Scott Harris Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 (edited) Group A: Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic Group B: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Andorra, Wales, Israel, Belgium Group C: Spain, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine Group D: Germany, Gibraltar, Georgia, Scotland, Poland, Republic of Ireland Group E: England, San Marino, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Switzerland Group F: Greece, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Finland, Romania, Hungary Group G: Russia, Lichtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Austria, Sweden Group H: Italy, Malta, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Norway, Croatia Group I: Portugal, Albania, Armenia, Serbia, Denmark That is a very nice draw for England, you couldn't ask for much better really. I think it's the easiest group of the lot. Edited February 23, 2014 by Scott Harris
JoeyN Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 Group D is the only that really stands out to be honest.
Scott Harris Posted February 23, 2014 Author Posted February 23, 2014 are france in group i? Euro 2016 will be in France so they don't need to qualify.
loz Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 France get put in the group but their games are friendlies and don't mean anything
Scott Harris Posted February 23, 2014 Author Posted February 23, 2014 Really there is no point of even worrying about any of the top teams missing out because from now on 24 teams qualify for the Euro's. Qualification has been made 10x easier.
CFCflynn Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 Euro 2016 will be in France so they don't need to qualify. yeah i was just wondering where they were.
mactheknife Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 The Euros will be so diluted with 24 teams, but I suppose it gives more nations a great chance to assert themselves on the world stage. England's draw is great albeit a bit boring. Switzerland May push us for top, but that doesn't matter in this format. Wales have to be fancying their chances of coming third and even Northern Ireland would have a chance. Scotland and RoI are in a difficult group but I think one of them will come in the top 3
Jonty Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 Wouldn't be surprised if Switzerland beat us to be honest.
BlueBosnian Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 I'm pleased with our draw (Serbia). I think you have a tough draw. Only two qualify, and you have Portugal and Denmark. Tough group.
BelgradeCFC Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 I think you have a tough draw. Only two qualify, and you have Portugal and Denmark. Tough group. Only two going through is a motive plus for us. Bosnia lost twice against Portugal and were unlucky in both matches, so I think it's time for someone from Ex-Yu to take them down. Besides that, if Drulovic is appointed as headhoach is also a plus cause he knows them very well. I'm not so worried about Denmark, think we're better side. Glad Bosnia are in "easy" group.
Fatty_Speeding Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 How on earth did this expansion to 24 teams get voted through? Who even wants to see half that amount of teams from the qualifying groups play football matches? It's all politics and co-operative wiener shaking at UEFA; I get the impression Mr Platini could propose to change European qualifying to an X-Factor style competition where teams take it in turns to do tricks on a stage and it would get voted through.
alan'82 Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 Odd really,that the expansion of the Euro 2016 comes at a period when interest in International football appears to be at an all time low. I mean really,apart from a few,who gives a toss about their national side thesedays?. For the majority it's club first & the national side can take a running jump........ isn't it?.
Englishman Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 Odd really,that the expansion of the Euro 2016 comes at a period when interest in International football appears to be at an all time low. I mean really,apart from a few,who gives a toss about their national side thesedays?. For the majority it's club first & the national side can take a running jump........ isn't it?. Looking at that draw really highlights the problems that international football has. Too many mismatches and too many games that no one cares about. The old Euros format of 16 teams qualifying was fine. It made for a competitive tournament by only having strong and strong(ish) teams involved. That's where the Champions League has it right. After the group stages, most of the matches are interesting and competitive.
bluelion111 Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Call me unpatriotic if you will but I would rather personally hand Germany/France anyone the World Cup/Euro's than see Gerrard lift it. Aside from Cahill I refuse to give a toss about any of the team. Unless Lampard scores the winner in which case I never doubted them at all.
mactheknife Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Looking at that draw really highlights the problems that international football has. Too many mismatches and too many games that no one cares about. The old Euros format of 16 teams qualifying was fine. It made for a competitive tournament by only having strong and strong(ish) teams involved. That's where the Champions League has it right. After the group stages, most of the matches are interesting and competitive. Yeah too many games is a bad thing. Remember the Champions League sky rocketed in interest post 2004 a and one of the fundamental factors was scrapping the second group stage. It is no surprise that the UEFA cup/Europa League started going down the pan once they began to add more games. The Euro's will die a painful death. Euro 2008 was the best international tournament so far this century, mainly because 12 of the 16 teams were of very high quality. As somebody else pointed aswell, there are too many dead rubbers in qualifying. They should just make it a seeded knockout system so most of the elite nations only play two knock out two legged ties.
abigsmurf Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 There will be so many terrible terrible games to watch there. England have Switzerland to provide them with 2 reasonable games but outside of that, you'd expect every other game to be embarrassingly one sided. Not even any amusingly politically charged games either. Turkey vs Cyprus or Russia vs Ukraine could've been funny.
Zola Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Good draw for N.Ireland, but we still wont qualify because we are famously sh*te againts countries who are even worse than us (on paper)
erskblue Posted February 26, 2014 Posted February 26, 2014 Scotland will probably struggle against Gibraltar !
Boyne Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Would have been great if Spain had drawn Gibraltar. Unfortunately, UEFA put a stop to that. Can you imagine all the Gibraltar flags being flown in a stadium in Spain.
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