The Wee "Will-we-qualify-probably-not" Thread: Nations League Edition

[Donathan]

I'd take Italy. They haven't been great for a while and will be under a lot of pressure. Would be nice to get back at them for '07 too.

Maybe it would be better to get Spain or England, who could dominate the entire group including us but clear the path a bit for us to make a run at second.

Always worries me a bit when we get a “lesser” team from pot 1 that our rivals will take something off them whereas we’ll get beaten home and away. In fact, that’s exactly what happened to us in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, albeit the Germans were defending world champions rather than a lesser pot 1 team.

[BFTD]

We could end up with a qualifying group featuring Gibraltar and San Marino. What a time to be alive!

I just did a practice draw (as I'm a sad, sad man), and we ended up in Group A with Switzerland, Austria, Albania & Kosovo. That'd do nicely.

[Coooombe]

We could end up with a qualifying group featuring Gibraltar and San Marino. What a time to be alive!
I just did a practice draw (as I'm a sad, sad man), and we ended up in Group A with Switzerland, Austria, Albania & Kosovo. That'd do nicely.

I'm absolutely certain we'd fail to qualify for that due to dropping points in Kosovo.

[BFTD]

Just now, Coooombe said:

I'm absolutely certain we'd fail to qualify for that due to dropping points in Kosovo.

Well, yeah; it's us. But I'll be amazed if we get a more straightforward group than that. Out of all the Pot 5 sides, the only one I'd feel confident about us playing is Gibraltar - we could easily drop (and in several cases, have already dropped) points against any of the others.

[GordonS]

4 hours ago, forameus said:

Because they were in the top Nations League division.  If you're in that, you're a top seed.

Not quite, there are 10 teams in each pot, so the two lowest placed League A teams went in to Pot 2. Which is why Germany are in there.

[GordonS]

Apologies if someone's already mentioned this, but I read some stuff about the prize money for the Nations League.

We were already getting €750,000 for being in League C. We get another €750,000 for winning our group. On top of that, we'll get a minimum €1 million for playing in League B next time. So that win tonight got us:

• A play-off place for Euro 2020;
• A home semi-final in that play-off;
• Into Pot 3 for the Euro 2020 Qualifying Groups;
• Promoted to League B in the next Nations League, in which we'll get tastier matches;
• €1 million.

Not a bad night's work.

[GordonS]

15 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Apologies if someone's already mentioned this, but I read some stuff about the prize money for the Nations League.

We were already getting €750,000 for being in League C. We get another €750,000 for winning our group. On top of that, we'll get a minimum €1 million for playing in League B next time. So that win tonight got us:

• A play-off place for Euro 2020;
• A home semi-final in that play-off;
• Into Pot 3 for the Euro 2020 Qualifying Groups;
• Promoted to League B in the next Nations League, in which we'll get tastier matches;
• €1 million.

Not a bad night's work.

Oh, and if we do qualify for Euro 2020 we'll play a minimum of two group matches at Hampden, and the other at Wembley.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

3 hours ago, Donathan said:

 

 

Maybe it would be better to get Spain or England, who could dominate the entire group including us but clear the path a bit for us to make a run at second.

Always worries me a bit when we get a “lesser” team from pot 1 that our rivals will take something off them whereas we’ll get beaten home and away. In fact, that’s exactly what happened to us in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, albeit the Germans were defending world champions rather than a lesser pot 1 team.

 

 

Aye. I've always kinda thought that in our situation, the Pot 1,5 and 6 teams are pretty irrelevant to us. It's 2 and 4 that you're hoping for a few shite teams to make the difference.

Would take Austria and Cyprus. Georgia can f**k off.

[Poet of the Macabre]

4 hours ago, GordonS said:

Oh, and if we do qualify for Euro 2020 we'll play a minimum of two group matches at Hampden, and the other at Wembley.

So, we could play all three group matches at Hampden?

[Elixir]

6 hours ago, GordonS said:

Oh, and if we do qualify for Euro 2020 we'll play a minimum of two group matches at Hampden, and the other at Wembley.

Why one at Wembley? That would be scenes, though.

Would England have a game at Hampden?

[DanMc99]

So do we go into a semi final with one of finland, serbia and someone else? or am i totally confused? 

[Coooombe]

So do we go into a semi final with one of finland, serbia and someone else? or am i totally confused? 

The way it stands we will play Finland and Norway will play Serbia, then the winners will play. The only way this will change is if any of those teams qualify automatically, in which case the best 2nd place team will take their place.

[Estragon]

A week on Sunday for the main draw.  Is that what we're calling it?

You know, the second chance for absolute diddy nations like Spain, Italy, Germany and the likes.

[Frank Grimes]

IMO, easiest:

Poland 
Czech Republic 
Scotland
Cyprus
Gibraltar 
San Marino 

Hardest:

France
Germany 
Scotland
Hungary 
Macedonia 
Latvia

[craigkillie]

28 minutes ago, Frank Grimes said:

IMO, easiest:

Poland 
Czech Republic 
Scotland
Cyprus
Gibraltar 
San Marino 

Hardest:

France
Germany 
Scotland
Hungary 
Macedonia 
Latvia

The second one isn't possible because Germany, Scotland and Hungary are all host nations.

[JamesM82]

I would like to draw Hungary. They were absolutely honking in that friendly last season, and if we draw them it means we can't draw any of the big countries (Spain, Italy, England, Holland, Germany) who are hosting games in the finals.

[Frank Grimes]

29 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

The second one isn't possible because Germany, Scotland and Hungary are all host nations.

Can we only be drawn against one other host nation?

[paddymcp]

6 minutes ago, Frank Grimes said:

Can we only be drawn against one other host nation?

Which If I’m not mistaken we would then automatically avoid two big guns from the first two pots. E.g Spain>Germany etc. Bonus.

[Paco]

Poland
Bosnia
Scotland
Hungary
Gibraltar

That’s pretty much as good as it gets. There are weaker sides in Pot 4 than Hungary but having them rules out the likes of England, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Having said that, England, Netherlands, Italy or Spain as top seed isn’t a bad thing - we’re unlikely to win the group anyway, and it rules out tougher second seeds like Germany, Denmark and Russia.

[JamesM82]

15 minutes ago, paddymcp said:

Which If I’m not mistaken we would then automatically avoid two big guns from the first two pots. E.g Spain>Germany etc. Bonus.

We could still get something like France-Germany or Belgium-Germany.  

Basically the idea for most teams in the draw will be to avoid Germany, as it's ridiculous that they've fallen to pot 2.

23 minutes ago, Frank Grimes said:

Can we only be drawn against one other host nation?

Yes, maximum of two finals hosts in any one group. There are other rules involving travel (avoiding too many ridiculous long journeys), weather (i.e. not too many countries that could be snowbound in March / November) and politics (i.e. don't draw Gibraltar and Spain together), but none of these affect us directly.