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2022/23 UEFA Nations League


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Losing to the Faroe is 

56 minutes ago, Autistisches Nilpferd said:

Must say, I'm really enjoying Wales being absolutely shite again. What's the odds on Iran and USA to be the two to qualify from that word cup group?

 

USA lost to Japan on Friday and have only won 1 in the last 9 away from home.

We would have easily got out of that group. 

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Faroes appear to getting a bit of the Iceland effect from a few years ago. They are really professionally set up and well drilled. I had previously thought that they'd just run with Danish 2nd and 3rd generation Faroese expats to improve their squad but nope, every single one of their squad is Faroes born. They now have majority of squad of full time pros vs when they started out, every player was an amateur.

Picking an international squad from a population of a country the size of Greenock and even pulling out 1 or 2 wins per qualifying campaign is decent going. Beating Turkey is definitely their biggest result though since smacking Greece about in both games about 6 or 7 years back.

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56 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Faroes appear to getting a bit of the Iceland effect from a few years ago. They are really professionally set up and well drilled. I had previously thought that they'd just run with Danish 2nd and 3rd generation Faroese expats to improve their squad but nope, every single one of their squad is Faroes born. They now have majority of squad of full time pros vs when they started out, every player was an amateur.

Picking an international squad from a population of a country the size of Greenock and even pulling out 1 or 2 wins per qualifying campaign is decent going. Beating Turkey is definitely their biggest result though since smacking Greece about in both games about 6 or 7 years back.

The Faroes and Luxembourg have both improved massively. Conversely, countries that used to be tricky customers like Lithuania, Belarus and Latvia have all regressed into proper minnow status.

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8 hours ago, Autistisches Nilpferd said:

Must say, I'm really enjoying Wales being absolutely shite again. What's the odds on Iran and USA to be the two to qualify from that word cup group?

It’s quite noticeable the talent they had for the last 2 euros have either retired or are preparing for the final tournament they’ll likely play at. They’ve been slowly getting worse and without Bale or Ramsey in their prime they’re going to struggle. 

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5 hours ago, Donathan said:

The Faroes and Luxembourg have both improved massively. Conversely, countries that used to be tricky customers like Lithuania, Belarus and Latvia have all regressed into proper minnow status.

Interesting viewing I agree. Latvia qualified for a Euros about 20 years ago and the Baltics were viewed as an emerging area in football. In fact, Estonia, traditionally the weakest of the three are now the best of the three by quite a distance (still a low bar) and Lithuania who were always by a distance the most consistently strong, are now the worst.

All three nations have regressed massively though and it's interesting to see.

Throw Cyprus into that mixer as well when you talk about nations getting better over last 15 years. They've improved to point where an appearance at a Euros wouldn't be as laughable as it would have in the 90s. Also, if you'd told me of Iceland's success years ago, I'd not have believed you either.

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I watched the Wales game last night and it was another in a long line of examples of guys who play in the lower end of the Barclays/upper end of the Skybet looking like they were on the gear last night.  They look like men possessed every time they cross the white line for Wales and it was one bit of quality from the main man that carved then open for the winner.

Apart from Bale, they're all absolute nobodies at club level but together they're the 12th best team in Europe at international level.  Quite bizarre.

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24 minutes ago, craigkillie said:


God forbid we get the chance to play some different teams every now and then. In what way would adding more teams ruin it?

The format is quite nice at the moment. If you start including Venezuela or Peru, how is it going to work in terms of group winners being guaranteed a playoff etc? Unless they’re proposing to start introducing guest teams into the euros like the copa America does (maybe not the worst idea if it goes up to 32 teams) 

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4 hours ago, Donathan said:

I really hope they’re not going to ruin this excellent format by adding South American sides in. 

I've missed this. Where is this being suggested?

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:


God forbid we get the chance to play some different teams every now and then. In what way would adding more teams ruin it?

Surely there would be significant travel logistics in having home and away games against South American teams in a relatively short double header window? Home game v Ukraine on a Saturday followed by a trip to Peru on the Tuesday?

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15 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I've missed this. Where is this being suggested?

Surely there would be significant travel logistics in having home and away games against South American teams in a relatively short double header window? Home game v Ukraine on a Saturday followed by a trip to Peru on the Tuesday?

I’ve got a feeling they’ve already said that all games involving South American sides would take place in Europe. 

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