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Scotland v Austria


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2 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Is it?

I think so. I at least think we are seeing some progress and are a much better team now than when Clarke took over.

That’s not to say we are the finished article or that we can’t still improve a lot, just that we seem to be going in the right direction for once.

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44 minutes ago, Ian38018 said:

 

Play-offs for the World Cup are not going to be a bun fight with another couple of diddy teams, as the Euro Play-offs were.

There are going to be ten group runners-up, plus a pair of Nations League group winners scrapping for just 4 places.

Qualifying by winning this group is going to be a far easier option than attempting to negotiate the play-offs by finishing second.

 

 


I'm not sure this is really true. I'm not sure there will be a team better than Denmark in the play-offs.

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I'm not sure this is really true. I'm not sure there will be a team better than Denmark in the play-offs.
Assuming the top seeds win their group (which isn't a given) you'd expect these nations to be in the play-offs:

Switzerland, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey (although Norway are also in that group where Netherlands are top seeds), Slovakia and Romania. I think there's a decent case for about half them being at a similar level or better than Denmark?
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4 minutes ago, craigkillie said:


I'm not sure this is really true. I'm not sure there will be a team better than Denmark in the play-offs.

Teams who will (probably) be in the play-offs

Spain or Sweden

Italy or Switzerland

France or Ukraine

Czech Republic, Wales or Belgium

Holland, Turkey or Norway

Russia or Croatia

England or Poland

Germany or Romania

(plus a couple of Nations League group winners).

Not sure I would fancy our chances emerging from that unscathed.

 

 

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Assuming the top seeds win their group (which isn't a given) you'd expect these nations to be in the play-offs:

Switzerland, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey (although Norway are also in that group where Netherlands are top seeds), Slovakia and Romania. I think there's a decent case for about half them being at a similar level or better than Denmark?

Denmark are the top seeds in our group precisely because they're ranked above every single one of those teams. They got to the knockout stage of the last World Cup and finished ahead of England in their Nations League group. They were definitely one of the best possible top seeds we could have got, but they're still a very good team that will be very difficult to finish ahead of.

I'd say you could have a case for Switzerland and Sweden being about as good as them from that group, but most of the rest you've named are nowhere near as good. We've seen Slovakia and Serbia recently and both of them are junk, and I'd definitely fancy our chances more against Wales, Poland, Ukraine and Romania too. Turkey I'm not sure about - they were rotten in the Nations League but did beat the Netherlands the other night.

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4 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Denmark are the top seeds in our group precisely because they're ranked above every single one of those teams. They got to the knockout stage of the last World Cup and finished ahead of England in their Nations League group. They were definitely one of the best possible top seeds we could have got, but they're still a very good team that will be very difficult to finish ahead of.

I'd say you could have a case for Switzerland and Sweden being about as good as them from that group, but most of the rest you've named are nowhere near as good. We've seen Slovakia and Serbia recently and both of them are junk, and I'd definitely fancy our chances more against Wales, Poland, Ukraine and Romania too. Turkey I'm not sure about - they were rotten in the Nations League but did beat the Netherlands the other night.

 

Netherlands are absolute shite these days

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The Dutch appear to be going through their Eighties spell of qualifying for hee-haw, after their Seventies spell of almost winning the big prize twice.

Put your money on them romping Euro 2024 now.

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I think a lot of people mistake unspectacular for being average.

Denmark are a very well drilled, exceedingly efficient team.  They lose very few goals and hardly ever lose

The fact they aren't great to watch doesn't count for that much in terms of how difficult they will be to beat. 

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17 hours ago, G51 said:

He's been bad for Motherwell and even worse for Scotland.

I'll be very interested to check his stats when they're uploaded. I'm pretty sure the only cross he completed tonight was the one for the goal, and that's only because the Austrian keeper bizarrely decided not to come for a ball that spent about half an hour in the air. When every attack down our right hand side is breaking down, then that's a major problem.

Indeed, this turned out to be the case. 1 cross out of 5 was successful, and 1 dribble out of 5 was successful (it was the one when Alaba showed him inside and he put it out for a corner, so I think that's probably generous). 7/17 (41%) of "duels" won.

Robertson on the other hand: 2/6 crossing, 3/4 dribbles, 13/21 (62%) duels.

The groundsman at Hampden should cut the width of it by a third.

 

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1 hour ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:

I think a lot of people mistake unspectacular for being average.

Denmark are a very well drilled, exceedingly efficient team.  They lose very few goals and hardly ever lose

The fact they aren't great to watch doesn't count for that much in terms of how difficult they will be to beat. 

I quail at the thought of our attack trying to score against them.

BUT

We do have Grant Hanley.

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I think so. I at least think we are seeing some progress and are a much better team now than when Clarke took over.
That’s not to say we are the finished article or that we can’t still improve a lot, just that we seem to be going in the right direction for once.
I think the major difference now is that we're no longer a soft touch
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2 hours ago, G51 said:

Indeed, this turned out to be the case. 1 cross out of 5 was successful, and 1 dribble out of 5 was successful (it was the one when Alaba showed him inside and he put it out for a corner, so I think that's probably generous). 7/17 (41%) of "duels" won.

Robertson on the other hand: 2/6 crossing, 3/4 dribbles, 13/21 (62%) duels.

The groundsman at Hampden should cut the width of it by a third.

 

One of those crosses he failed at was the one Christie was fouled in the box but nothing was given.  Of course that was his fault it wasn't completed 😂

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20 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

Thank christ one of the better posters on football has turned up 

Indeed. Talking about football has never and your strong point @Marshmallo but you’ve had an utter ‘mare here.

20 hours ago, Jimi Shandrix said:

Take two of these and have a lie down. You've had a shocker tonight.

anticunt.jpg.347903acd313ad3895359b09cad8ef9e.jpg

Boy’s mother got a clue and should be confined to the GN forum. Even then.....

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I'm.still trying to work out whether I'm pleased with our draw last night or not.

Before the game I thought it was a must win but was going to be really hard. I envisaged Alaba rampaging through us. In truth he was pretty average. They weren't really stand out at all, in fact. So in that respect it does feel like 2 points missed.

*But*, given how shaky and unconvincing we were for 60 mins, the fact we ended the game with a bit of a barnstorming performance and bullied our way back to parity, it feels like a moral victory, or a vindication of the squad spirit.

Happy and frustrated at the same time.

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2 hours ago, Antiochas III said:

One of those crosses he failed at was the one Christie was fouled in the box but nothing was given.  Of course that was his fault it wasn't completed 😂

The cross that McGinn flicked backwards, does that count?

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