Euro 2016 qualifying draw

[Lady Whistledown]

"Aye, it's a difficult looking group alright. The might of the Germans, those tricky Poles, the always-tough-to-beat Irish, combined with a trip into the unknown in Georgia. It really is a group of death for us, but on the plus side, two matches against one of the few true minnows of the game, a footballing no-hoper from one of those places that isn't even a real country but which UEFA has controversially permitted to play in this tournament in the hope of developing football at the lower levels of the game, gives us real hope of picking up points", said the manager of Gibraltar.

 

[withdeanwombat]

This draw is duller than normal, wish they would hurry up.

Dull ?

It is totally enthralling, what with a batch of aging goalies trying to unscrew those pesky balls, the countries that won't play other countries, the length of time taken during which new countries might emerge before the end of the draw.

That line : let's hope this is the right team (in the last ball) or we'll have to start again.

And the prospect of home and away games against absolute non runners in the competition followed by the excuses made when we fail to get out of the group in France.

It's all delicious, I tell'ee.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

BBC are saying third best finisher qualifies how is this going to measured, considering the last group has one less team in it?

 

[Easy 10]

I agree with you to a point but it is groups of 6 not 4!

Surely we should be encouraging smaller countries to improve? It's kind of like saying let all the Prem teams go straight through to the later stages of the FA cup as non league teams should not get a chance to play them.

No, the FINALS are 6 groups of 4.

Of which the top 2 will go through to the first knockout stage, plus 4 more best placed thirds. I'm sorry, but that is a ludicrous state of affairs. Finishing 3rd in a group of 4 and STILL going through ? Come on.

The FA Cup anaolgy doesn't bear comparison either, as the big teams DO go straight through to the latter stages, which is of course how it should be. The smaller teams who make it through to the 3rd Round proper have earned that right.

Euro 2016 is so skewed and contrived now, and the only reason for that is to sell more games for TV. The quality of the tournament will suffer due to the sheer number of pointless games that are foregone conclusions, as well as a series of complete non-events like Latvia v Belarus clogging up the schedule. Thats the kind of TRIPE that should be in the qualification process (or even PRE-qualifiers beforehand).

Europe does not have 24 decent nations to make a competition. 16 was just right. Now its overly bloated with junk, half the thing will be a complete borefest till the quarters.

 

[Easy 10]

Oh dear, going to be difficult to mess this up. This means we will qualify well after a wobble or two and then get drawn with a group like, France,Poland and Sweden and crash out.

Even then we'd probably only have to finish 3rd in the group though.

Welcome to Euro 2016. WHat a thrillride the group stages will be, where its actually harder to get eliminated than it is to go through.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Even then we'd probably only have to finish 3rd in the group though.

Welcome to Euro 2016. WHat a thrillride the group stages will be, where its actually harder to get eliminated than it is to go through.

*unless you're Scotland.

Imagine if Gordon Greer ended up playing against Germany

 

[Easy 10]

*unless you're Scotland.

Imagine if Gordon Greer ended up playing against Germany

The fact that even Scotland have a small chance of being there gives you every indication of just what an utter turdfest the tournament will be, at least until the quarters.

 

[Mr Blobby]

Monday 8th September 2014 - Switzerland v England
Thursday 9th October 2014 - England v San Marino
Sunday 12th October 2014 - Estonia v England
Saturday 15th November 2014 - England v Slovenia
Friday 27th March 2015 - England v Lithuania
Sunday 14th June 2015 - Slovenia v England
Saturday 5th September 2015 - San Marino v England
Tuesday 8th September 2015 England v Switzerland
Friday 9th October 2015 England v Estonia
Monday 12th October 2015 - Lithuania v England

 

[Mr Blobby]

France are in the draw to maintain UEFA/FIFA ranking points. Teams who are hosts have had problems getting decent friendly matches and hence drop down the rankings, so they decided they will play the group games that dont impact on the group.

Draw not bad, looking forward to new countries by going to Lithuania and Slovenia. Probably do Estonia or Lithuania via Riga so will also tick off Latvia and that will leave me 7 countries to do in Europe (if you consider Gibraltar a separate country!) - they are Serbia, Bosnia, Armenia, Iceland, Faro Islands & Cyprus.

 

[Lindfield by the Pond]

And Switzerland completes our draw. If we don't qualify from this Hodgson needs shooting.

Scotland don't stand a scoobies in their draw

Surely Hodgson will have already been shot after the debacles of the World Cup?

 

[HastingsSeagull]

When we loose away to the Swiss the place will go into meltdown!

2 autos and a play-off for the 3rd team mean there will be some other home nations too I expect which says it all about the quality

 

[fleet]

Monday 8th September 2014 - Switzerland v England
Thursday 9th October 2014 - England v San Marino
Sunday 12th October 2014 - Estonia v England
Saturday 15th November 2014 - England v Slovenia
Friday 27th March 2015 - England v Lithuania
Sunday 14th June 2015 - Slovenia v England
Saturday 5th September 2015 - San Marino v England
Tuesday 8th September 2015 England v Switzerland
Friday 9th October 2015 England v Estonia
Monday 12th October 2015 - Lithuania v England

They say there is no such thing as an easy international match, but.....

 

[ali jenkins]

France are in the draw to maintain UEFA/FIFA ranking points. Teams who are hosts have had problems getting decent friendly matches and hence drop down the rankings, so they decided they will play the group games that dont impact on the group.

Draw not bad, looking forward to new countries by going to Lithuania and Slovenia. Probably do Estonia or Lithuania via Riga so will also tick off Latvia and that will leave me 7 countries to do in Europe (if you consider Gibraltar a separate country!) - they are Serbia, Bosnia, Armenia, Iceland, Faro Islands & Cyprus.

I thought France were going into the last group and playing friendlies against the team with no game that matchday?

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

What a fantastic opportunity this is to "risk" playing youngsters in competetive games but without the fear of not qualifying. The fact we only need to finish in the TOP TWO as well means this will be a stroll.

No reason for Roy to not put his faith in Barkley, THE OX, Sterling, Clyne, Shaw/Gibbs (if Baines isn't playing), Barahino, et all and let them actually develop AHEAD of a tournament rather than getting 20mins in friendlies.

 

[Bob!]

Monday 8th September 2014 - Switzerland v England
Thursday 9th October 2014 - England v San Marino
Sunday 12th October 2014 - Estonia v England
Saturday 15th November 2014 - England v Slovenia
Friday 27th March 2015 - England v Lithuania
Sunday 14th June 2015 - Slovenia v England
Saturday 5th September 2015 - San Marino v England
Tuesday 8th September 2015 England v Switzerland
Friday 9th October 2015 England v Estonia
Monday 12th October 2015 - Lithuania v England

Why isn't there a game on a Wednesday!!!!!

 

[Easy 10]

The 24th best team in Europe at the moment is Austria, who wouldn't be an embarrassment to have at the tournament, in my opinion. In fact, it will be good to have more games and interest in the event, and it still won't mean fixtures such as Belarus v Armenia taking place as you suggested. The 23rd best team in Europe is currently Turkey and 25th is Hungary, so we are far from the joke nations getting involved.

Austria hosted it not so long ago and stunk the place out, losing to Croatia and Germany and drawing with Poland.

The presence of the likes of Israel, Hungary, Norway and Austria will not enhance Euro 2016 in the slightest. The beauty of the Euros was that you had the best teams in Europe competing. With only 16 teams, pretty much every fixture was a "big clash", with some huge matchups in the group stages and a real edge to almost every game.

OK there may not be minnows in the finals to the extent of an Armenia or a Belarus, but there IS going to be a lot of stiflinglingly piss-poor ho-hum fixtures sloshing around. And in a group stage where (for the most part) 3 out of 4 will qualify, theres going to be a hell of a lot of dead rubber games. And for what ? So we can have more games. More pointless games between total nonentities.

Wake me up when the QF's start. The rest of it will be dirge.

 

[algie]

Austria hosted it not so long ago and stunk the place out, losing to Croatia and Germany and drawing with Poland.

The presence of the likes of Israel, Hungary, Norway and Austria will not enhance Euro 2016 in the slightest. The beauty of the Euros was that you had the best teams in Europe competing. With only 16 teams, pretty much every fixture was a "big clash", with some huge matchups in the group stages and a real edge to almost every game.

OK there may not be minnows in the finals to the extent of an Armenia or a Belarus, but there IS going to be a lot of stiflinglingly piss-poor ho-hum fixtures sloshing around. And in a group stage where (for the most part) 3 out of 4 will qualify, theres going to be a hell of a lot of dead rubber games. And for what ? So we can have more games. More pointless games between total nonentities.

Wake me up when the QF's start. The rest of it will be dirge.

No different to the world cup surely unless that bores you to Easy

 

[brakespear]

Well I like having all the less experienced/smaller countries in the competition and the expansion of the finals. Also, as they said on Radio 5 yesterday it wasn't that long ago we were putting 8 or 9 past Turkey and look at how they've come on since then which kind of made some sort of sense

 

[litmanen]

Finally my country has a great chance to make it to the big tournament
People here are pretty excited about the group.