correct previous smallest country based on population was uruguay with 2,5 mill. They have 2,15 mill less population.
No, the previous smallest was Trinidad and Tobago in 2006, with 1.3 million. Uruguay is certainly the smallest to have ever won it though.
I'd really love a SWE-DEN tie, because reading their FIFA codes in a row (as above), reads "Sweden". (Also, because, back in 2004... oh, nevermind) As an Italian fan I am not confident vs any of our possible ties. Especially Ireland.
The fact that they are seeded is absolute crap. Teams like Italy, Portugal, etc were already given an advantage in the group seeding. They fail to live up to that seeding. At the same time, Ireland, Greece, etc played above their seeding. Re-seeding them gives them an incredibly unfair advantage and penalizes the teams that exceeded their seeding. Complete crap
You are right, they should invert that. Seed the unseeded teams, unseed the seeded ones. Aaaand... There you go, you get the same ties.
It shouldn't be a seeded draw since all 8 have achieved the same result in finishing second. As in the ;past with France (2010) or Portugal (2014) the seeding is an effort to ensure they big teams make it through. Italy are of course the biggie this time. I just hope they get Greece...
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...te-how-work-games-wales-ireland-a7991486.html Draw to take place 17 Oct. Seeded teams Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia Unseeded teams Sweden, Northern Ireland, Greece, Republic of Ireland
It would be nice to have those actors at the World Cup Materazzi surely missed, he was an entertainer. He He.
So are the playoffs Seeded teams vs Unseeded teams? Swiss, Italy, Denmark, Croatia are all strong. But Sweden is also strong. Whoever plays Sweden the Home/Away matches will be very tough for both teams.
I ment that it would be nice for us Sweden to not draw Italy. For the last world cup we had to either finish first in a group with Germany or knock out Portugal in the playoffs. For this World cup we had to come top two in a group wtih France and the Netherlands. It would be nice if we for once could get an opponent we actually got a chance against.
This is why UEFA qualifying needs a re-think, imo. I know not everything can be 100% fair in life, but if a team has to beat either France or Italy just to make it to the World Cup (while someone else only has to beat Switzerland or No. Ireland), the disparity is too large.
Euro Zone Goal scorers http://www.uefa.com/european-qualif...s/round=2000717/players/kind=goals/index.html
Sweden for Croatia, please! I want to see Modrić and co. eliminated, Croatian teams suffer to Nordic ones lately so they are my pick.
Modrić supports mafia in Croatian football - that mafia is the reason I boycott Dinamo and the NT. Six months after he left Dinamo and went to Tottenham, he came back to Zagreb to sign annex on the contract (that was invalid at time as he was player of another club ) that "guarantees" half of the fee (some 10M euros, transfer was like 20M) goes to him. Then he gave that money to Dinamo's boss, leaving 10% for himself. Dejan Lovren did the same. They took huge sum away from club, along with many others (on way smaller scale). Club has the ugliest stadium in the world, has no camp, suffers humiliating defeats in European competitions. Boss gets richer with every transfer Dinamo does. If player don't sign private contract with him, he will most likely end up in third, fourth league. FBI and some Swiss agency found that out as Croatian authorities didn't want to go deep with investigation, although fans protested, wrote appeals and stuff. They keep their money on offshore accounts, they hoped no one will notice it, but foreigners did. So, Croatia had to finally start to prosecute Dinamo's boss (his brother and people from the FA and my club; he apparently damaged Dinamo for more than 50M euros). When the trial started, that little crook Modrić answered every question the same way: I don't remember. He was laughing stock on the internet in Croatia. Few months earlier his answers were totally different. Dejan Lovren of Liverpool did the same. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ve-years-prison-suspected-perjury-real-madrid People follow NT on way smaller scale than before, that why some fans threw flares on Euro 2016, they tried to provoke UEFA's expulsion of Croatia. The FA moved final matches from Zagreb to small 8k seater and they didn't fill it. They did the same in last qualifying cycle. I think, and I am not the only one, that qualifying fiasco might force crooks from the FA to leave positions as they will get no money, and they control it all with that money. Šuker, president of the FA, is also part of that mafia, he's actually their puppet, he does what they tell him to, he is so ignorant that he can't say long sentence, embarrasses both himself and us whenever he appears on TV. I hate them, I wish them to lose, to fail to qualify to WC and to lose final chance to make some result as they don't deserve it. I find Sweden only capable to do it. Their goal for ages now is only to qualify to take money, they never said they are going to the WC/EC to win it, it's the same all the time - we are small country, qualification is success. Although we are always there. I wish FA to lose ton of money they will get as no one knows where all that money they got in past finished - infrastructure is awful, pitches are awful, national stadium is awful, we are the only country in former Yugoslavia without national training camp - but they moved FA headquarters to most luxurious hotel in Zagreb. And there are many other problems, but these are most important here - Modrić is world class player, likely the best we ever had, but he is a sleazebag.