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Toepoke

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4 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Aye there was the potential for a bizarre scenario where a team might want to lose their final game to qualify but the draw doesn't seem to have worked out that way fortunately. 

Another interesting point is that Wales, Belgium and Czech Rep are all in the same group so one of them will use up one of the Nations League playoff spots. So, there is only one playoff spot up for grabs. That's the one Austria are currently in line to get. If they finish 2nd in our group and don't need it then the last spot will go to Hungary. Can't see them finishing 2nd

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24 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Pretty sure if we had won our group we would have been ahead of Wales and Austria in the pecking order. 

We would have needed to win our last two games and improve our GD by 5 goals to overtake Wales. 4 points from out last two games would have been enough to overtake Austria. Instead we got zero points, so in the end it wasn't even close. :lol:

Edited by Orraloon
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Get the feeling some big nations are going to end up second and make it a proper dog fight. Last time Italy ended up in this and Sweden knocked them out and going to be tight between them and Swiss to make 1st spot.

Think Spain will finish 2nd as Sweden have a good run in of fixtures and if Portgual hadn't beaten ROI they'd have probably ended up 2nd. Even France aren't secure yet, drawn 3 of their 5 fixtures so far and Finland would be two clear if they win their two games in hand.

How's it all work then? I thought it would be just usual home and away but it's only 3 places from 12 isn't it? Same as euros with two one off games and seeded team get home advantage?

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The second round (play-offs) will be contested by the ten group runners-up and the best two Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League overall ranking,[39] who finished outside the top two of their qualifying group. They will be separated into three play-off paths, with each path featuring two single-leg semi-finals and one single-leg final. The semi-finals will be hosted by the six best-ranked runners-up of the qualifying group stage, while the host of the final will be determined by a draw.[40] The semi-finals will be played on 24–25 March, and the finals on 28–29 March 2022. The winners of each path will qualify for the World Cup.

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Top 6 from the 10 2nd placed teams get home advantage so we’re looking for as many draws as possible in the other groups from now on!

Well probably need at least a draw tomorrow and something from the final game against Denmark along with 3 wins against Israel, Moldova and the Faroes to get into the top 6.

If we don’t then we’ll end up with a tricky away tie in the semis. 

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On 9/5/2021 at 11:07 PM, Toepoke said:

Depends on our record. The 6 best runners up get seeded.

As we're in a 6 team group our results against the bottom team don't count, so currently it would be best for Moldova to finish bottom given that we beat the Faroes by more goals.

 

We could really be doing with blootering both the Faroes and Moldova away from home to boost our goal difference. Looks like Moldova will likely finish bottom now so a good result in the Faroes would be good. Not an easy place to go to these days though, although it never really has been easy for us in fairness. I would probably take a 0-1 win right now if it was offered. 

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After last night we don't need to blooter them any more, just win. No one below us can catch us if we do.

There will be temptation to rest on our laurels after last night. We have had these performances before (the double over France) and the away leg at Wembley many moons ago now which were celebrated but which sadly did not amount to  anything.

I'd like to see us make this one count. (Good for our national psyche if nothing else. )

This is now in our hands (second place). Beat Israel at home and the two tricky away a games to Faroes and Moldova and the Denmark game could then be irrelevant.

I have had my doubts about Steve Clarke but he deserves a lot of praise for getting us into this position with 4 games to go. He has done well but it has to count or it is just the usual glorious failure pish.

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7 hours ago, Texas Pete said:

We could really be doing with blootering both the Faroes and Moldova away from home to boost our goal difference. Looks like Moldova will likely finish bottom now so a good result in the Faroes would be good. Not an easy place to go to these days though, although it never really has been easy for us in fairness. I would probably take a 0-1 win right now if it was offered. 

We could do with blootering them to boost our confidence in front of goal more than anything. I'm glad Dykes has a couple more goals to his name now, regardless of how they were scored. 

But if we get Adams a couple of goals and maybe a few midfielders, it would hopefully break this hoodoo we have in front of goal.

I'm still very concerned about Israel. A draw should be enough against them. We can focus on our scoring issues after we deal with that tricky tie.

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59 minutes ago, thplinth said:

After last night we don't need to blooter them any more, just win. No one below us can catch us if we do.

There will be temptation to rest on our laurels after last night. We have had these performances before (the double over France) and the away leg at Wembley many moons ago now which were celebrated but which sadly did not amount to  anything.

I'd like to see us make this one count. (Good for our national psyche if nothing else. )

This is now in our hands (second place). Beat Israel at home and the two tricky away a games to Faroes and Moldova and the Denmark game could then be irrelevant.

I have had my doubts about Steve Clarke but he deserves a lot of praise for getting us into this position with 4 games to go. He has done well but it has to count or it is just the usual glorious failure pish.

Even in that scenario the Denmark game probably wouldn't be irrelevant. It would be great if we went into that game and all that was at stake was trying to get a point or three in order to boost our chances of being seeded in the playoffs. Although 20 (14) points might just be enough to do that anyway?

Starting to get ahead of myself though. I'm still not convinced we will beat Israel and the two away games after that fill me with fear. 

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35 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Even in that scenario the Denmark game probably wouldn't be irrelevant. It would be great if we went into that game and all that was at stake was trying to get a point or three in order to boost our chances of being seeded in the playoffs. Although 20 (14) points might just be enough to do that anyway?

Starting to get ahead of myself though. I'm still not convinced we will beat Israel and the two away games after that fill me with fear. 

Aye the seeding system for the play-offs might mean we'd need 10 or 12 points from our last 4 games. We'll just need to keep tabs on the other groups (obviously via this thread 🙂 ).

As you say priority is to get the results to secure second place though.

 

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Beating Israel would put clear blue water between us and third place, 4 points ahead with 3 games to go. Two of which are away ties to Faroes and Moldova. The latter especially fills me with dread but if we beat Israel I don't think we could ask for a better chance to get 2nd spot given we have not exactly been that great.

I think Clarke has been quite canny. He kept us in the hunt and one good performance later we are in pole position (for second 😀 )

If we beat Israel that would be fecking huge. They are a bit of a bogey team for us of late so it not going to be easy. You suspect they are going to score against us so we are going to need another performance for sure.

We have won two in a row and we need to win five in a row. Have we ever done that before? Steve Clarke will be a hero if he pulls that off. 

He'll be poached by a club in about 5 minutes flat, McLeish style. 😀

edit: after we win the world cup of course. lol.

Edited by thplinth
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10 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Beating Israel would put clear blue water between us and third place, 4 points ahead with 3 games to go. Two of which are away ties to Faroes and Moldova. The latter especially fills me with dread but if we beat Israel I don't think we could ask for a better chance to get 2nd spot given we have not exactly been that great.

I think Clarke has been quite canny. He kept us in the hunt and one good performance later we are in pole position (for second 😀 )

If we beat Israel that would be fecking huge. They are a bit of a bogey team for us of late so it not going to be easy. You suspect they are going to score against us so we are going to need another performance for sure.

We have won two in a row and we need to win five in a row. Have we ever done that before? Steve Clarke will be a hero if he pulls that off. 

He'll be poached by a club in about 5 minutes flat, McLeish style. 😀

edit: after we win the world cup of course. lol.

We won 6 in a row under McLeish, but two of them were friendlies which I don't normally count.

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Rightly so, friendlies are a load of pish and should be ignored.

Funny looking at the managers records there. Clarke currently has a lower win % than McLeish... in his second spell. Lot more draws though.

What I did not realize until now is that in his combined 22 games managing Scotland Alex McLeish did not have a single match drawn. I think he was a much more aggressive manager than we normally get and it (nearly) worked in the first stint (in a ridiculous group of death as well) but did not work out in the second stint and too many losses piled up.

Personally I like that style of manager and I thought he was treated by a few posters on here abysmally, calling him an alkie, etc.. it was totally out of order.

Edited by thplinth
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From memory we got ourselves into good positions under both McLeish and Smith (was it) and then dropped the ball against Georgia, twice.

If we did beat Israel my fear would be that Moldova take the role of Georgia. That would definitely boil my piss. 😀

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4 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Rightly so, friendlies are a load of pish and should be ignored.

Funny looking at the managers records there. Clarke currently has a lower win % than McLeish... in his second spell. Lot more draws though.

What I did not realize until now is that in his combined 22 games managing Scotland Alex McLeish did not have a single match drawn. I think he was a much more aggressive manager than we normally get and it (nearly) worked the first stint (in a ridiculous group of death as well) but did not work out in the second stint and too many losses piled up.

Personally I like that style of manager and I thought he was treated by a few posters on here abysmally, calling him an alkie, etc.. it was totally out of order.

Most managers have a lower win percentage than McLeish. One of the reasons that I never wanted him sacked in the first place. I think you are right about him being more aggressive. He was much more willing to go out and try to win games as opposed to trying not to lose them. That's the sort of manager I want Scotland to have. Ever since 3 points for a win came in, everybody knows that it's usually better to win one and lose one than it is to draw two. For some reason our managers seem to take the opposite view. Maybe they think that "not losing" keeps them in a job? 

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These paths that the play offs are structured into I assume means second game will be seeded as well.

they would risk say a Spain v netherlands play off final .

 

the euro play offs were to get more diddies in, but World Cup plays off will protect the biggest sides I’m guessing 

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3 minutes ago, thplinth said:

From memory we got ourselves into good positions under both McLeish and Smith (was it) and then dropped the ball against Georgia, twice.

If we did beat Israel my fear would be that Moldova take the role of Georgia. That would definitely boil my piss. 😀

Don't worry about that yet. We have to go to the Faroes before we go to Moldova. :lol:

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2 minutes ago, DAVIDB46 said:

These paths that the play offs are structured into I assume means second game will be seeded as well.

they would risk say a Spain v netherlands play off final .

 

the euro play offs were to get more diddies in, but World Cup plays off will protect the biggest sides I’m guessing 

If you are talking about home advantage, then the final is done by a draw beforehand, the same as our EURO playoffs. 

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Strangely Faroes does not worry me as much (that's us fucked now 😀).

We have squeaked past them so many times I suspect we will be able to do it again.

Jesus just checked and I forgot it is twice we have drawn there not once. But it was twenty years ago now.... in the paaaaast. edit: Nothing like starting a Euro qualifying campaign with a draw in the Faroes. lol.

Ok I am bit more worried now. 😀

Edited by thplinth
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2 minutes ago, stocky said:

Is it possible to get a seeded/home draw? what would we need?

is it possible we could get Austria in Play Off

or Wales eeeeekk  

 

 

To be seeded we need to be one of the best 6 ranked playoff teams. Winning our next 4 games would do it. 3 wins might be enough, it just depends on the other groups. 

Yes, we could get Austria or Wales. We won't get Israel again though, thank fuk. :lol:

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4 minutes ago, thplinth said:

Strangely Faroes does not worry me as much (that's us fucked now 😀).

We have squeaked past them so many times I suspect we will be able to do it again.

Jesus just checked and I forgot it is twice we have drawn there not once. But it was twenty years ago now.... in the paaaaast. edit: Nothing like starting a Euro qualifying campaign with a draw in the Faroes. lol.

Ok I am bit more worried now. 😀

:lol:

"It's the hope that gets you"

Faroes are a much better team than they were 20 years ago. I'm not convinced Scotland are..........yet.

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8 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

To be seeded we need to be one of the best 6 ranked playoff teams. Winning our next 4 games would do it. 3 wins might be enough, it just depends on the other groups. 

Yes, we could get Austria or Wales. We won't get Israel again though, thank fuk. :lol:

Is it just a home and away play-off against one team to get to the finals? 

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