And of course, we got Germany and France in our group. While Belgium gets the easiest group possible in League A.
PS don't like playing against a defensive opponent though and it remains to be seen how players will approach this new competition (some teams might value it more and go all out while others might use it as a breather, e.g. Germany tend to take it easy in friendlies and that's what the UNL replaces).
Probably, but with the quality you have I expect that you top the group. While this new format is a replacement for friendlies I think France and Germany will take it serious and are up to it to win the competition (and silverware). At the moment we are not up to the task. Still in a transition phase so an easier group would have been nice though it's always nice to play the big teams. But hey, maybe we can surprise again.
Congrats to Belarus on getting the easiest draw in the history of ever! In League C, I think Group 1 (Scotland, Albania, Israel) will be the most interesting. Not much separates the 3 teams. Meanwhile, Greece are the big winners in that league. In league B, the evenness of all four groups stands-out. Group 4 (Wales, Ireland, Denmark) looks super competitive. We start to see what a fine line its going to be that divides promotion from relegation. In league A, Group 4 (Croatia, Spain, England) is the Group of Death for me. Good draw for Iceland. They should be able to grab a top seed for the Euro 2020 qualifying draw. Terrible draw for the Netherlands. If I'm not mistaken, that's the 4th killer draw in-a-row for them (WC 2014, Euro 2016 qualifying and WC 2018 qualifying the other 3). This one might lead to them being not getting a top seed for the Euro 2020 qualifying draw and I can see them missing that tournament as a result of that.
If Sweden had won that pointless match against the dutch, in the last match at the qualify, Sweden had take the Netherlands place. The Netherlands didnt deserved that place. Germany or France, Belgium or Switzerland Poland or Portugal and Spain i think.
That game wasn't pointless. I mean, wasn't really realistic that Holland would win by 7 goals or whatever, but it did matter. Also you can't just assume Sweden would have won if that match truly mattered. They only tied Holland at home. Thirdly, Holland had a way tougher Euro 2016 qualifying group. If we're talking about who "deserves" it, lets be honest: Sweden's coefficient was inflated a bit because they had one of the easiest qualifying group ever (and still only finished 3rd).
Sweden didnt played that match. They was thinking about the play-off matches. Ofc, not sure Sweden had won that match if it truly mattered. I said "if Sweden had won that pointless match". Yes that match against the Dutch at home was the first match with the new Swedish team, and we was lucky that match. But we come second after France and than won over Italy and qualifed for the world cup. The Dutch didnt. And about the Euro 2016, yes i know we didnt played good at all, but we qualifed and won over Denmark in the play-off. The Dutch didnt, And about the qualify groups, The dutch had Iceland, Turkey, Czech Sweden had Austria, Russia and Montegro. Not so big difference. Way tougher? are u from USA ? So yes i think we desereved that place. I dont understand how The Netherlands deserved that place.
Okay "tough" might not have been the best word because neither group was overly difficult. But the emergence of Iceland as a strong team made Holland's group less easy. None of the teams that advanced from Sweden's group did anything at the Euros. In fact, it can be argued quite reasonably that RUS, SWE and AUS were the 3 worst teams at Euro 2016!
Turkey and Czech was not so good either. But maybe a litte bit better. Only Iceland was good.. Sweden had a tough group but overall they didnt played good at all against Ireland, against Italy and Belgium we played ok. But i dont care if we didnt played well in the tourney, that is not my point, we qualifed, the dutch didnt, and we qualifed to world cup and come above the dutch, The dutch didnt deserved that place,
We'll agree to disagree on that. But probably it doesn't matter because Holland will most likely get relegated to League B considering the group they got.
I forget now. Its a bit more complicated than that, and is explained in detail in that link posted in the previous page of this thread. But I think league B would get 4 extra playoff spots (in addition to the 4 they are guaranteed), and from those 4 one team would qualify for Euro 2020. So,yes, basically 2 spots in theory. But in practice some of those extra playoff spots might go to league C teams (if alot of B teams already qualified).
League A Predictions: Group 1: 1. Germany, 2. France, 3. Netherlands (I think this group is streight forward. Netherlands is likely the weakest team in League A, but France and Germany will be a good match. Germany has a stronger team mentality however which should make them edge it) Group 2: 1. Belgium, 2. Iceland, 3. Switzerland (This group is really a toss up. Belgium by far is strongest on paper but they are still lacking organization as a team. They have improved post Wilmonts era, but I still see a lot of problems, especially in defense. On the other hand the team is Switzerland and Iceland's strong point, but they lack quality and talent on paper. Switzerland though has really NOT impressed me at a high level and can be poor in the final third, so I am tipping Iceland to go second, and the Swiss to get relegated) Group 3: 1. Portugal, 2. Italy, 3. Poland (I hope we can get first place, but I need to know who our new coach will be before I can have high expectations. We are definitely strongest on paper, but thinking we will be able to get the best out of our team right after going through a crisis no matter who the coach is, is quite unlikely. I think it will take time. Luckily though Portugal can sometimes be a powerhouse but not always so it will depend on which Portugal we see. Poland is not the same, and so many of their players are aging and getting hit with serious injuries. While they will be a threat, I believe they are a step below Portugal and Italy) Group 4: 1. Croatia, 2. Spain, 3. England (This is the group of death for me. Spain has the best team on paper, but Croatia I feel is superb with their crossing game and really know each other well. They often have great results against strong European teams and they have the talent to beat Spain just like they did in Euro 2016. England is England. I doubt they will be able to get too many good results against either Spain or Croatia. Might get a draw here or there or one win if lucky)
League A is pretty impossible to predict since we don't know how seriously most of the teams will take this competition. Especially those first set of games early next season, soon after the World Cup. League C and D a bit easier to call since we know every single one of those teams will take this thing very seriously. For some countries this will be their first truly meaningful matches ever. League B just so tough to call because the groups are all so evenly balanced.
Gosh, teams better take this competition seriously. I am really tired of it when teams do not take friendlies seriously.
Israel has their worst FIFA Ranking ever at 99th with fewer than half as many points as Scotland. Israel and Albania played WCQs with the away team winning 3-0 both times.
In the draw, we saw, they avoided russia from playing in the same B-Group as Ukraine, but what if they make it to the semi or the final? They cannot avoid the clash to happen then anymore, can they?
Israel really is a rubbish team, Only reason they beat Albania away was because Albania had 2 player sent off during that game.
I imagine this would have to be at a neutral venue, and therefore Russia and Ukraine would both be unable to be considered as hosts for the final 4 tournament. I think the exclusion applies only to qualifiers - or a league in this case - where they would play home and away. Of course they could always end up facing each other in a tournament. They were both at Euro 2016 and could, in theory, have faced each other had they both progressed. A major headache has been avoided by Ukraine failing to qualify for Russia 2018, but of course they would have had to go if they had qualified. I don't know whether they would have insisted on keeping Ukraine out of Russia's group had they qualified.
I doubt FIFA would have done anything to keep Ukraine and Russia apart in the WC draw. As you imply, there's a difference between home-and-away round robins and two NT's of countries that hate each other playing head-to-head in a Final tournament. The former is a more risky/dangerous scenario. Also if Ukraine qualified for the World Cup and people wanted to make trouble, they wouldn't need to wait for Ukraine to actually play Russia.
If we want to look at this objectively, we'd look at the respective teams last competitive games against European opposition. Which happens to be their World Cup qualifying groups. UEFA World Cup qualifying groups Spain: Pl: 10, Won: 9, Drawn: 1, Lost: 0, Scored: 36, Conceded: 3, PTS: 28 England: Pl: 10 Won: 8, Drawn: 2, Lost: 0, Scored: 18, Conceded: 3, PTS: 26 Croatia: Pl: 10, Won: 6, Drawn: 2, Lost: 2, Scored: 15, Conceded: 4, PTS: 20 *Spain finished first in their group, qualified automatically and undefeated, and had the number 1 best record out of all 55 national teams. *England finished first in their group, qualified automatically and undefeated, and had the number 4 best record out of all 55 national teams. *Croatia finished second in their group, qualified through the play-offs against Greece, and had the 12th best record. England get beat by Iceland 2 years ago at the Euro's and everyone uses that as a stick to beat them with. Yet Croatia get beat by Iceland in the World Cup qualifiers recently and finish beneath them in their qualifying group, and somehow no one cares about that. But hey.... Croatia has superb crossing so I suppose that means they'll win this group? It's a tough group, but it's a complete nonsense to say Croatia will win it and then say England would only be lucky to get 1 win.
Yea thats true, im not sure but maybe because it was IN the tournement Iceland won over England. Gonna be interesting matches. I think this National League is a great idea.
Germany: Pl: 10, Won: 10, Drawn: 0, Lost: 0, Scored: 43, Conceded: 4, PTS: 30 => Germany had the best record. How did Spain have "the number 1 best record out of all 55 national teams"? Spain had the 3rd best record in the European WCQs. Belgium, 2nd, with the same amount of points but a superior GD (and nobody scored more goals than Belgium).
Croatia will be one of four relegated teams. I am expecting that as I expect (another) crash at the World Cup and turbulence in the FA afterwards. Bigger issue for me (as I don't really care for Croatian football at the moment) is that Croatia will host two of the world's top teams at the most embarrassing stadium in Europe. Qualifying matches were not in international focus like this competition will be (mostly because it is maiden edition and only best of the best + Netherlands play). They (FA) ignore Split and other venues just can't host such teams and big number of foreign fans so Zagreb's ugly duckling is only choice.