Group B Bosnia and Herzegovina Belgium Israel Wales Cyprus Andorra Wilmots has truly inherited Guy Thys' rabbit's leg!
We got an easy group when we didnt really need one though. With this expansion to 24 teams we would have qualified in any group. Some nice aways to holiday countries like Israel, Cyprus, Andorra. Beats playing teams like Kazakstan, Belarus etc. Wales again is not ideal but its close to home and playing a British team is always nice. Bosnia we need to take some revenge on.
= win away vs Bosnia too? That is ... win all the matches!!! We should aim to top this group ... still don't think that will be enough to move to pot 1 for the final draw ... have to see what we & Bosnia do in Brazil.
Pot 1 is not impossible but we will need to have one hell of a world cup to get there. We will probably be in pot 2 which is still good for our chances. you can see the standings here http://www.footballseeding.com/national-ranking-uefa/ranking-2015/
When we assume the final draw procedure remains the same ... it's still hard to make predictions ... footballrankings uses ELO as a basis to predict the results yet their accuracy is off when too many results are lacking ... ahead of the EURO2016 Q campaign they might provide more insight as to what it takes to get into pot 1. I also feel that pot 2 is likely ... we're 16th now (feb. 2014) and I agree with you that we have a fair chance to get into the top 12. Regardless getting to France is the main objective ... the French won it all when we organized it in 2000 ... only decent of them to return the favor in 2016.
LOL Leekens ... it's only fair that Wilmots gets the easy groups as Mr. 90% faced the tough ones ... since Leekens left, we'll have to thank him for every success ... I was already thankful because he left.
Taken from HLN: VOLLEDIG SPEELSCHEMA GROEP B Speeldag 1 - dinsdag 9 september (20u45): Andorra - Wales Bosnië-Herzegovina - Cyprus Israël - België Speeldag 2 - Vrijdag 10 oktober (20u45): België - Andorra Cyprus - Israël Wales - Bosnië-Herzegovina Speeldag 3 - maandag 13 oktober (20u45): Andorra - Israël Bosnië-Herzegovina - België Wales - Cyprus Speeldag 4 - zondag 16 november: 18u: België - Wales 18u: Cyprus - Andorra 20u45: Israël - Bosnië-Herzegovina Speeldag 5 - zaterdag 28 maart 2015 (20u45): Andorra - Bosnië-Herzegovina België - Cyprus Israël - Wales Speeldag 6 - Vrijdag 12 juni 2015 (20u45): Andorra - Cyprus Bosnië-Herzegovina - Israël Wales - België Speeldag 7 - Donderdag 3 september 2015 (20u45): België - Bosnië-Herzegovina Cyprus - Wales Israël - Andorra Speeldag 8 - Zondag 6 september 2015: 18u: Wales - Israël 20u45: Bosnië-Herzegovina - Andorra 20u45: Cyprus - België Speeldag 9 - Zaterdag 10 oktober 2015 (20u45): Andorra - België Bosnië-Herzegovina - Wales Israël - Cyprus Speeldag 10 - Dinsdag 13 oktober 2015 (20u45): België - Israël Cyprus - Bosnië-Herzegovina Wales - Andorra PS the wiki will probably be updated too.
Too bad we didn't get a top team from pot 1. Facing a team like say Italy twice would have been useful. I think we would qualify from almost any group in this format. It'll be between us and Bosnia for first place and between Israel and Wales for third (although I rate Israel higher then Wales).
If Italy goes deep in Brazil, they would have been an ideal opponent ... as they'd represent good value and I've seen them slip up plenty of times in qualifiers (usually against banana peels though).
4/9 ... friendly Belgium v. United Arab Emirates http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=bel/fixturesresults/gender=m/index.html#
Hate this friendly as it really provides nothing for the NT unless Wilmots is going to trout out a U21 squad or work on tactics.
Prep game ... 5 days later we'll start our EURO2016 campaign ... still it harms our ranking ... seeing that we didn't make it to the SFs (+ final or 3th place final), we'll need every point to get seeded.
Exchange one tactically limited manager for another? No thanks! I don't think Wilmots necessarily needs to go, he just needs to bring in someone who is better at tactics than he is. I have heard some suggest Yannick Ferrera and that's not a terrible shout. He is just as much of a tactics nerd as his uncles, yet he is young enough that Wilmots would not deem him a threat to his authority.
Why on earth would you want to get in a guy like Scolari? He's a dinosaur as has been proven at this WC.