We will play a team that we have never played before - Latvia. Nearly got a second unplayed team (Gibraltar) but Andorra got switched because of travel requirements with Kazakhstan??? I assume Andorra can’t afford the travel or something.
Our group is arguably the toughest of the pot one teams. For however much they underperform in tournaments, Serbia are notoriously strong in qualifying and they're easily one of the best pot two sides on paper. Albania were also one of the few pot three sides to qualify for the Euros and put up a good fight in all three games despite being in one of the hardest groups. We've definitely got a few good tests coming up here.
Group H surely means either Austria or Romania will make the World Cup after a long period of absence.
It’s not that. Kazakhstan could only be with 1 of these teams. Andorra, England, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales and had already been drawn with Wales so Andorra had to go elsewhere.
I found it very hard to pick a Pot 2 team I would prefer. I think the level is pretty similar all the way through. Sweden and Greece seem to be building something strong at this point. I’m not sure what to expect of Serbia. They were heavily reliant on Tadic for creativity not long ago and now he has retired. Seems like they are rebuilding. As for Pot 3 you want a team that will take points off the Pot 2 team. Maybe Albania are stronger than we wanted but it’s a good test.
Serbia are really excellent at qualifying for world cups but they always flop at the tournament. Very tough place to go and pick up wins. They've beat out Portugal a couple of times now to qualify ahead of them. Certainly hope we can avoid a June game with them given what a mess that squad might be. With that said I don't think there's that much difference between the groups. Basically all the pot 2 teams were in the category of good, if not great sides capable of picking up a result on their day. Possibly a few exceptions like Poland but nothing major. Albania were probably one of the better pot 3 sides, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Serbia and Albania in the same group has a nightmare written all over it, god knows what’s going to happen on and off the field but it’s going to be entertaining from a certain point of view.
There seems to be a lot of complacency on social media about this group saying we should walk it etc. Just repeating what others have said, Serbia and Albania won’t be walk overs whatsoever, can see a few close games and we will have to be at our best but can also see Albania and Serbia taking points of each other or I can even see points deductions a distinct possibility. There’s a real hatred between the pair that I’m not sure many realise. If I was UEFA, I would play those games behind closed doors.
That Sky journalist calling Palmer arguably the best player in the world on form is the sort of ignorance we all get accused of. There are seven or eight players clearly ahead of him and a couple of those are English too. He's not even playing in the Champions League.
We can only play Albania and/or Andorra in March. Ideally we'd play both and have June free from qualifiers, though I imagine it won't shake out like that. Either way we should be doing our best to avoid a Serbia game in June.
Andorra as first or second match would be interesting but also a bit annoying as it wouldn’t tell us too much,
I don’t think we should be worrying about what date we play a team .. it’s a group we should breeze through.