Predictions Belguim 4-1 Belarus Gibraltar 0-4 Netherlands Croatia 2-0 Malta Luxembourg 0-3 Portugal Montenegro 1-1 Norway Slovakia 0-2 Russia Turkey 3-1 Latvia Wales 2-1 Czechia
Probably talked about earlier in this thread, but what happens if Russia finishes first or second in their group? They're definitely out of the WC right? Or are there another 10 appeals still forthcoming?
Was it you who claimed that "Turkey would put in a bad game after their great result"? If so it looks like you just made the prediction 1 match early. J
Lololol I know you have a disdain for the Portuguese, but my fu#&ing God man, have you completely checked out of reality?
What a group Group H is. The results are all over the place. Each team in the group have registered already a loss. Cyprus maybe the surprise of the group so far. I believe ultimatively Russia and Croatia will make the top two. It's mostly about the order. After a great start disappointing to see Slovenia having lost both their road games. If you lose to Cyprus with all due respect to Cyprus then you can't eye to qualify for the World Cup.
Yep, and come to think of it Turkey's draw with Latvia not such a shocker,... Latvia is Turkey's bogey side... eliminated them in the 2004 Euro playoffs, and Turkey haven't beaten them since 1924 in like 6 attempts! Btw @Kamtedrejt - was going through some old photos of mine, and this one from 2015 popped up... wow, that place sure looks different these days!
I don't really rate Wales. I said it here sometime ago. But I do rate Czechia. Before this qualifying started I would have predicted a draw for this. But with Wales being under pressure to win here (due to the draw of the Czechs against Belguim) I went with them. They did win but they were mostly outplayed by the Czechs. They were the luckier side on the night.
About Latvia being Turkey's boogey team I knew that. I was thinking about going with a draw but if Turkey had won people would have laughed at my prediction so I played it "safe" and was wrong in the end. Nice image. We don't use the Qemal Stafa anymore. We build a new national stadium. It's the Arena Kombetare or now the Air Albania stadium.
The quirk with their group is that thanks to all three of them (Belgium, Wales and the Czechs) winning their Nations League groups, whoever finishes 3rd will almost certainly make the playoffs.
I think it works the other way around. i.e. you forfeit your NL playoff spot if you finish 1st or 2nd in your group. And that NL spot goes to the next best NL pool winner, not to the third place team in the WCQ group. But I might be wrong.
To clarify (hence, the "almost"): the group winners all go straight to Qatar, and all the runners-up get playoff berths. You're right to note that the last two playoff berths are for NL group winners regardless of whether they finished 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th in their WCQ group. But if you look at the order of preference among NL group winners, Belgium, Wales and the Czech Republic are 2nd, 6th and 8th (respectively), meaning it's highly likely that whichever one misses out on the direct of runner-up playoff berth will get one of the NL ones. Perhaps I should've said "whoever finishes 3rd among them"
@ BocaFann You are right. It's still a gamble to hope that results in other groups go the way they need in order to get to the playoffs by the NL. Let's look at the highest NL group winners - France - Belguim - Italy - Spain - Wales - Austria - Czechia - Hungary - Slovenia . . . . I. e. if Wales finishes 2nd in their group they forfait their NL berth to the next ranked team Austria and so on.. In my opinion there is no way that one of the powerhouses finishes not top two. Hence this Group C will end up having two teams in the playoffs. I expect also Austria to be in the top two, leaving their place to Hungary. Slovenia's chances rely on Hungary to edge out Poland which is possible but difficult.
Folks, another upset. It's a special start to these qualifiers. Armenia beats Romenia 3-2. 100% record for Armemia. They did it all without Mikhitaryan. Armenia is puting up a good fight in this group I have to say.
I wouldn't bet my life on Holland finishing top 2, but yeah... Holland and Austria are the only minor doubts I would have, so highly unlikely that both finish outside top two.
I mean out of France, Belguim, Italy and Spain. The Netherlands don't have the NL cushion. If they finish third they are out.
Predictions Andorra 1 - 4 Hungary Bosnia 1 - 2 France Germany 4 - 0 North Macedonia England 2 - 1 Poland Greece 1 - 2 Georgia Liechtenstein 0 - 1 Iceland Lithuania 0 - 1 Italy Moldova 0 - 3 Israel Northern Ireland 1 - 0 Bulgaria Austria 1 - 1 Denmark San Marino 0 - 2 Albania Scotland 3 - 1 Faroe Islands Spain 3 - 0 Kosovo Ukraine 2 - 0 Kazakhstan
Austria collapse at home. Denmark is destroying Austria on the break. 1st half was very hard-fought and close. The 1st goal hit the Austrians psycholigically very hard. Denmark in commanding position to qualify to back-to-back World Cups, leaving the other three to battle it out for a playoff spot.