Hendricks Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Lurkst said: The 6 best runners up will be at home in the first round of the playoffs though. Just reading more about this and think you are correct so for the semi finals it’s home advantage to 6 best runners up and a draw to see who hosts the finals. Edited December 8, 2020 by Hendricks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lambies Doos Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Am I right in thinking that, due to the imbalance in group sizes, results against the bottom seed (or lowest placed when the group is done, perhaps) in six team groups are ignored when deciding the best runners-up spots?Correct 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lambies Doos Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Not this time. All 10 group winners qualify automatically. All 10 runners up go into the play offs plus the best 2 Nations league teams who don’t finish 1st or 2nd giving 12 teams in the play offs. They are spilt into 3 groups of 4 with semi finals and then a final. The 3 winners qualify to give the 13 UEFA spots in Qatar. Austria are the 6th placed best Nations League side after France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Wales so are an absolute shoe in for one of the 2 play off spots even if they don’t finish in the top 2 in our group. Yeh, Scotland not winning their Nations group was so costly 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Wolf Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Thanks for your replies, folks. At some point, closer to the time, I'll read up about iton Wiki, which is usually pretty exhaustive (often overly so). FWIW, I think we could finish anywhere from top to fourth, and not having to count a possible away hiccup to a minnow helps us too. So I see second as a realistic goal. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paco Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) I think the situation is this... The second-placed sides compete against each other across the groups for A) a seeded place in the play-off semi and B) home advantage in the play-off semi. Like so. Results against the sixth seeds are withdrawn, so the Faroes as 5th seeds is a bit of a result for us. The two Nations League sides join the ten runners-up in an unseeded and therefore away semi-final position. The winners of the semi-final ties go on to play the winners of the other tie in their ‘Path’ (there is a draw to decide the Path) in a final - the final takes place just four days after the semi, as the Nations League finals were supposed to pre-Covid. Home advantage is decided by a random draw, like this. I think quite probably we would need to be in that top 6 of the runners-up to have a real hope - otherwise it’s probably a Poland/Sweden/Ukraine style away fixture in the semi-final. Not insurmountable, but unlikely. Also a chance of a big gun who failed to win their group if you finish in the bottom half of the second-placed table. A bit of a bigger task than I’d thought to make it via the play-offs. We’d be best winning the group to be sure. Edited December 8, 2020 by Paco 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurkst Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) 15 minutes ago, John Lambies Doos said: Yeh, Scotland not winning their Nations group was so costly It was an opportunity missed, although the playoffs will be tough for the Nations League qualifiers, with the semi final being away from home. Bizarrely if we had won our group we could have had the scenario in our group where we finished 3rd and Austria 4th, but they got the playoff instead of us! Edited December 8, 2020 by Lurkst 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falcor Roar Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) 12 hours ago, DiegoDiego said: I've pumped four and two of those were the most disastrous relationships of my life* so I hope we absolutely pummel them. *aye, got dumped and still bitter. I've pumped 5 Danes (all great) but they live near my gran's house so you wouldn't know them. Edited December 8, 2020 by Falcor Roar 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eez-eh Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 29 minutes ago, Paco said: I think the situation is this... The second-placed sides compete against each other across the groups for A) a seeded place in the play-off semi and B) home advantage in the play-off semi. Like so. Results against the sixth seeds are withdrawn, so the Faroes as 5th seeds is a bit of a result for us. The two Nations League sides join the ten runners-up in an unseeded and therefore away semi-final position. The winners of the semi-final ties go on to play the winners of the other tie in their ‘Path’ (there is a draw to decide the Path) in a final - the final takes place just four days after the semi, as the Nations League finals were supposed to pre-Covid. Home advantage is decided by a random draw, like this. I think quite probably we would need to be in that top 6 of the runners-up to have a real hope - otherwise it’s probably a Poland/Sweden/Ukraine style away fixture in the semi-final. Not insurmountable, but unlikely. Also a chance of a big gun who failed to win their group if you finish in the bottom half of the second-placed table. A bit of a bigger task than I’d thought to make it via the play-offs. We’d be best winning the group to be sure. Not necessarily the sixth seeds, but whoever ends up in sixth place. Although looking at the groups it’s highly likely there won’t be any difference between the two. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 6 minutes ago, eez-eh said: Although looking at the groups it’s highly likely there won’t be any difference between the two. Moldova will look to finish above Faroes. Gibraltar actually beat Latvia last time out and have had some good wins recently: 2 wins + 2 draws v Liechtenstein, win over Armenia and narrow losses to Georgia, Kosovo, Eire and Estonia - since beating Austria in deadrubber last year Latvia has faltered numerous times v fellow minnows. Andorra will be delighted with San Marino btw. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Cabbage Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers there were 9 groups of 6, having looked at the points totals the average points for a 2nd placed team was 20.44, this average is dragged up by outliers Switzerland in Group B who got 27 points. So realistically, if we say 21 points *should* be enough to see us qualify for the play off. So how do we do that? If we were to win our 5 home games and beat the Faroes and Moldova away, that would give us 21 and anything we get from the rest away from home is a bonus and the more we get the better chance we have of topping the group. Seems easy eh? In all likelihood we’ll drop some silly points somewhere but there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t qualify. Not sure if it’s mentioned already but Faroes away will be September or October as they’re seen as a hard winter venue, hoping we get Israel away and a couple of home games in March so that once we all get chipped by the government we can go on a jolly later on, hoping to get to Austria and Moldova, assuming you don’t need to apply for a visa of any kind for Moldova? Hopefully get the fixtures booked in soon so that we can get flights booked for some of them. ^yes this guys getting carried away^ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthLanarkshireWhite Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Anyone know what time today for fixtures? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellaboz Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 We'll no doubt get to the situation in the last game where we have to go to Austria and win by 2 goals and hope Moldova pump Denmark or some nonsense because we've fucked it away to Israel again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roman_bairn Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Another draw where certain posters underestimate Israel. It keeps happening. You would have thought posters would learn. I'd price up the group winners at: Denmark 2/1 Israel 3/1 Austria 7/2 Scotland 4/1 How about the REAL odds? Looks like the bookies disagree with you re Israel.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgecutter Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Faroes to be told by the Danish government that it's 6 points or no annual subsidy IMO. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellaboz Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Will Kevin Kyle be brought in as a replacement for Oli McBurnie? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 5 hours ago, Bad Wolf said: Thanks for your replies, folks. At some point, closer to the time, I'll read up about iton Wiki, which is usually pretty exhaustive (often overly so). FWIW, I think we could finish anywhere from top to fourth, and not having to count a possible away hiccup to a minnow helps us too. So I see second as a realistic goal. There is absolutely zero chance of us finishing top. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Actually think israel at 20-1 is worth a bet.. might put it on to console me if they beat us again 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Hedgecutter said: Faroes to be told by the Danish government that it's 6 points or no annual subsidy IMO. Interestingly they've only ever met thrice: in Euro 92 qualifying (Denmark 4-0 Faroe Islands and Faroe Islands 0-4 Denmark played in Sweden) and in Nordic Championship 2000-01 (Faroe Islands 0-2 Denmark). Thought they'd have played more regularly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insert Amusing Pseudonym Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 1 hour ago, DA Baracus said: There is absolutely zero chance of us finishing top. I disagree. Denmark are favourites and rightly so but they're not a great team and it isn't too much of a stretch to see a way past them. Bookies seem to have priced it right to me 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshmallo Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 1 hour ago, DA Baracus said: There is absolutely zero chance of us finishing top. Will you give me 50/1? -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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