PASTA Mick Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 (edited) So it looks like a full-strength Austria team heading to Hampden this week. Make no mistake, Austria are a good side. I'd say they are stronger than both Serbia and Czech Rep, who we have played recently. In 2020, they played 8, won 6, drew 1 and lost 1. They won their Nations League group which included Norway, Romania and Northern Ireland. The bookies have Austria as favourites. This is a game in which a crowd could have been a big help for us. Edited March 22, 2021 by PASTA Mick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stitch Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 I thought German based players were not allowed to travel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASTA Mick Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 7 minutes ago, stitch said: I thought German based players were not allowed to travel. They are now allowed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56475458 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor1996 Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 2 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said: They are now allowed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56475458 Oh shit. I said it when the group was confirmed. Austria are by far the best team in the group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotlad Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 1 hour ago, PASTA Mick said: So it looks like a full-strength Austria team heading to Hampden this week. Make no mistake, Austria are a good side. I'd say they are stronger than both Serbia and Czech Rep, who we have played recently. In 2020, they played 8, won 6, drew 1 and lost 1. They won their Nations League group which included Norway, Romania and Northern Ireland. The bookies have Austria as favourites. This is a game in which a crowd could have been a big help for us. That's bad news for us, at full strength they're a very good side indeed. 😕 We're going to need to be at our best on Thursday, but if we're serious about qualifying we need to win this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 4 hours ago, Taylor1996 said: Oh shit. I said it when the group was confirmed. Austria are by far the best team in the group. shut up ya sandshoe sniffer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor1996 Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 5 hours ago, scotlad said: That's bad news for us, at full strength they're a very good side indeed. 😕 We're going to need to be at our best on Thursday, but if we're serious about qualifying we need to win this game. A win would be an amazing way to start the group. Knowing Scotland, we'll beat Austria and lose to the Faroe Islands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASTA Mick Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 10 hours ago, Taylor1996 said: A win would be an amazing way to start the group. Knowing Scotland, we'll beat Austria and lose to the Faroe Islands. If we are going to qualify, we really do need to win this. To finish top 2, I'd suggest we need 7 points from the 3 games. If you win your home matches, and the away matches against the lower seeds, you won't be far away. The problem is, we haven't got near this record in a very long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 Before we start mentally conceding the win to Austria lets look at their recent Euro Qualifying campaign:- The did lose in Israel 4-2. I can imagine Scotland fans going spare at that result. They lost 1-0 away from home to Latvia. Their top seeded opponents were Poland who beat them at home 1-0 and drew the return match 0-0 so they ain't bullet-proof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor1996 Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 1 hour ago, PASTA Mick said: If we are going to qualify, we really do need to win this. To finish top 2, I'd suggest we need 7 points from the 3 games. If you win your home matches, and the away matches against the lower seeds, you won't be far away. The problem is, we haven't got near this record in a very long time. Agreed. When it was confirmed that they'd be without their German bases players I was thinking that this would be pretty much a bye... but now... it's going to be tricky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 Still not convinced? Their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign was not stellar by any means finishing fourth in their group behind Wales, Republic of Ireland and Serbia. They drew 2-2 at home to Wales and lost 1-0 in Wales. They lost 3-2 away to Serbia and 1-0 at home to Republic of Ireland and drew 1-1 in Dublin. But hey-ho such is some Scottish mentality lets elevate their level to the stars and downplay ourselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor1996 Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 Just now, Caledonian Craig said: Still not convinced? Their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign was not stellar by any means finishing fourth in their group behind Wales, Republic of Ireland and Serbia. They drew 2-2 at home to Wales and lost 1-0 in Wales. They lost 3-2 away to Serbia and 1-0 at home to Republic of Ireland and drew 1-1 in Dublin. But hey-ho such is some Scottish mentality lets elevate their level to the stars and downplay ourselves. I'm thinking more about us than them. Without Ryan Jack the balance in our midfield will be lopsided. I don't care that McGinn, McGregor, McTominay and McLean play in the double-pivot at club level. None of them are defensive midfielders. That's one problem Clarke has got to solve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaundy Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 Here we’re going! Just over 56 hours till KO of the first of three games in 7 days . Really looking forward to it at the moment .Who knows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burj_Alba Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said: Before we start mentally conceding the win to Austria lets look at their recent Euro Qualifying campaign:- The did lose in Israel 4-2. I can imagine Scotland fans going spare at that result. They lost 1-0 away from home to Latvia. Their top seeded opponents were Poland who beat them at home 1-0 and drew the return match 0-0 so they ain't bullet-proof. Well said that man. Tough game but winnable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesaint Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 15 minutes ago, Burj_Alba said: Well said that man. Tough game but winnable. I'm with you on that sentiment.Let's stop this bumming up the opposition,and play with a belief in ourselves.If we play well,we will win this match.Austria are a good enough side,but no more.Be positive.C'MON SCOTLAND. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 It is laughable. Wales get talked down by many people on here. With a match against Austria coming up people are here talking Austria up. An Austria that picked up one point out of six against a much-maligned (on here) Wales side. So which is it? Wales are really not too shabby at all or Austria are not the footballing powerhouse some are painting them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParisInAKilt Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 15 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said: It is laughable. Wales get talked down by many people on here. With a match against Austria coming up people are here talking Austria up. An Austria that picked up one point out of six against a much-maligned (on here) Wales side. So which is it? Wales are really not too shabby at all or Austria are not the footballing powerhouse some are painting them. Wasn’t that in 2017 they played Wales? I won’t pretend to know much about Austria, beyond good results in the past year and a good squad on paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 9 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said: Wasn’t that in 2017 they played Wales? I won’t pretend to know much about Austria, beyond good results in the past year and a good squad on paper. Yes but Wales have been long-standing poor team (according to posters on here) for years yet Austria could not beat them in two cracks at them and only picked up a point. Israel (downplayed by many on here) handed out a solid 4-2 beating to Austria more recently. It is not rocket science is it? They are a very decent side but certainly not unbeatable like some on here are making them sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orraloon Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 If we want to have a good chance of qualifying we need to win this game. It won't be easy as Austria are a good side. A draw wouldn't be a disaster. But anything less than a win really puts us under pressure to go and get a win in Israel, and we know from recent experience how hard that is going to be. I'm not sure we are good enough to beat Austria but we are a youngish squad and should be continuing to improve. If only we could find a goalscorer from somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 28 minutes ago, Orraloon said: If we want to have a good chance of qualifying we need to win this game. It won't be easy as Austria are a good side. A draw wouldn't be a disaster. But anything less than a win really puts us under pressure to go and get a win in Israel, and we know from recent experience how hard that is going to be. I'm not sure we are good enough to beat Austria but we are a youngish squad and should be continuing to improve. If only we could find a goalscorer from somewhere. I'd agree with most of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartan blood Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 I honestly think we will be portraying a much more intimidating figure than we give ourselves credit for. If they do their homework at all, they'll see that we are a team on the ascendancy, and our last 2 losses are not necessarily a reflection of how things are. With the exception of Alaba, I think we have players that look superior, on paper at least: Robertson, Tierney, McTominay and McGinn will be well known and feared across the continent. They will also know that Armstrong and Fraser are dangerous on their day. I'm pretty confident we can beat them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASTA Mick Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 4 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said: Still not convinced? Their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign was not stellar by any means finishing fourth in their group behind Wales, Republic of Ireland and Serbia. They drew 2-2 at home to Wales and lost 1-0 in Wales. They lost 3-2 away to Serbia and 1-0 at home to Republic of Ireland and drew 1-1 in Dublin. But hey-ho such is some Scottish mentality lets elevate their level to the stars and downplay ourselves. Those sound like the kind of results we'd get! But some of these results are as far back as September 2016 so I'm not sure they have any more relevance than their Euro 2016 campaign where they won 28 out of 30 points. Make no mistake, we have a chance of beating them but they are a good team. Like I said, I think they are better than Czech Rep and Serbia, or any team we played last year. I think we probably have some better players than them. We certainly select more more of Europe's elite clubs but I would say they don't have the same weaknesses we have as they probably have a much better balance than we do. Their squad also has a lot more international experience than us - 577 caps to our 409 caps. If we can keep things tight at the back, like we have done recently, and add a bit more quality in the final third with Fraser and Adams, then we can beat them. We have enough in midfield to win this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Craig Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 26 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said: Those sound like the kind of results we'd get! But some of these results are as far back as September 2016 so I'm not sure they have any more relevance than their Euro 2016 campaign where they won 28 out of 30 points. Make no mistake, we have a chance of beating them but they are a good team. Like I said, I think they are better than Czech Rep and Serbia, or any team we played last year. I think we probably have some better players than them. We certainly select more more of Europe's elite clubs but I would say they don't have the same weaknesses we have as they probably have a much better balance than we do. Their squad also has a lot more international experience than us - 577 caps to our 409 caps. If we can keep things tight at the back, like we have done recently, and add a bit more quality in the final third with Fraser and Adams, then we can beat them. We have enough in midfield to win this game. All we can do is go on recent form in recent qualifiers and in their last two campaigns they have finished 4th and 2nd in their groups and by my calculations lost six games in those campaigns so like I said they are no infallible and they toiled against both Wales and the Republic of Ireland. I am not saying they are garbage but we should not be defeating ourselves before a ball is kicked by bumming the opposition overly up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 I think we will lose or draw. That Hans krankl is a good finisher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Scot Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Austria are a good side but you need to beat good sides if you want to qualify for World Cups. They are good but they arent elite!!! I just hope we continue to play the high energy football that has made us look abit more dangerous lately. The minute we back off and try to control a game is when we fail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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