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Nations league pots


Donathan

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Pot 1: Ukraine, Sweden, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iceland

Pot 2: Finland, Norway, SCOTLAND, Russia

Pot 3: Serbia, Romania, Ireland, Israel

Pot 4: Slovenia, Montenegro, Albania, Armenia

 

Would like to draw Iceland from pot 1, they seem to be a descending team from their 2016/2018 peak. Bosnia are no great shakes but hostile place to visit. Sweden and Ukraine are good sides so hope we avoid them.

 

Ireland are the clear pick from pot 3, they are honking and Dublin is a great away day. We will, of course, draw Israel again.

 

I know very little about the pot 4 teams. Slovenia have been at about that level for two decades and they make the odd tournament. Albania made the euros in 2016 but the other two have never qualified for a tournament before. I believe Armenia are doing well in the WC qualifiers so maybe Montenegro is the pick. All 4 would be hostile away trips. 

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It's quite amusing to think that it's only a couple of years since everyone was thinking, "oh, Israel, nice to draw someone different for a change"  :P

Neither Ukraine nor Bosnia have been pulling up any trees in World Cup qualifying, and the former were gash at the Euros, so I'd be pretty happy with any of them. Sweden look the team to avoid, but it's not a vintage sidefor them either. Yes, Ireland would be glorious, and Pot 3 oddly looks more worrying. I don't think we've played Montenegro yet, and they appear to have gone right off the boil since their initial spell of almost qualifying for things, and Armenia are suddenly scary despite their recent hounding by Ze Germans.

I quite fancy Iceland, Ireland, and Montenegro for variety, some likely entertaining games, and a decent stab at progression. So we'll be getting Sweden, Israel or Serbia, and Albania.

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Ireland has "banana skin" written all over it, in big letters. They'll raise their game hugely for us, and bear in mind that we can't score.

I would take anyone who isn't Sweden from pot 1, anyone not Israel or Ireland from 3 and anyone from the lower pot aside from Slovenia.

 

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Israel and Ireland are probably still the two worst teams in that pot, regardless of the history. Serbia and Romania are beatable but are the sort of places we could go away and crumble (not saying we would, we didn't last time in Serbia).

I'd be confident of at least 4 points against Ireland which is why I think we should be hoping for them. They've got 2 points from 5 games so far in qualifying and lost at home to Luxembourg.

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18 hours ago, BFTD said:

It's quite amusing to think that it's only a couple of years since everyone was thinking, "oh, Israel, nice to draw someone different for a change"  :P

Neither Ukraine nor Bosnia have been pulling up any trees in World Cup qualifying, and the former were gash at the Euros, so I'd be pretty happy with any of them. Sweden look the team to avoid, but it's not a vintage sidefor them either. Yes, Ireland would be glorious, and Pot 3 oddly looks more worrying. I don't think we've played Montenegro yet, and they appear to have gone right off the boil since their initial spell of almost qualifying for things, and Armenia are suddenly scary despite their recent hounding by Ze Germans.

I quite fancy Iceland, Ireland, and Montenegro for variety, some likely entertaining games, and a decent stab at progression. So we'll be getting Sweden, Israel or Serbia, and Albania.

Sweden drew with Spain at the EC, and then beat them in qualifying.  They beat Ukraine to make it to the last 8.

Ukraine made it to the last 16, and just drew with France and the Czechs.  In the group that pushed Serbia into a playoff with us, Ukraine knocked 5 past them.

Both sides are significantly better than us.  Iceland and Bosnia are substantially weaker.

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1 hour ago, velo army said:

Ireland has "banana skin" written all over it, in big letters. They'll raise their game hugely for us, and bear in mind that we can't score.

Neither can they!  :P

At least one of those games would surely end in a stupefying goalless draw, with 0 shots on target. Even then, I'd still fancy them to chuck us a penalty or two. They're absolutely anybody's at the moment.

1 minute ago, HuttonDressedAsLahm said:

Sweden drew with Spain at the EC, and then beat them in qualifying.  They beat Ukraine to make it to the last 8.

Ukraine made it to the last 16, and just drew with France and the Czechs.  In the group that pushed Serbia into a playoff with us, Ukraine knocked 5 past them.

Both sides are significantly better than us.  Iceland and Bosnia are substantially weaker.

Aye, that's why I said Sweden are the side to avoid. They're still a bit under-par to their normal standard, but would be favourites against us.

Ukraine haven't won a game yet in qualifying and were more mediocre at the Euros than when they somehow finished 8th at a World Cup. Not saying we'd definitely beat them at all, but they clearly aren't doing well at the moment. But yeah, you'd still pick Iceland or Bosnia, considering what's going on with them just now.

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13 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

I would take Israel. We are much better than them and reckon we would win comfortably.

Are any of the Pot 4 teams mugs?

Albania are. 

Armenia are all over the place.  They won 5 in a row last year, but also lost 9-1 to Italy in 2019, and 6-0 to Germany this month.  They also drew with Liechtenstein at home.

Montenegro are typically a 3rd/4th place yo-yo team like Israel.  They are perfectly capable of coming 5th as much as they are 2nd in a group.

All that said, Jovetic has scored 31 in 61 games, and so has more than both Law and Dalglish (just as every Mickey Mouse nation seems to have).  

Edited by HuttonDressedAsLahm
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53 minutes ago, HuttonDressedAsLahm said:

Sweden drew with Spain at the EC, and then beat them in qualifying.  They beat Ukraine to make it to the last 8.

Ukraine made it to the last 16, and just drew with France and the Czechs.  In the group that pushed Serbia into a playoff with us, Ukraine knocked 5 past them.

Both sides are significantly better than us.  Iceland and Bosnia are substantially weaker.


I thought Ukraine were absolutely dreadful at the Euros. They were rotten for all but a wee mad spell where they scored twice against the Netherlands, beat Macedonia then turned in one of the worst performances of the tournament against Austria. They got through regardless, then fluked their way past Sweden at Hampden before getting thumped by England.

They haven't won a single game in qualifying yet - they've had five draws.

Edited by craigkillie
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Ireland are utterly dreadful right now, but by the times these games roll around they'll surely have chucked the manager and one expects they might improve, too. Still, fancy them for the trip if nothing else. 

Albania, too, was a great trip the last time and they have the lovely looking new stadium in the capital, which makes it even more appealing than last time. Romania would be a good lark anawl. I really enjoyed Slovenia, too.

Only really Sweden who you'd fear in any of the pots, and even then, they aren't that good either. Ukraine and Bosnia & Herz would be baw aches to get to I imagine, so I'd prefer Iceland out of the first pot. 

Iceland, Ireland/Romania, Albania/Slovenia. Something like that would do me nicely. 

 

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Iceland, Ireland and Albania would be my ideal group for points/progression. Iceland seem to be on the way down after their heroics at Euro 2016, and ROI are total dogshit just now. Albania aren't up to much despite doing quite well in the WC qualifiers but 9 of their 12 points have come against Andorra and San Marino so they'll drop back in that group after the next round of fixtures. 

Bosnia, Romania and Montenegro would be my ideal group from a pints perspective.

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5 hours ago, craigkillie said:


I thought Ukraine were absolutely dreadful at the Euros. They were rotten for all but a wee mad spell where they scored twice against the Netherlands, beat Macedonia then turned in one of the worst performances of the tournament against Austria. They got through regardless, then fluked their way past Sweden at Hampden before getting thumped by England.

They haven't won a single game in qualifying yet - they've had five draws.

I'd also put that more down to the Dutch being one of those sides who can look dangerous at either end of the pitch.

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When was the last time we played Romania competitively? They’re won of the few UEFA nations who I can’t remember us ever playing in a qualifying group/UNL group since I started following Scotland in the autumn of 2000. 
 

Only game I remember against them at all is when John Kennedy got his career defining injury. 
 

Andorra

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Bulgaria (Excluding Kirin Cup)

Estonia 

Finland

Greece 

Hungary

Kosovo

Luxembourg

Montenegro

Northern Ireland 

Portugal

Romania 

Sweden

Switzerland

Turkey

 

Actually the list is longer than I thought. Have we played any of that list competitively since 2000? 

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