Here's the draw Group A: Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic Group B: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Andorra, Cyprus, Wales, Israel, Belgium Group C: Spain, Luxembourg, FYR Macedonia, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine Group D: Germany, Gibraltar, Georgia, Scotland, Poland, Republic of Ireland Group E: England, San Marino, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Switzerland Group F: Greece, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Finland, Romania, Hungary Group G: Russia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Austria, Sweden Group H: Italy, Malta, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Norway, Croatia Group I: Portugal, Albania, Armenia, Serbia, Denmark I want to thank Greece for having all the luck in the draw and taking us with them
My picks for Euro 2016 qualified teams France 1.Netherlands, Czech Republic 2.Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina 3.Spain, Ukraine 4. Germany, Poland 5.England, Switzerland 6.Greece, Hungary 7. Sweden, Russia 8.Italy, Croatia 9.Portugal, Serbia Best Runner-Up: Wales Play-Offs: Turkey, Belarus, Scotland, Slovenia, Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark. With Denmark, Turkey, Scotland and Romania reaching the Euro.
Details about the groups and teams: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_qualifying My predictions: A: First position for Netherlands. Czech Republic and Turkey will decide about the second place. Czech Republic has one sad situation with Turkey at EURO 2008. Czechs had 2-0 and since 75th minute they got three goals and lost 2-3. Really amazing match to witness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2008_Group_A Czechs will be motivated for sure. They will play more rational. Lets hope that they can make it. B: First position for Belgium. I hope that Israel could achieve second position (Yossi Benayoun). Also I would like to see Gareth Bale on this EURO since we haven't seen Ryan Giggs (Wales). It would be hard for them. Bosnia-Herzegovina has ethnic, political and religious tensions in the last weeks, hard to see some firm unity (Serbs, Muslims and Croats) in the future, unless if they continue to use mostly Muslim players as usual. Better Serbian and Croatian players rather choose Serbia and Croatia as usual. C: First position for Spain. Ukraine, Slovakia and Macedonia could bring equal and defensive approaches. Ukraine has good chances to win the second position and they could be very motivated because of current protests in their country. D: First position for Germany. Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Poland will bring similar tactical approaches. I think that some teams will lose points in Georgia. It's always hard against teams oriented on strict defense and different type of audience. I don't think that Poland can respond on Scottish and Irish running segment, because they invest everything in that part. E: England and Switzerland could provide dramatic matches for first position. Slovenia and Lithuania will probably fight for play-offs. But Slovenia also can surprise England and Switzerland. F: Hardest group to decide, because this group is oriented strictly on defense. First position will take Greece, because they won against Romania in last play-offs and they are much more experienced in these matches. Romania and Hungary will decide about the second position. Some teams will lose points against Northern Ireland. Portugal and Russia already did in the last Qualifications for World Cup 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_UEFA_Group_F G: Sweden and Russia will decide about the first position. Austria could make bigger surprise if they arrange their team. It would be nice to see these Austrian players: Andreas Ivanschitz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Ivanschitz David Alaba: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alaba H: Italy and Croatia will decide about the first position. We can expect matches in euphoric Napoli, Palermo. So far Italy hasn't won against Croatia. They played six matches and Croatia achieved three victories with three draws. Goal difference was 8-4. But tradition can always be broken. Bulgaria could surprise these two teams because nobody knows too much about them and they have took points against Italy in the last cycle (2-2). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_UEFA_Group_B Norway has also interesting tradition in the past, but today they are not so great. Azerbaijan plays very defensive, they don't lose easy, they base everything on draws (1-6-3). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_UEFA_Group_F Croatia VS Bulgaria: 2-2-1 (6-5 goal difference) Croatia VS Norway: 2-1-0 (5-3 goal difference) Croatia VS Malta: 5-1-0 (16-4 goal difference) Croatia VS Azerbaijan: 0-0-0 (no matches) I: Portugal and Denmark will take the first two positions. But I still think that European Championship should have only 16 teams. Much stronger competition and much exciting. Group stage won't be interesting like before. Some teams will finally get their chance for participation, but I doubt that they can provide adequate responses against traditionally stronger teams. New Serbian coach Ljubinko Drulovic spent 11 seasons in Portuguese national league, so he understands Portuguese approach, their tactical assignments and measures during their preparations. Positive elements: - we could see some great players: Gareth Bale, Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, Alfreð Finnbogason, Yossi Benayoun... - we will meet new fan groups. - popularization of football will be much wider. - higher financial assets for TV stations and football institutions.
Having 24 teams is going to make it great for some countries on the outside looking in. Being Scottish, when i saw the draw, I immediately thought the worst, but having let it sunk in for a few hours, i think we are in for a great chance at qualifying in either second place, or via the playoffs. We are a much better side than many of the teams that will finish 3rd in their groups. The only way we can blow this, is by finishing 4th or god forbid, lower in our group. The way we are setup though, I think at least third place is a real possibility. Georgia will be the team that makes or breaks it for Poland, Scotland and Ireland - whoever drops the most points against Georgia will be the team the loses out. At the moment, i see that as being Ireland. Fortunately for Scotland, and the way we play, i can see us holding Germany to a draw in Glasgow which in the end will put us through. I took a stab at the group and ended up with this. Germany: 28 pts Scotland: 16 pts Poland: 16 pts Ireland: 13 pts Georgia: 8 pts Gibraltar: 0 pts "We'll be coming, we'll be coming, we'll be coming down the road, when you hear the noise of the Tartan Army boys, we'll be coming down the road".
If done correctly expanding to 24 teams could also help evenly distribute powerful teams. Within the 16 team setup there were instances of "Groups of death" with some other Groups looking way too weak. With this format it would be easier to make all the Dominant teams seeds in the first round and have more competitive balance in each group fairly. That should make for better knockout rounds too.
I think that point about the uneven distribution of group strenghts is down to another reason... the last two Euro Cups we've had two weak co-hosts taking up the top seeds - Austria & Switzerland in 2008 and Poland & Ukraine in 2012, and with those two teams taking two of only four seeds that meant a lot of good teams in the 2nd pot... Anyhoo - I really hate the 24 team number as it means 4 3rd placed teams qualifying for the knockout stages, and it mean there will be less intensity in the group stage matches... the good teams will save their energy for the knockout stages... the "magic number" of points needed to make it out of the group will be 4 instead of 6, and once a team gets their 4 points, won't care about their last group games... any stage of a sporting competition that doesn't elimiate at least 50% of the teams is in my opinion delegitimized. Anyhoo, about the qualification groups... can't see any of the big guns missing out but now games like Iceland vs. Latvia, Hungary vs. Finland, etc. are now genuine qualification battles as opposed to glorified friendly games like before.... I actually think the qualifiers could be pretty interesting with so many groups difficult to predict.... here are my "informed" predictions Group A: Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic - Holland should win this, but the 2nd spot is really up for grabs... I think Turkey will probably get it but Czech Rep will battle for it, and watch out for Iceland! I reckon Turkey joins Holland, and Iceland cause a surprise and make the playoffs again.. Group B: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Andorra, Cyprus, Wales, Israel, Belgium - pretty open group .... Belgium are probably the best all round and should qualify but I reckon like a lot of groups, the next places will be a dogfight - I say Bosnia for 2nd but Wales to make 3rd.... Group C: Spain, Luxembourg, FYR Macedonia, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine - Spain should win easily and Ukrain to qualify for second 3rd place pretty much evenly matched imo with the exception of Luxembourg... Group D: Germany, Gibraltar, Georgia, Scotland, Poland, Republic of Ireland - Germany to win with Poland probably coming 2nd.. .3rd is really up for grabs and I'll go for Scotland or Ireland... Group E: England, San Marino, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Switzerland - England and Switzerland ot qualify with Slovenia making 3rd Group F: Greece, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Finland, Romania, Hungary - This is a really, really open group with no genuine favorite. I think Greece will qualify with Hungary maybe just pipping Romania for the runners up spot. Group G: Russia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Austria, Sweden - Russia to qualify automatically but I'm going to be brave and vote for Montenegro to qualify for their first ever championship but Zlatan to get one more shot at the big time via the playoffs... Group H: Italy, Malta, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Norway, Croatia - Italy and Croatia to qualify automatically... Bulgaria and Norway to battle it out for 3rd. Group I: Portugal, Albania, Armenia, Serbia, Denmark - Portugal to win the group but this could turn out to be a really, really interesting group... coonventional wisdom tell us that Serbia and Denmark should battle it our for 2nd and 3rd but watch out for Armenia! On the verge of making the playoffs in their last two qualifications and won 4-0 in Copenhagen last year, and Albania will not be pushovers either... a really difficult group to call....
Well, obviously the severe Groups of Death we've seen the past 2 Euros are a combination of having only 4 groups AND having 2 weak co-hosts. Another factor was luck. If the best team from pot 3 gets paired with the best team from pot 2, you're pretty much looking at a brutal group even if the host nation has a stronger team like, say, France (e.g. France, Italy, Portugal) I agree with the 50% rule, but at the same time when there are only 3 games it doesn't hurt too much. A team with 4 points after two matches is probably not going to want to lose their final group match as it could mean playing a group winner in the round of 16. Anyway, now that some people have posted their predictions, the 24-team field doesn't look so terrible. With all due respect to our Scottish friend above, the playoff round is still going to make it very difficult for a team playing at that level to qualify. Mabye there's now an opportunity for 1 or 2 teams at that level to get in, but a tournament where 22/24 teams are good is still a highly competitive tournament.
What is this over rating of Hungary. Any person who seen them play know they are not capable of getting second. They are lucky if they get 3rd which I highly doubt it
If you take the last world cup qualification cycle, which also had 9 groups, you'd have the following teams qualify for the Euros.... Group winners: Belgium, Italy, Germnay, Holland, Switzerland, England, Spain, Russia, Bosnia Runners Up: Denmark, Greece, France*, Ukraine, Croatia, Iceland, Romania, Sweden, Portugal, Austria (best 3rd place team) Then you'd have the following teams playing off in 3rd place: Serbia, Czech Rep, Hungary, Slovenia, Israel, Slovakia, Montenegro, Finland** * - Can replace France with Finland, as France already qualified, and Georgia with Finland.... So there's a possibility of several first time qualifiers there... I guess it's kind of cool that the Euro qualifiers will be significantly different than the WC qualifiers...
Exactly. One thing that the expansion to 24 teams does is it takes out all the drama that comes from a big team potentially missing out on the tournament. (Think England in 2008 or Netherlands missing the 2002 World Cup.) The huge brand-name teams will never find a way to get themselves in enough trouble in this format to miss the tournament. Oooh, the intrigue: Will Italy find a way to finish behind TWO of Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Malta to fall into the playoff? Please. They would have been better off giving four to seven teams other than the hosts "byes" to the tournament. Say the finalists of the last tournament plus the next best ranked squads based on coefficients or some other method. Anything to keep Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, etc. from having to go through the motions.
I'm predicting the following for Euro 2016 (big long shot): - Van Gaal will coach the men in Orange one last time - The Czechs will disappoint in qualifying - Wales will qualify - Spain will survive qualifying but falter in the group stages. - France will fail to make it past the Quarters - Ireland and Turkey will make Cinderella runs to the Semi's - Netherlands will edge Germany in a final for the ages
Good predictions and analysis. I think expansion is a good thing because we get to see teams that we normally we wouldn't see. Imagine if Bale takes Wales to the Euro Cup? That'd be fun. Those of us that don't follow the Spanish league all the time don't really get to see much of Bale. It'd be fun seeing him in an international competition. How about teams like Hungary and Scotland that were once contenders? It'd be nice getting to see them play again.
Unfortunately Van Gaal has agreed to become manager of Manchester United. Guus Hiddink is now in charge of the Netherlands.
I agree with Kennywoo. I don't mind the expansion to 24 teams as much as the qualification turning into a ceremony. Even Portugal will qualify with ease this time
I think Hungary may finally qualify..... same with Montenegro..... can't wait for Germany vs. Gibraltar
Doubt it if you do much better.Although Im giving you the 2nd spot in my predictions i think it will be a race for you two.Greece will get one of the first 2 spots, first or second matters not,but who is the other team progressivg is hard to guess.
How many Hungary games have you seen? We were in a qualifyng group together I want to think i know better what they can do For you maybe. Especially when you think you know us based on a game where Greece scored after a an offside and a FK due to a dive We have played all the other teams recently and none are above us
I think a lot of it has to do with the group they're in.... Greece, Hungary, Romania, Northern Ireland, Finland, Faroe Islands with 2.5 places up for grabs, that's a pretty open group... you have to say Greece and Romania are probably the favorites but Hungary, Finland, maybe even Northern Ireland could cause a surprise there... I think people are picking Hungary as they finished in 3rd of their last 2 qualifying campaign, but could see anybody qualifying from tat group - that's the group of life...
We finished above them!Or do yo mean favorites to get 3rd? In that case Hungary were good in one qual., the one for Euro 2012. Since then they are playing worse and worse Yes group of life for Greece and Romania