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Toepoke

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The draw

Ukraine - a decent side. "Unbeaten" whilst true, it also means 2 points from Finland, Kazakhstan, and to give them credit, France as well. They have some very good young players coming through, and their U20 side won the WC in 2019 ; but its a winnable game. A tough game, but a sold-out Hampden, the side play as well as they did against Denmark, we can surely beat them. I hae a feeling we'll need ET or pens for this though.

IF we get past Ukraine ;

Wales - I've not seen enough of them, and whilst they have done really well under Page, they have struggled at times in their qualifying group - Belarus away, Estonia, yet put in some great results too - Czechs away and the final match against Belgium at home. Bale, Ramsey are aging, 5-6 years ago it would have been a different story. They have some decent players, but I think on average, we should be beating them.

Austria - I am wary of. I thought they were very good in the Euros. Yet, been fairly poor in this group. They have some very decent players in Germany, and I think a potential final against them there would be a lot harder than our win there in the group.

I'm hoping for Wales in Cardiff. As horrible as losing to them would be, I think we have a far greater chance of beating Wales away than Austria - we did it recently etc.

Then again, losing to Wales would be just awful.

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8 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said:

Great draw, can’t ask for much better than that 

Agreed.

For a home tie in the semi, we couldn’t really have done better than Ukraine. I wouldn’t even swap them for North Macedonia who performed much better in their group than Ukraine did in theirs. NM’s arguably being a harder group too. You could maybe make a case for Austria being a better option than Ukraine but I’m very happy with the semi draw.

The final draw could only have been better by being at home. Literally couldn’t have chosen a better seed and non seed than Wales and Austria. 
if the final was a home I’d be very confident indeed of us qualifying. Slightly less so with the final being away. 

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8 minutes ago, Marky said:

Agreed.

For a home tie in the semi, we couldn’t really have done better than Ukraine. I wouldn’t even swap them for North Macedonia who performed much better in their group than Ukraine did in theirs. NM’s arguably being a harder group too. You could maybe make a case for Austria being a better option than Ukraine but I’m very happy with the semi draw.

The final draw could only have been better by being at home. Literally couldn’t have chosen a better seed and non seed than Wales and Austria. 
if the final was a home I’d be very confident indeed of us qualifying. Slightly less so with the final being away. 

Spot on. I cannot disagree with any of that.

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26 minutes ago, Hercules Rockefeller said:

Exactly my experience!

Been to Wales plenty of times - lovely people, very welcoming but terrible winners.

Have never understood this mentality of trying to belittle folk who haven't done anything to you.

its not just us, and the 2 games where we sneaked past them to qualify for WCs 78 & 86 ?

we were in the welsh end in NY when they played Mexico in a friendly (we were en route post Jacksonville game) was a bunch of them that looked like Oasis wanabees and took very little interest in the match

i shared a flat with a welsh couple in london during euro 96, they were also pseudo-english during that time , 3 lions singalongs etc ..... my sense in up north is but different though ?

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36 minutes ago, weekevie04 said:

I've had the same experience with them as well.

Met rugby fans in Amsterdam about 12 years ago, we were on a stag and a bit rowdy/silly laddies but nothing crazy. Met about 10 Irish rugby fans and 10 Welsh ones - they might have been playing each other in the Six Nations, and the Irish won? Cannae mind, but the Irish lads (who identified as Irish but had NI accents) were totally great, and a good laugh. The Welsh were basically like mini-English louts.

Met some of their fans at that awful game in 2012 and again, I was just surprised at how "English" they are culturally, that superior, belittling opponents when down, I just don't identify with that at all, and I know there's a lot of criticism directed at us and the Irish for 'the wha's like us' or the Irish version 'they will party no matter the score,' etc ; but give me that pleasantry than having to speak to some boring, arrogant windbag who's just moaning and belittling you or your country for being shite.

And its not all Wales, I went to Bala and the west/north-west parts in 2015 and everyone was amazing, and really friendly. Their sports fans tend to be more like the English, IMO

I agree with much of this, a lot of folk see us as England's bitch but that province most certainly is!

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6 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Very deflated after that final draw. It was all going too well 😕

 

Happened last time as well and we still qualified so I’m not that bothered about it being away. Wales/Austria away isn’t any more difficult than Serbia away. 

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8 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

Anyone know how many tickets we are likely to get for the final of we beat Ukraine? I am hoping it’s 10% of capacity although we have nothing to bargain with as there is no reverse fixture so we’ll just need to accept what we’re given. 

I think it will be at Uefa's discretion, not the Welsh FA

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3 minutes ago, EddardStark said:

That draw could have been a lot worse. We are at least equal to those sides. It’s down to player suspension  and keeping our key players fit. Certainly not panicking. 

I’m just happy we avoided Italy and Portugal. Going away to either of those countries in the final would almost certainly have seen us eliminated. 

Now we have a decent chance. 

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10 minutes ago, Texas Pete said:

Anyone know how many tickets we are likely to get for the final of we beat Ukraine? I am hoping it’s 10% of capacity although we have nothing to bargain with as there is no reverse fixture so we’ll just need to accept what we’re given. 

Surely it needs to be 50/50 as no return tie? Common sense though as well as I don't see Ukraine bringing 26,000 to Hampden. 

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1 minute ago, stirlish said:

I think it will be at Uefa's discretion, not the Welsh FA

What are you basing that on?

For the qualifiers FIFA only stipulate that the away team be given a “reasonable number” of tickets. I’m not sure if the playoffs will be any different. 

Used to be 10% for World Cup qualifiers and 5% for Euros qualifiers I think but there doesn’t seem to be a minimum percentage any more. 

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2 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

Surely it needs to be 50/50 as no return tie? Common sense though as well as I don't see Ukraine bringing 26,000 to Hampden. 

I doubt it. Would be good for the final if that was the case but not so good for the semi. 

We’ll find out soon enough I suppose but I can’t see it being 50/50. 

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