. So they had a 3 point banker to get off the mark (which they very nearly didn't win) and then insurance for last game if they needed that but they qualified game before.

Would be pretty happy to have Faroes and Moldova in first two and last two but I doubt that will be possible.

Yeah defo good get some points on the board early doors but unfortunately for us it's a bit of a double edged sword.  Could be us to drop points from a smaller team first which would give Denmark and Austria a shot in the arm from the off.  

The one that still baffles me is Czech Republic  4-6-0 - if we'd beat them there we'd have been 7 points clear with Spain expected to sweep the board.  Absolute shot to nothing after they lost v Lithuania at home where we could have almost put them out in their second game meaning they'd have had to come here needing win and/or get results off of Spain.  Instead we spent 90 minutes lumping long balls to the wings for some baffling reason.