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I'd sooner avoid Wales thanks.

People here might not like to hear it but our strength (or one of them) is we have a really tightly knit team spirit. However, Wales can boast the same. Whereas we have a build up of confidence with Wales it has been there for a few years now that comes from qualifying for tournaments and getting to the business end of tournaments. Wanting revenge for past defeats should not be reasons to want to draw a team.

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6 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

I'd sooner avoid Wales thanks.

People here might not like to hear it but our strength (or one of them) is we have a really tightly knit team spirit. However, Wales can boast the same. Whereas we have a build up of confidence with Wales it has been there for a few years now that comes from qualifying for tournaments and getting to the business end of tournaments. Wanting revenge for past defeats should not be reasons to want to draw a team.

If Wales weren’t seeded I would certainly want to avoid them in the semis. I’d rather play them in the final than Italy or Portugal though. Team spirit can only take you so far and I would say we’d have a great chance of putting them out, especially if the final is at Hampden.

I wish the draw was this week instead of next. The suspense is brutal.

 

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2 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

If Wales weren’t seeded I would certainly want to avoid them in the semis. I’d rather play them in the final than Italy or Portugal though. Team spirit can only take you so far and I would say we’d have a great chance of putting them out, especially if the final is at Hampden.

I wish the draw was this week instead of next. The suspense is brutal.

 

Yes I'd sooner take them over Italy or Portugal but would sooner have Russia or Sweden over Wales. 

Aye the waiting is terrible.

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6 minutes ago, Archiesdad said:

While the semi will be at s packed Hampden am I right in thinking the final - home or away is 50/50 Fans? 

Or am I mistaken 🤔

I think you are mistaken but I’m not 100% sure. I’m not sure what difference it would make whether it’s the final or the semi? Surely both would be 50/50 if the final was? 

The Covid situation in March could come into it as well. There might be no away fans at all. 

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Of course they'll want to play us , doesn't change my view that we will win the 1st playoff , but of all the seeded teams we have the poorest record in recent years for WC qualifying thankfully for us its changing theres nothing but progression within the current squad

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13 minutes ago, Bobby Russell's Lovechild said:

6 wins on the bounce, unbeaten at Hampden in 11 qualifiers, more fool them if any of them think that

Agreed. Portugal and especially Italy carry a fear factor so everyone will want to avoid them but with the exception of maybe Poland none of the unseeded teams would be favourites at Hampden.

They are all welcome to think they’ll beat us if they draw us and come to Glasgow next March overconfident. That would suit us just fine. 

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15 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

No offence but you are being far too defeatist with regards to Portugal and Italy.

First of all there is a 50% chance we won't even get drawn against them. If we are lets remember how we go into such matches. Portugal and Italy will be shell-shocked as they went into their last fixtures fully expecting to win and qualify directly. They did not. Italy also failed to qualify for the last World Cup - yes via a play-off which they lost against Sweden. Portugal had poor results in qualifying too against a struggling Republic of Ireland team and Azerbaijan. Will Portugal and Italy be licking their lips at the prospect of a trip to Hampden to face us with shell-shocked players whilst we are riding a wave. Definitely not.

Surely it's 33.3% chance we won't get drawn against them. 

I am not trying to be defeatist, I just think its best to try and enjoy the achievement of getting to the play offs without expectating too much more. We have done well to get here but it's a tough ask to get through against what are quality teams. 

Even winning our semi final will be a big ask, teams like czech rep and Poland are good teams with some excellent players. Czech Republic showed they can beat us at hampden already so it's definitely not a certainty we beat the unseeded teams. 

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13 hours ago, Dave78 said:

Great observation. Self confidence in your ability really makes a difference, and let's be honest, that's something we've always struggled with as a nation in general.

There a few folk who blamed our players lack of ability to win games and progress but most people recognised the ability was there,  we just needed someone who was able to manage them and  harness their confidence. Same in school with teachers who can give kids the confidence to challenge themselves. 
I said elsewhere that much as I like Steve Clarke I was doubtful that he is the person to do this , fool that I am. 
 

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6 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Surely it's 33.3% chance we won't get drawn against them. 

I am not trying to be defeatist, I just think its best to try and enjoy the achievement of getting to the play offs without expectating too much more. We have done well to get here but it's a tough ask to get through against what are quality teams. 

Even winning our semi final will be a big ask, teams like czech rep and Poland are good teams with some excellent players. Czech Republic showed they can beat us at hampden already so it's definitely not a certainty we beat the unseeded teams. 

No its a bit more than 33.33% given that we cannot draw ourselves so probably just over 40%.

And I stick by what I said about defeatism. If you read your original post it was totally dismissive of our chances against Portugal and Italy. Sweden proved Italy are beatable in play-offs and as such Portugal lost in a play-off against Serbia earlier this week. The same Serbia we beat last November in a play-off.

As to your point about bigging up opponents shall we just remember we beat Denmark at home on Monday - a team ranked way above Poland and anyone else amongst the unseeded teams. 

Sure sit back and enjoy the achievement of reaching the play-offs - that can be done after the matches have been played though. For now we are two games away from returning to the sport's biggest tournament and we should keep full focus on the upcoming matches.

Edited by Caledonian Craig
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Speaking to a friend in Kyiv who is a football journalists, about who Ukraine want in the draw, and the general consensus over there is we are the weakest seeded team (followed by Wales) and the one all the unseeded teams will be looking to draw.

Apparently all the newspapers and sports shows are begging for Scotland v Ukraine.

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19 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Speaking to a friend in Kyiv who is a football journalists, about who Ukraine want in the draw, and the general consensus over there is we are the weakest seeded team (followed by Wales) and the one all the unseeded teams will be looking to draw.

Apparently all the newspapers and sports shows are begging for Scotland v Ukraine.

Suits me fine. I'd fancy Ukraine a heck of a lot in the semis.A team that does not have goals in them and play ultra-conservatively who only managed to win two matches in their group.

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1 minute ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Suits me fine. I'd fancy Ukraine a heck of a lot in the semis.A team that does not have goals in them and play ultra-conservatively who only managed to win two matches in their group.

Ukraine, while draw specialists, in one off games where they know what they need to do, can be a very dangerous teams (they play very similar to how we played under Walter Smith.... no pretty football, and spend most the game trying to soak up the pressure, then pounce with a couple of late goals).

Personally would have no issue with getting them in the draw, but they are one of the teams where under estimate them at your peril. 

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1 minute ago, wanderer said:

Ukraine, while draw specialists, in one off games where they know what they need to do, can be a very dangerous teams (they play very similar to how we played under Walter Smith.... no pretty football, and spend most the game trying to soak up the pressure, then pounce with a couple of late goals).

Personally would have no issue with getting them in the draw, but they are one of the teams where under estimate them at your peril. 

Not a case of underestimating - more about confidence. They were poor in the Euros and that was the impression I got then not now because they are potential opponents. Perhaps a form pointer being they lost against Austria in their group at the Euros. You could counter-argue that we were also poor at the Euros but since then we have came on leaps and bounds and upgraded the team and elevated our confidence to a new level.

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38 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Speaking to a friend in Kyiv who is a football journalists, about who Ukraine want in the draw, and the general consensus over there is we are the weakest seeded team (followed by Wales) and the one all the unseeded teams will be looking to draw.

Apparently all the newspapers and sports shows are begging for Scotland v Ukraine.

Sounds about right tbf, we are a team that the unseeded teams would all want but who cares, we all know that this team is potentially developing into something reletively special and Ukraine would soon find out that we are no average outfit that they can just dismiss. 

I give us a great chance of beating all the unseeded teams at hampden. It's just the seeded teams that I think will be a problem for us. 

Edited by mccaughey85
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16 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Not a case of underestimating - more about confidence. They were poor in the Euros and that was the impression I got then not now because they are potential opponents. Perhaps a form pointer being they lost against Austria in their group at the Euros. You could counter-argue that we were also poor at the Euros but since then we have came on leaps and bounds and upgraded the team and elevated our confidence to a new level.

Sweden game at Hampden was one of those games were Sweden should have been 5-0 up.

Yarmalenko, Zinchenko, Malinovskyi and Yaremchuk would certainly cause us concerns.

One of those middle teams were you would not mind them, but you would probably be slightly more happy to avoid.

Only unseeded team I want to avoid out and out in Poland, as while they have a very average squad those days, they still have Lewandowski (with this most likely his last tournament)

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20 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Sounds about right tbf, we are a team that the unseeded teams would all want but who cares, we all know that this team is potentially developing into something reletively special and Ukraine would soon find out that we are no average outfit that they can just dismiss. 

I give us a great chance of beating all the unseeded teams at hampden. It's just the seeded teams that I think will be a problem for us. 

I think we could beat most the unseeded teams, and take Portugal and Italy out of the seeded teams, we could go toe-to-toe with most.

It will be foolish to think that the final will just be seeded teams, but if offered the Czechs at home in semi's with a home tie against the winner of Sweden v Wales in the final, I would rip your arm off for that right now.

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5 minutes ago, wanderer said:

I think we could beat most the unseeded teams, and take Portugal and Italy out of the seeded teams, we could go toe-to-toe with most.

It will be foolish to think that the final will just be seeded teams, but if offered the Czechs at home in semi's with a home tie against the winner of Sweden v Wales in the final, I would rip your arm off for that right now.

Going to be tough whatever draw we get, we just have to play our best and hope we get some good luck. 

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2 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Going to be tough whatever draw we get, we just have to play our best and hope we get some good luck. 

Playing our best is key. If we revert to timid football we’ll likely lose, if we play with belief in our ability and use the midfield properly we can beat any of the unseeded teams and most of the seeded ones. 

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2 minutes ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Nobody is downplaying the task ahead of us but just bear in mind that in the past year we have proven ourselves against higher ranked sides in the form of Serbia, England, Austria (twice) and Denmark. We needn't be selling ourselves short going into these play-offs.

While trying not to downplay our achievements, after re-watching the England game, and what England went on to do after that, that result felt to me Southgate was looking beyond the group stages for the easier route to the final just like he did at the last world cup, and it looks like Austria's blip in September to us and Israel is what cost them 2nd place (which basically turned Scotland v Israel a month later into a winner takes all match, as their results since then have been what you would have expected them to be.

If we can show the spirit we had in the Israel and Denmark games then we should fear nobody in the play off's.

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10 minutes ago, wanderer said:

While trying not to downplay our achievements, after re-watching the England game, and what England went on to do after that, that result felt to me Southgate was looking beyond the group stages for the easier route to the final just like he did at the last world cup, and it looks like Austria's blip in September to us and Israel is what cost them 2nd place (which basically turned Scotland v Israel a month later into a winner takes all match, as their results since then have been what you would have expected them to be.

If we can show the spirit we had in the Israel and Denmark games then we should fear nobody in the play off's.

I have to disagree totally with your assumption England were happy with the draw to manufacture an easier route through when they actually ended up winning the group anyway. If that were the case why didn't they 'throw' the last match against the Czechs? But lets go along this fantasy route and say that was the case it still does not stop England from have the best players on the pitch in that match but it was Billy Gilmour (a teenager) who won the man of the match award. And lets not forget we went into that game on a real downer having lost 2-0 at home to the Czechs.

Edited by Caledonian Craig
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