The draw takes place on Friday 5th December 2003. 1st Seeds: France, Portugal, Sweden, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain England and Turkey. 2nd Seeds: Holland, Croatia, Russia, Ireland Denmark, Belgium, Bulgaria and Slovenia. 3rd Seeds: Poland, Scotland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, Greece and Ukraine. 4th Seeds: Austria, Iceland, Norway, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wales, Latvia and Finland. 5th Seeds: Northern Ireland, San Marino, Faroe Islands, ect. So there could be England, Ireland, Scoland, Wales, N. Ireland in the same group! But much worse would be: France, Holland, Scotland, Norway, Faroes .
Eh Id like to see England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1 goup. That would be awesome.
I don't think I did it right. There are 7 groups of seeds and the likes of Marcedonia in 5, Faroes in 6 and Kazakstan in 7. I won't fancy a group with SEVEN teams in it!
Pot A: France, Portugal, Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, England and Turkey Pot B: Holland, Croatia, Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Poland Pot C: Bulgaria, Romania, Scotland, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, Greece, Slovakia, Austria Pot D: Ukraine, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Latvia, Wales Pot E: Hungary, Georgia, Belarus, Cyprus, Estonia, Northern Ireland, Lithuania, Macedonia Pot F: Albania, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Malta, San Marino, Liechtenstein Pot G: Andorra, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan Draw is made tomorrow at 4pm (UK) - Europe will be the last confederation drawn so God knows what time that'll be! I think if I were Michael Schumacher and could choose the draw - Sweden, Poland, Scotland, Iceland, N Ireland, Malta and Kazakhstan might be nice as well.
Not good! Group 5: Italy, Slovenia, Scotland, Norway, Moldova, Belarus. At home we can beat ANYONE including Italy (they lost in Cardiff) and away from home we COULD beat the "smaller" 2 and possibly draw in Slovenia and Norway (like in recent friendly - Norway are too predictable!). Not much hope for Italy away but nice trip for TA. Being very optimistic though! I think we were due to play in Italy in a February friendly - don't know if it'll still go ahead.
Disagree. Since we were seeded third, this is as about a good a draw as we could have got. You have to play one of the top teams (and it is Italy), getting Slovenia is a very good draw (not Holland or Ireland). The tough part is the bottom half of the draw. Norway is as about as good a team as there is from pot 4, but we can beat them, Belarus could be tricky and Moldova we should win twice. This is a much nicer draw than either groups 1,2 or 6. 1 has Czech Rep and Holland; 2 has incredible depth + Kazakhstan as an unknown, and a "British" group + Poland would have been impossible.
Further to this, the only group I think would have been weaker is 8, and maybe 3. The other groups are all clearly stronger than ours. Therefore it is a relatively kind draw. But lets face it, anything would have been hard for us.
Your right - Italy, Slovenia, Scotland then something like Iceland, Cyprus, Malta would have been fantastic! Why were Norway in the 4th pot anyway? Slovenia, Norway & Scotland were all beaten in the Euro 2004 play-offs and its quite incredible that they all end up in the same group.
I'm reasonably happy with this group - Slovenia are possibly one of the weakest sides that were in Pot 2, so we got lucky there. Then again we did get Norway from Pot 4, but they're not the team they used to be and I think on our day we should be able to take points from them. Moldova might be a tricky one though - Aberdeen (yeah, I know!) could only beat the Moldovan UEFA Cup representatives 1-0 over 2 legs last season, and they played the game at the tiny national stadium which supposedly posed all sorts of problems for the players, so we'll have to be careful. Even Wales showed that Italy are beatable if you go at them. Probably the old misguided optimism again, but it seems like there's a fair-to-good chance we could come 2nd.
From Italian FA web site: Slovenia, Scotland, Byelorussia, Norway and Moldavia: these are Italy's opponents in the upcoming qualifications for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Italy, one of the group leaders along with France, Portugal, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Spain, England and Turkey, was drawn by the Formula One champion Michael Schumacher in group 5: because of the importance of their national league season, Italy, England, France and Spain were placed in the 6-team groups. (basically SPL = rubbish!) The head coach of the National team, Giovanni Trapattoni, blew a sigh of relief after having avoided The Netherlands in group 1: "It is not a difficult group - said the coach - and it could have been worse. The toughest opponents are Norway and Scotland , but we will always have to be concentrated and in our best condition to be first in the standings and qualify for the World Cup". YEAR 2004 Saturday, September 4 Wednesday, September 8 Saturday, October 9 Wednesday, October 13 YEAR 2005 Saturday, March 26 Wednesday, March 30 Saturday, June 4 Wednesday, June 8 Saturday, September 3 Wednesday, September 7 Saturday, October 8 Wednesday, October 12 Saturday, November 12 first play-off Wednesday, November 16 return play-off.