FIXTURES HERE Group 1, 7 and 9 have fixtures announced. Most will be completed in a week or so but will have all fixtures finalised by the end of January at the latest.
have the group two fixtures come out yet. i heard they were meeting in israel on january 8 to decide?
Looks like Latvia and Greece couldn't agree on the matches between them so it will go to a random draw by FIFA.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organi...3986.html#match+schedule+draw+european+groups All group will be finalised, and a possible change in group 9.
Most wont be decided until nearer the time. After the Euro 08 then im sure the venues for up and coming qualifyers will be looked at.
I hope Israel keeps improving like they have in the past few years... giving a hard time to strong countries like England, France, Russia, Irland, Swizrland ect.
The European qualifying for 2010 FIFA World Cup will start in August 2008 and will come to an end on October 2009. The nine group winners will advance directly, the best eight of the nine second-placed teams will have play-off matches for the remaining four world cup places. Group 1... I think Portugal will win this group. And then it will be either Sweden or Denmark for second place, with Sweden probably ending up higher than Denmark. But I think Sweden will be losing a few (unnecessary) points and will not be among the best eight second-placed teams. Hungary will end up fourth. I really hope that underdog Malta will be able to defeat Albania and not finish last in this group. That would be quite an upset as Malta always seems to be finishing last in their qualifying group. Group 2... I think Switzerland will end up finishing first in this relatively weak group. The only team they really have to worry about is Greece, who I think will finish second, but who could also manage to end up first. Israel and Latvia are looking for the upset, but I don't think Israel and Latvia will finish any higher than third place. I hope that Moldova can somehow pull off an upset and finish third in this group, but that's very unlikely as even finishing fourth will not be easy. Luxembourg will definitely finish last in this group. Group 3… Czech Republic and Poland will obviously be the two most likely teams to end up first and second in this group. Even though Poland has proven to be very strong, I think Czech will win this group and Poland will end up second. Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia and San Marino will finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. Group 4… Germany will probably win this group. Even though Russia is very good and probably will only get better, Germany will somehow manage to end up first. And Russia will end up being second in this group quite easily. The other teams don't stand a chance. Finland and Wales will end up third and fourth. And I think Liechtenstein will manage to not end up last in this group by making Azerbaijan finish last. Group 5… Spain will finish first. Turkey will finish second. I'd like to see Belgium make it, but I don't see that happening and they will probably end up third. Bosnia & Herzegovina will end up fourth. And it could be an interesting battle between Armenia and Estonia to see who will finish fifth, but I think Estonia will finish last in this group. Group 6… This is quite an interesting group, to say the least. Croatia will probably win this group. Even though the competition is strong, they have proven to be very successful lately, especially in the qualifiers. But the battles between England and Ukraine could be the most interesting of the entire qualifying in Europe. Both teams don't want to miss out the world cup after already missing Euro 2008. I hope Ukraine will finish second in a slight upset, but this will probably not happen. In the mean time, Belarus and Kazakhstan will be trying to score an upset, but will eventually finish fourth and fifth respectively. Andorra will finish last here. Group 7… This is not the most interesting group. France will win the group. Romania will finish second. Serbia will end up third. The rest of the group will not even come close to qualifying and that means Austria, Lithuania and Faroe Islands will finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. I hope Faroe Islands will somehow manage an unbelievable upset against France, but this is highly unlikely of course. Group 8… Italy will easily win this group. Other than Italy, this group is actually quite weak. Bulgaria and Republic of Ireland will be fighting for the second place. And that could be a very interesting battle, but I'm thinking that Bulgaria will finish second in this group. Montenegro will finish fourth. This will be the first official FIFA qualifying involving Montenegro, by the way. Georgia and Cyprus don't stand a chance and will end up fifth and sixth respectively. By the way, why is Cyprus always in the same qualifying group as Republic of Ireland? Group 9… This group has five teams only, but it's difficult to say who will win this group. But I think The Netherlands will win this group and Scotland will finish second in this group. Norway will end up with the third place here. But it will be a close battle between those three teams. Iceland and Macedonia don't stand a chance and will finish third and fourth respectively. I think Portugal, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Croatia, France, Italy and The Netherlands will advance to the world cup as group winners. And I think Greece, Poland, Russia, Turkey, England, Romania, Bulgaria and Scotland will be the best eight second-placed teams with Russia, Poland, England and Scotland advancing to the world cup (but this is very difficult to say, because it really depends on which teams will face each other in the play-offs)… …so my prediction is that Portugal, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Croatia, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, Poland, England and Scotland will be the 13 European nations participating at 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Who will qualify out of UEFA? My opinion, 1. Portugal 2. Sweden 3. Greece 4. Poland 5. Germany 6. Spain 7. Croatia 8. England 9. France 10. Romania 11. Italy 12. Netherlands 13. Russia Reguardless of Uefa loosing 1 spot to other federations, we will still have a strong showing in WC 2010. I think a European team will win the WC in SA, and they will be first European team to win a WC outside Europe. Africa has probably improved the most out of North America and Asia, expect 1 or 2 African Teams to go to Round of 16 and at least 1 of them will reach quarters either Ghana or Ivory Coast.
I started predicting four years ago that Holland will win the 2010 world cup as we'll have a lot of highly talented players at the peak of their career by then. Before you all start on me: I also correctly predicted that it'd be all over for us in the quarter finals of Euro 2008.