European Semi or World Cup Semi?

Which is the greater achievement?

On the face of it the answer should be easy - the World Cup has the best teams in the world - however Europe has a higher concentration of Good / ok teams whereas the World Cup is diluted by the 4th team in each group.

You could argue that it's a harder route to get to a euro semi than a world cup semi.

Still, I guess they'll have an open top bus ride.

This has been debated before - the Euros is a harder competition, NQAT

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Originally Posted by bobh

This has been debated before - the Euros is a harder competition, NQAT

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I agree that was the case previously, but, while increasing the number of teams taking part has to be good news for countries like Wales, it also leads to a decline in standards - although, by the end, we had more than proved ourselves, there were some pretty ordinary sides in Euro 2016.

Getting to a world cup semi on paper is the bigger achievment. Getting to a semi of a major tournement as a country with a population of 3 million vs a country of 53 million is a greater achievement imo.

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Originally Posted by Croesy Blue

Getting to a world cup semi on paper is the bigger achievment. Getting to a semi of a major tournement as a country with a population of 3 million vs a country of 53 million is a greater achievement imo.

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A country with ~70 professional footballers to chose from v a country with <1,500 to choose from.

Roughly 50% of Wales available players have been capped!

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

I agree that was the case previously, but, while increasing the number of teams taking part has to be good news for countries like Wales, it also leads to a decline in standards - although, by the end, we had more than proved ourselves, there were some pretty ordinary sides in Euro 2016.

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Bob, there are some ordinary teams in this World Cup too! Previous winners like Argentina,Spain and Germany have failed to show up. As every man and his dog pointed out , England’s side of the draw was full of very ordinary teams who didn’t have much flair and based their game on being compact and hard to beat, Croatia have gone to extra time 3 times!

Best teams have been Belgium and France and I expect France to win .Japan’s effort against Belgium was the performance I think I have enjoyed the most !

Wales missed a big opportunity failing to qualify last year , I would have expected us to have got to last 8 or 16 with a fully fit Bale,Ramsey and Allen.

The overall quality of the Euros is probably higher

You have to take into account the variable when comparing the achievement, like population, player pool, the actual squad & the quality of opponents

I'd argue that Wales had a harder route than England did, especially when comparing the groups & quarter final opponents so Wales' achievement is greater IMO. Especially when you consider the difference in population

And we beat Belgium.