Will We Do It? - Page 4 - TA specific - Tartan Army Message Board Jump to content

Will We Do It?


Dillinger

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 137
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Really sitting down and working things out shows that to get an automatic qualifying spot we'll realistically have to win all 3 games.

Even getting 3rd place means that we'll probably have to get a minimum of 4 points, and even that might not be enough.

We royally ####ed up on Friday, no doubt about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really sitting down and working things out shows that to get an automatic qualifying spot we'll realistically have to win all 3 games.

Even getting 3rd place means that we'll probably have to get a minimum of 4 points, and even that might not be enough.

We royally ####ed up on Friday, no doubt about it.

At the start of the group did you really think we would even get a play off spot by only winning 3 of our 5 home games? If we win one of our last 2 home games we will almost definitely get the play off spot at worst.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the start of the group did you really think we would even get a play off spot by only winning 3 of our 5 home games? If we win one of our last 2 home games we will almost definitely get the play off spot at worst.

Aye, that's true.

They're 2 difficult home games though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think we are going ot make it, but it's our next 90 minutes which is going to count. My reasoning is GI believe ermany is going to beat Ireland, and their last match is against Poland, the Poles will not want to be dragged into the play off, every team wants to win.

We must play with a spirited display like we did yesterday albeit against World Champ's. I predict us ending the group on 15 points - totally not how I saw this a month ago. I am convinced the issue on Friday was simply we could not handle the pressure. Georgia won, and thats how football goes.

I just ran some rough scenarios and I have the following outcome, although I could do this in an hour and see it entirely different.

I have us making the play's and having the 2nd lowest co-efficient.

Ukraine are going to be best placed 3rd.

Russia, Netherlands, Romania, Israel - top 4 seeds

Slovenia, Scotland, Denmark and Norway

If you had asked me on Thursday night, I would have said if we made it into the Play Offs - We are not going to make it.

Now, I am convincing myself that it is not as clear cut as that. The only seed that I would loathe right now is Netherlands and that's because of historial reputation rather than current form.

I'm now thinking either Norway, Croatia or Ukraine will be best placed 3rd.

We have a cup final with Poland for us, the bad news is Slovakia are riding high and that means...ah never mind its all doom and gloom being a Scotland fan.

I will be rooting for the under dogs in the hopes by some miracle we end up seeded and drawn with a low scoring Estonia team.

Edited by romanticscot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Scotland will now not qualify - Even if we beat Poland - which is no "given" - and get to the Play Offs, we will lose regardless of who we play - Love to be wrong, and pay a £25 Charity Bet out I have struck on here !, but doubt it.

Ultimately, I can see, despite what WGS says to contrary, "settling "for a draw in Dublin with 20 mins to go being the thing which comes back to bite us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can see Ireland getting what they need to get to play offs. Similar team to us but we bottle it and Irelsnd have a better mentality and a steelness to them which we lack at the vital times.

In reality we could have snatched a point in Germany, could have won in Poland but never cause we don't have the mentality, i'll always be a bit pissed off the same players bottled it in Georgia

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The equation seems relatively simple to me:

-if we can beat Poland (they're not as good as Germany some folk seem to be forgetting) and Ireland don't beat Germany (very unlikely, 1-6 was the score the last time those two played in Dublin), we just need to beat Gibraltar and we're in a play-off. Poland v Ireland would then be irrelevant to us as the Poles would need a draw for 2nd and Ireland would need a win for 2nd. The team not getting the result they need would finish 4th.

-a draw against Poland and Ireland losing against Germany would leave us needing Poland to beat Ireland for us to get a play-off. A draw would give Poland 2nd and Ireland 3rd, which is probably what would happen. The Irish would be in the strange position of whether to gamble and go for the win which would give them 2nd (leaving themselves open to the counter) or settling for the draw which would guarantee them a play-off. I'd thought that us drawing against Poland and Ireland losing both games was more than conceivable but now tend to think that Poland v Ireland would end in a draw as I don't think Ireland would go all out for a win and Poland wouldn't need to win.

The romantic in me tends to think that we aren't good enough to beat Poland and will draw that match. Ireland might just lose both games and we could just sneak through in a play-off. We like to do things the hard way let's not forget.

Ultimately we need to beat Poland for a play-off place to be in our hands. In the past, I've been stupidly optimistic about qualification hopes under Burley & Levein. Under Strachan, I don't think it's so stupid to be optimistic. Georgia is probably the only bad result & performance of this campaign. Under his reign, only his first couple of games against Serbia & Wales or the home game against a very good Belgium team can really rank in that category. So yes we can still qualify with Strachan as our manager.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We won't beat Poland. There's too much pressure on it now.

Why the f*** do we always leave ourselves in situations with 3 games to go when we are analysing multiple spreadsheets with every permutation of results possible and we still fail?

What's wrong with doing it right, winning all games and ensuring our own qualification with a couple of games to spare?

Rossy's bang on (for once) - we right royally pissed it up against a wall against Georgia.

And we missed a trick in Dublin too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A draw is no use, so we must go for a win.

Ofcourse strachan will most probually try and play counter attack football, but with ten minutes to go and we are not in the lead- surley he will go all out for the win.

I thought he could have went for the win in dublin, but with 10 mins to go he brought Berra on and shut up shop for the point.

That is not an option for the poland game. :ok:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...



×
×
  • Create New...