WORLD CUP PLAY-OFFS: the Scottish balls-up scenario. It couldn't happen, could it?!

[MarkoDevilovich]

3 hours ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

anyone else gobsmacked eufa didn't somehow manage to keep Italy and Portugal apart? that's at least one of them not going to the world cup now!

Obviously never phoned the SFA for advice beforehand

[qos_75]

56 minutes ago, Distant Doonhamer said:

Decent draw and could certainly have been worse.

Wales, Ukraine and Austria will be thinking exactly the same of course.

It is a belter of a draw and I would love it to come down to a Wales v Scotland final.

We haven’t had a great record against them over the past 20 years. So putting it right in Cardiff would be epic.

Eliminating Wales on the way to a World Cup was almost a tradition. One that I hope makes a welcome return.

 

. 

[sergie's no1 fan]

Only thing we can moan about is the 2nd game (potentially) being away from home but other than that, bring it on. 

Any 4 teams are capable of qualifying. Would love to f'ck over the Welsh though. 

[Distant Doonhamer]

28 minutes ago, qos_75 said:

It is a belter of a draw and I would love it to come down to a Wales v Scotland final.

We haven’t had a great record against them over the past 20 years. So putting it right in Cardiff would be epic.

Eliminating Wales on the way to a World Cup was almost a tradition. One that I hope makes a welcome return.

Yes I think all of that is very fair comment. 

[Donathan]

Scotland, Ukraine, Austria and Wales are all pretty equal teams imo. 
 

None of the four area easy to beat but you can’t exactly expect to be in the World Cup without beating teams of this calibre. I genuinely think Wales are the slight favourites as they’ll have home advantage throughout. But it’s Wales 35%, Scotland 30%, Austria 20%, Ukraine 15% 

[Lurkst]

37 minutes ago, Donathan said:

But it’s Wales 35%, Scotland 30%, Austria 20%, Ukraine 15% 

Oddschecker has Austria and Wales as joint favourites...

https://www.oddschecker.com/football/world-cup-european-qualifiers/path-a/winner

 

[Donathan]

1 minute ago, Lurkst said:

Oddschecker has Austria and Wales as joint favourites...

https://www.oddschecker.com/football/world-cup-european-qualifiers/path-a/winner

 

And Scotland/Ukraine as joint third favourites at 10/3.

 

Basically they’re saying both semi-finals are 50-50, but whoever hosts the final has a 55% chance of winning it.

 

Surprising to me that they seem to think HFA is significant for the final but not the SFs 

[BFTD]

3 minutes ago, Donathan said:

And Scotland/Ukraine as joint third favourites at 10/3.

Basically they’re saying both semi-finals are 50-50, but whoever hosts the final has a 55% chance of winning it.

Surprising to me that they seem to think HFA is significant for the final but not the SFs 

...or they're saying that Ukraine/Austria are better than Scotland/Wales, but home advantage will be a leveller.

Little bit surprised by that, but meh.

[Scumjob]

Any of the three sides are good enough to bum most Scotland sides trotted out over the last twenty years senseless.

However this current side has been well moulded over the last couple of years and perhaps came of age fully against Denmark earlier this month. That side, Steve Clark's side WILL sweep these fodder aside if they can reach the same levels again.

[Tartan Blood]

19 minutes ago, Scumjob said:

Any of the three sides are good enough to bum most Scotland sides trotted out over the last twenty years senseless.

However this current side has been well moulded over the last couple of years and perhaps came of age fully against Denmark earlier this month. That side, Steve Clark's side WILL sweep these fodder aside if they can reach the same levels again.

Looking at Wales, Austria and Ukraine, none of them are in their golden generation. Scotland, arguably, are.

Scotland are on the ascendancy. We have some top class individuals, but also a close-knit team on form. On paper, we are the best out of the 4.

I think they'd all be happy they've swerved the big guns. But if they underestimate us, we'll destroy them.

[gastropod]

21 minutes ago, Tartan Blood said:

Looking at Wales, Austria and Ukraine, none of them are in their golden generation. Scotland, arguably, are.

Scotland are on the ascendancy. We have some top class individuals, but also a close-knit team on form. On paper, we are the best out of the 4.

I think they'd all be happy they've swerved the big guns. But if they underestimate us, we'll destroy them.

Like this ..Agreed,.. Although the group games we played were sometimes a hard watch , we got points when needed and slowly improved .. i doubt any of the 3 other teams could play the way we did against Denmark .. If we can even come close to that , we can do this.. never over confident , but its a team/ squad of players who i really believe want to win this..

[HoBNob]

Already been asked most likely, but if Wales get beat by Austria then is it still away in Austria, or would we then be at home? 

[AMMjag]

If we ended up playing Wales in the final it's already a mental victory. 

Playing at Cardiff Stadium = shitebags.

Playing at Millennium = hounded off the park by a majority away support.

[BFTD]

11 minutes ago, Grant228 said:

Already been asked most likely, but if Wales get beat by Austria then is it still away in Austria, or would we then be at home? 

We're away in the final regardless.

Not necessarily a bad thing, if you cast your mind back to our games against Austria.

[craigkillie]

Like this ..Agreed,.. Although the group games we played were sometimes a hard watch , we got points when needed and slowly improved .. i doubt any of the 3 other teams could play the way we did against Denmark .. If we can even come close to that , we can do this.. never over confident , but its a team/ squad of players who i really believe want to win this..

Wales could definitely have done that to Denmark too.

[SlipperyP]

Good draw against Ukraine, not even thinking about the next game after than.  25th Mar is when I will.

[Londonwell]

If we play at the level that we did against Denmark we will pump any of the teams in our mini group. It’s in our hands, we’re the best side in our section and I won’t hear any different.

I think this group of players will rise to the challenge. 

[Monkey Tennis]

6 hours ago, Grant228 said:

Already been asked most likely, but if Wales get beat by Austria then is it still away in Austria, or would we then be at home? 

Nobody has asked that already, for obvious reasons.

[Monkey Tennis]

Lots of gung ho stuff on here.

Our last two performances were strong - good against Moldova and terrific against Denmark.  They weren't necessarily typical though.  

Yes, the trajectory is upward, but that's unlikely to be indefinitely the case.  I'd see us as slight favourites in the semi final and slight underdogs in any final should we make it.

We've got a decent chance here, but the stuff about just how good we are now, still has a brittle basis.

[Jambomo]

I do think we are underestimating the Ukraine a wee bit.

It’s not so much that they are great but they are decent, and quite tough to break down. I see this as like the Austria and Israel games in the group - we are capable of winning but they will be close games that either teams could win.

What does make me a bit happier is that in high pressure games; like Serbia in the Euro playoffs, England at Wembley, and Moldova & Denmark in the last two games; we have totally shown we are capable of handling the pressure and delivering big results and that a really big positive. The occasion won’t beat us.