they were pretty good at the last euro, but my point is that Italy is not the same Italy which they once were. They are no longer a world powerhouse. Not by a longshot.
Peaking Ivory Coast in 06 and 10 had both times the strongest 1st round group. They only disappointed in 14, where they already declined with overaged stars like drobga or yaya toure. Ivory Coast of 06 or 10 would have surely made it to the round of 16, IMHO.
Speaking of Cote d'Ivoire, its not looking good for them at the moment. 0-2 down to Morocco 30 minutes in. They must win!
What can I say? Wilmots on one side, Renard, the most succesful African-based coach in recent memory (ever?) on the other. The quality in tactical setup is beyond belief. What an utter shambolic coach. The good thing out of this is that he'll be fired and never set foot in Africa ever again. Will be interesting to see how Renard performs outside of Africa at a World Cup.
His record since taking over 4 Losses 1 win 1 draw Including competative 3 HOME LOSSES. I have never seen such a woeful coach on the African scene. The thing too is that this CIV squad actually have a lot of potential and any decent coach could have done something with this team.
Dude, the guy started his entire coaching career in Africa. And fact is he has been succesful as a coach in Africa like no other. His record as one 1/4 final and 2 titles in three African Nations appearance (including one for unfancied Zambia) and now qualifies with Morocco for the first time since 1998. He basically had no big experience save for that. He didn't do to well as a club coach with Lille, but it will be interesting to see how he performs Don't be a dick and respect him for what he has done. And FYI - Renard has never lost a single World Cup game! So... STFU.
Shame they didn't stick with Renard after he won them the African Cup of Nations. Or even with Dussuyer, which was a knee jerk reaction to drop him in the midst of qualification. Wilmots will be out pronto. Thank goodness. Morocco should do good - attractive attacking football with good defensive setup captained by Benatia. But I have absolutely no expectations from Tunisia though. Absolutely shambolic seeding is the only reason they are at the tournament... p.s. Libya didn't even try to win the game.
Whatever, he failed in both stints in the French league. If Morocco does well at the WC I'll change my mind, but for now he is merely a somewhat competent manager.
He seems like a poor club coach. Although I wouldn't be overly harsh on his Sochaux stint, as the team did play better after he came to the team. But his African record is impressive, so it will simply be interesting to see if he can copy that at the World Cup. I don't think Renard will ever succeed as a club coach, but so far all his African teams have really performed well above how they performed before he came or after he left. Club coach and national coach require a different skill set in some areas. No point in denigrating his achievements,
So for CAF it is Nigeria Egypt Senegal Morocco Tunisia Tunisia is the weak like and they conspire to somehow get seeded above both Nigeria and Morocco.
Would have liked to see Algeria qualify instead, with players like Feghouli, Mahrez, Brahimi and Halliche a far more interesting team.
Tunisia are ranked 52 in ELO below Cameroon and the other qualified CAF teams, but somehow in FIFA Tunisia are top ranked in Africa.
I cannot stress how utterly garbage the FIFA rankings are. Completely useless. Its even more farsical that they are now used to seed the entire WC.
Tunisia is a 3rd pot team. I think everyone will be crossing their fingers for drawing Tunisia. OK, I'm laying of Tunisia. Lets hope they surprise positively.
Still better than Northern Ireland v Switzerland, though. It is a shame, though, that one of Sweden or Italy will go out, so I get what you mean. The awfulness of the FIFA rankings really make for quite imbalanced playoffs. We had nonsense like this last time, too, with France being in Pot 2 and drawing Ukraine (which was actually quite good then) and also Portugal v Sweden... and also Greece v Romania.
A quick summary for you (even though I may be a touch biased). After a short feeling out period we pretty much dominated the tempo of the game from the 10 minute mark on. Created a few decent chances and converted none of them, pretty much sums up how I've felt about our campaign. We should have a two goal lead, but we don't. I hope we don't come to regret not converting some of those chances. Honduras had one decent chance all game, and that came pretty late. I saw on another site that apparently we have scored more goals than anyone else this campaign. I haven't checked it but find it hard to believe.
Actually not ... Ireland have managed to beat both Germany and italy by 1-0 playing the exact same way and I highly doubt that you believe they do not belong at a WC ? ... Ireland are way better away from home and in games where they can defend with 10 men behind the ball and keep the opponents from creating opportunities, while they are abosolutely terrible when they need to attack and score a goal ... 0-0 is surely advantage Denmark in the return leg in Ireland, because Ireland now need to attack and Denmark now most surely only need 1 goal in 90 + minutes to progress ...
24. Tunisia: Cannon fodder. Boring cannon fodder. Like always. 25. Senegal: They seem to have some good talent across the lines, although they seem to be kind of a question mark at the GK position. Mané is really good. Can they maximize their talent? If they can, they can get to the round of 16. 26. Morocco: They remind me of 2014 Algeria and not because they're from North Africa.They seem to have good talent in the back, midfield and some interesting young players. I have good hopes with them.
Not to be too picky, but they qualified in the following order: 24. Senegal 25. Morocco 26. Tunisia I've decided to never speak about Tunisia. Maybe they can surprise and play good football for the first time since 1978. Morocco could really be a shock team. But they have a big weakness - they have no quality forwards. They have players in other positions that ring a few bells (Benatia, Ziyech, etc.), but in attack they are anonymous. Nonetheless, one thing that can be said about Morocco is that they've been at the World Cup four times before and they always entertained, even if they didn't perform. Senegal is an enigma. Not many teams will have a player as good as Mane and he's not the only top player on the team (Koulibaly and Balde Keita just to name two). But they have never looked good as a team. They could be the Cote d'Ivoire of Africa - flatter to deceive. Or they may do a repeat of 2002. Who knows? All in all they are by far the most expensive African team (vide Transfermarkt).
There isn't a topic, but it's discussed in the Australian topic at https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-road-to-russia-2018-world-cup-qualifiers-r.2018977/ and the Honduran topic at https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/ro...in-between-post-carlo-costly-edition.2007799/ The FIFA Rankings to seed the World Cup are done, but Tunisia may not be the top African team in November 2017. Egypt will pass Tunisia with a win over Ghana, and Senegal just needs a draw against South Africa to pass Tunisia. Morocco will tie Tunisia when points are rounded to the nearest whole number. FIFA tells the decimal places when the rankings are made, but not when you can check how many points a team would do by entering results for upcoming games. Nigeria will lose a lot of points.
Australia scored 48 goals. After the second group stage, it was close with Australia and Saudi Arabia having 45 each and Japan having 44. In CONMEBOL, the teams other than Peru played 18 games, and Brazil led with 41 goals. In CAF, no team played more than 8 WCQs. Including a 3-0 win that was 2-2 on the field and then forfeited because Burundi used an ineligible player, DR Congo led with 20 goals. In CONCACAF, no team played more than 16 WCQs. USA led with 37 goals. In OFC, New Zealand led with 23 goals in 9 games, excluding the OFC Nations Cup Semifinals and Final. The OFC Nations Cup group stage eliminated two countries from WCQs, but the Semifinals and Final didn't eliminate anybody from WCQs. In UEFA, teams not in the playoffs played 10 games. Germany and Belgium led with 43 goals, and they led all teams in goals per game. Saudi Arabia, Japan, USA, and maybe other teams also scored more goals per game than Australia. If Ireland wins 1-0, they will qualify with fewer goals scored than 12 UEFA teams who were eliminated after the Group Stage. Before USA this time, does anybody know of another team that scored at least 6 goals in at least 3 WCQs without qualifying?
Yes, but some teams have pages of discussion in a dedicated thread discussing a meaningless friendly match and for others, you can't find even a dedicated thread to discuss an intercontinental world cup qualifying playoff. It was a bit strange to me.