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Toepoke

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1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

That won't be far off I reckon. How would I see our chances against any of those opponents?

Sweden (Hmm tough one to call but would rather avoid)

Serbia (We saw last time that we can't get a result against them but that was behind closed doors. I'd have hope though.)

Switzerland (A team that are deceptively stronger than they look. Wouldn't fancy us to beat them.)

Poland (Not a lost cause. I'd fancy us to beat them over others but it would still be tough.)

Russia (No thanks. One to avoid.)

Turkey (I'd take them. We'd stand a decent chance Id think.)

Czech Republic (Cut out silly errors as in the Euros and we'd be in with a shout. Sooner avoid though.)

Ukraine (I'd fancy our chances against them. Not a great deal to fear about them.)

Romania (A team on the rise - a bit like us. I'd still expect us to beat them.)

Wales (Sooner avoid but I'd hold hope of us getting a result against them.)

Austria (We've shown in these group fixtures we have the taking of them. Won in Vienna and should have won at Hampden.)

 

Sweden, Russa and Switzerland are the teams I wouldn't fancy our chances against. All the other teams would be 50/50 imo. 

 

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Wee prediction, and no doubt at least half of these will be wrong.

Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Bosnia Herzegovina, Wales, Scotland, Norway, Croatia, Poland plus Czech Rep, Austria.

No easy games and all that, and going on those predictions we would need something from Denmark (to be seeded) - they also probably going for 10 wins 0 goals against too, so a bit of an incentive for both of us at Hampden.

I'd fancy Austria, Bosnia, Wales, Poland, and possibly Norway - albeit with Haaland being injured for that week of the playoffs ;)

- Portugal should do enough to win the group (Ireland (a) and Serbia (h). They have lost to Serbia at home before, and were hardly inspiring against Ireland, still you'd imagine they will win the group. 

B - Sweden are away to first Georgia then Spain. The Swedes are 2 pts clear of Spain. Spain's last games are (a) to Greece and then home to Sweden. The Swedes are really good at qualifying and getting results. I think they will beat Georgia, and possibly get enough in Spain to win the group. Mighty Spain in the playoffs.

C -Italy and Switzerland both on 14pts. The Italians the Swiss, even if they draw, Italy then go to NI, so unless Switzerland either beat Italy, they'll be needing NI to do them a favour or score 2 more goals than IF Italy beat NI by  - that made sense in my head, but Italy to win the group.

D - a really interesting group. 1-4 can all qualify. Bosnia Herz v Finland and France v Kazakhstan followed by Bosnia/Herz v Ukraine and Finland v France. Quite hard to predict, Ukraine are undefeated (1 win, 6 draws) Bosnia (1 w, 4 d, 1 l). Finland have knocked Bosnia out before, so a lot can happen, but I reckon it'll be Bosnia/Herz who come second.

E - Belgium should beat Estonia, Wales will do the business against Belarus. The Czechs will then easily beat Estonia (GD in the last game?) then who knows what happens in Cardiff for Wales - Belgium. The Welsh seem to have a knack of getting results when it matters, 1-1 and they end up on 15pts.

F - Hopefully us.

G - I've seen Turkey a couple of times since the Euros, they were awful against Latvia and I wouldn't trust them to win in Montenegro. I reckon Norway will get second. Norway play Lativa at home, they'll put at least 3 past them so their GD will be double figures before going to Amsterdam to play Holland.

H - Russia are a good team, Croatia have been a bit up and down of late and in a bit of transition (they are still an excellent team) but I think Russia might sneak a draw here, and it could well be Croatia who are second!

I - Albania and Hungary are needing a lot of favours/results. Seems unlikely either will make it. Poland for runners up.

Edited by weekevie04
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4 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Can someone correct me or clarify this for me?

We know that the semi-finals of the play-offs sees the seeded teams guaranteed a home draw but for the finals is it all just done by a draw?

I suspect the pathway is all drawn at the same time. For the Euros, we knew if we beat Israel, we would play Serbia/Norway away.

Also it’s impossible to guarantee a home or away game for the final without a draw. For instance, if all of the seeded teams won the semi, then half of the seeded teams would be at home and half away in the final.

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Just now, breeks_mctavish said:

I suspect the pathway is all drawn at the same time. For the Euros, we knew if we beat Israel, we would play Serbia/Norway away.

Also it’s impossible to guarantee a home or away game for the final without a draw. For instance, if all of the seeded teams won the semi, then half of the seeded teams would be at home and half away in the final.

Cheers.

Yes well I'd presume then, that would mean if we are not one of the seeded six we would be away in both games should we reach the play-off final.

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3 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Cheers.

Yes well I'd presume then, that would mean if we are not one of the seeded six we would be away in both games should we reach the play-off final.

No.

Home advantage for the final is drawn well in advance of the semi finals. So even if we don't get seeded we could still be at home for the final. We would need to beat a seeded team away from home first to get to the final though. 

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Just now, Orraloon said:

No.

Home advantage for the final is drawn well in advance of the semi finals. So even if we don't get seeded we could still be at home for the final. We would need to beat a seeded team away from home first to get to the final though. 

Just like Serbia last time round. They were away for the semi final because of the seeding, but got the final at home because of the draw.

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2 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

No.

Home advantage for the final is drawn well in advance of the semi finals. So even if we don't get seeded we could still be at home for the final. We would need to beat a seeded team away from home first to get to the final though. 

Ah right well there is hope that even if we don't get seeded we could still play a home play-off final should we win an away semi.

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Teams will have a 50/50 chance of a home game for the play off finals.  I’d imagine each of the semi ties will be allocated a number 1 to 6, and then those numbers will be drawn for the final.  If we qualify unseeded there will still be a chance of a home final.

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1 minute ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Ah right well there is hope that even if we don't get seeded we could still play a home play-off final should we win an away semi.

Yes. It's basically the same as the last lot of play offs. The draw for home advantage in the finals will be done in late Nov/early Dec after all the qualifiers have been played. I haven't seen an exact date for that draw yet, although I haven't looked too hard as I'm not too confident that we will be in that draw yet. 😂

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Group H is interesting with Croatia and Russia playing in the last game for the automatic place. Russia will likely be ahead going into that game. Croatia will need the win to qualify, but if Russia avoid defeat it will put Croatia on 15pts at best in second place. They play before us, so (providing we beat Moldova) we'll know what needs to be done to overtake at least one of them when we play Denmark.

It's annoying that both the Norway/Turkey group and Czech/Wales group play after us, so they'll both have the advantage of knowing what they need to do to overtake us. Unless we beat Denmark, in which case F the lot of them. 😁

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Something not touched on yet that is a BIG worry is the amount of key players we have teetering on the brink of suspension. We have John McGinn, Andy Robertson, Bill Gilmour, Nathan Patterson and Scott McTominay to name but a few a booking away from suspension. We really need all of those available for both play-offs should we get that far.

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28 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Something not touched on yet that is a BIG worry is the amount of key players we have teetering on the brink of suspension. We have John McGinn, Andy Robertson, Bill Gilmour, Nathan Patterson and Scott McTominay to name but a few a booking away from suspension. We really need all of those available for both play-offs should we get that far.

Didn’t we have a big discussion about that the other day?

But yeah it is a big concern. It would probably be better if some of them were booked against Moldova and missed the Denmark game (as long as we beat Moldova). That would probably end any hopes we have of getting something against Denmark though.

We’ll just need to hope for the best. 

Edited by Texas Pete
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32 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I'm going to have a big acca at half time in the next round of games after checking which countries need to get some  yellows so as they serve suspensions before a play off. Wee bit of homework ahead...

Aye it’s a certainty there will be a flurry of suspensions for the final group games for teams that have already secured second place. There’s money to be made. 

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12 hours ago, weekevie04 said:

G - I've seen Turkey a couple of times since the Euros, they were awful against Latvia and I wouldn't trust them to win in Montenegro. I reckon Norway will get second. Norway play Lativa at home, they'll put at least 3 past them so their GD will be double figures before going to Amsterdam to play Holland.

Very good post and very interesting to see potential results elsewhere to allow us that seeded spot or possibly Not getting that seeded spot !? 
Group.G is the group that could give us a chance, you mention GD but as it stands 

Norway GD is +2  ( x8 goals against Gibraltar removed ) 

Turkey GD is +1 ( x3 goals against Gibraltar removed ) 

Scotland GD is +5 ( x1 goal against Moldova removed ) 

 

The next criteria after GD is higher number of goals scored and looking at results this has Norway on 7 Goals, Turkey on 16 Goals, Scotland on 12 Goals !!
Meaning Norway would have to score 4 goals in that game against Latvia to edge out Scotland if they were tied on points. From group results, Latvia haven’t shown results to suggest they will get pummelled 4 or 5 nil….. 

 

Norways remaining two games are (1) Latvia at home, would imagine a home win there and then (2) away in Rotterdam to take on Holland who are starting to look pretty impressive !! I’d imagine and hoping for a Holland win, which would be good for Scotland. This could and hopefully leaves Norway on 14pts with a GD less than ours…. 
 

Turkeys remaining two games are (1) Gibraltar at home so 3pts there and then (2) away to Montenegro and as mentioned above Turkey haven’t been great, it took a 99th minute penalty to see off Latvia in there last game! Scotland will be hoping Montenegro take something from this game🤞the last time Turkey and Montenegro played was 2-2 over in Istanbul, so there is a glimmer of hope. So if Turkey win out they will be on 15pts and resign Scotland to being unseeded (if we take nothing from the Denmark game that is) if Turkey slip up away to Montenegro, this allows Norway to finish 2nd on 14pts (if they lose to Holland away) 

 

Bottom line, Scotland take 4pts in there final 2 games and we should be seeded but take only 3pts from Moldova then we are reliant on Group.G permutations above

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Played 8 and only defeated once by unbeaten Denmark who have not even conceded a fucking goal yet.

Just the two draws against our biggest rivals for second.

4 wins in a row sure sorted out a 'slow start'.

I'm impressed. But it will all be for naught (probably) if we don't beat Moldova. Cant rely on Austria beating Israel.

Edited by thplinth
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15 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Yes. It's basically the same as the last lot of play offs. The draw for home advantage in the finals will be done in late Nov/early Dec after all the qualifiers have been played. 

Aye there will be three paths of four teams, A, B and C.

The winners of the first semi final out of the hat in each path will be the home team in the finals, so that's the game you want to be draw in.

In the dream scenario we are seeded and drawn in a semi which gives us two games at Hampden to qualify 🤞

 

 

 

Edited by Toepoke
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On 10/16/2021 at 6:56 AM, prideothenorth said:

It is certainly in our hands, though never thought I would be so worried about having to beat Moldova but after the Faroes match you can't take anything for granted.

Weird to think we could beat Moldova 6-0, make the play offs and not be seeded but could also lose 6-0, still make the play offs and end up seeded!

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