Reply With QuotePlayoffs in March.Originally Posted by kendoddsdadsdogsdead
If we don’t finish second, we’ll be in the playoffs in any case.
If Belgium win tonight it’s nearly impossible for us to finish first
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...and we beat North Macedonia in the last game, and end up second...what happens then?
Keep it simple, still recovering from my FA Cup **** up.
Playoffs in March.
If we don’t finish second, we’ll be in the playoffs in any case.
If Belgium win tonight it’s nearly impossible for us to finish first
First we need Belgium to beat NM.
Having lost to England, it looks like we’re confirmed in pot 2 for the playoffs, as we cannot surpass Sweden or Serbia in the rankings.
As it currently stands we’d will be at home in the playoff semi final to anyone of 10+ teams.
Our playoff final, should we win the semi final would be away to one of Italy, Turkey, Ukraine or Serbia.
Results over the final games could of course shuffle that. Ideally we need both Sweden & Serbia not to finish 2nd, so that we can get back into pot 1.
Second round (play-off): Sixteen teams (twelve group runners-up and four best Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League overall ranking, that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group) will be drawn into four paths, playing two rounds of single-match play-offs (semi-finals with the seeded teams to host, followed by finals, with the home teams to be drawn). The four path winners will qualify for the World Cup.
Surely we want anything other than a Belgium win tonight as that would give us a great crack at winning the group
Yes unless I'm reading it wrong which I may well be. Anything but a Belgium win would still leave it in our hands considering we have to play both those above us. Belgium's goal diff even with us winning Monday would otherwise be nearly impossible to beat for most let alone us.
I guess people are thinking more about second but whilst there's a slim chance of top I'd rather go for that.
We don't have the resources to go very far and succeeding to qualify via the play-offs is unlikely.
I've just started a book which attempts to explain quantum theory to non-scientifically minded people. It's like reading the Beano compared to this !
Well...after reading all that, I don't think we'll be bothering those North Americans next year
An excellent summary, and thanks for posting it.
But it does demonstrate how Uefa have complicated what was, and what should be, a pretty easy to understand qualifying process.
So big game on Saturday then - Serbia v Albania (who are just above Serbia in Group K having played 1 game more).
Also on Monday in Group B - Sweden v Kosovo (currently 2 points ahead of Sweden).
Oh ok let's give up then
We got to the semi final of Euro 2016 with the same resources. We’ve shown we can compete, we ran Belgium very close away recently
Said absolutely nobody except you.
It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to work their way through all of that!
Nope, gutted, finally a World Cup you can go to….sort of
To be fair that was a very unusual side for a country of our size with one world class player, one who wasn’t far off and premiership regulars throughout the rest of the squad. Strong through the spine of the team as well. Resources maybe not the right term but in terms of quality of squad top to bottom it’s night and day.
Out of interest what would we have needed to do to stay in pot 1 if we hadn’t picked a game against England and lost?
Did you read his question?
I have an opinion regardless of whether it's a minority opinion. And let's see who is right at the end of the day. I would be more than happy to be wrong.
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