Spain 2-2 Croatia FIX

[Durlston]

I remember the Europa League final round of matches in Tottenham and Birmingham's group last season ending in convenient 1-1 scorelines which eliminated the English duo and sent the teams playing for a draw through. Now that was dodgy.

Hopefully Croatia get through as I've got money on them but I reckon Spain will win the match anyway. If it finished 2-2 it would look very suspicious.

 

[Simster]

I see what you mean, but the difference from 2 teams to 3 teams is you can't ever split 2 teams on goals scored head-to-head; if it's a draw it's a draw and you move on to comparing records against other teams.

Extra goals against the whipping boys, for me, are more important than goals scored within the 'mini-league' - stuffing Ireland out-of-sight rather than scraping past them 1-0 should be more important than whether your draw with Croatia was 2-2 or 1-1.

There's no perfect solution though...

Agreed. So the closest to "fair" ultimately epends on whether you consider ALL teams to be of competent standard or whether you consider the group to be entirely lop sided from the start, featuring 1 or 2 whipping boys.

I'd disagree with this. If that was the case then Italy would now be at an advantage as they will be playing against an Irish side with nothing to play for and so more likely to win heavily. The mini league is fairest as it eliminates the whipping boys from the equation.

Once again, top analysis from the LooTown kidda.

 

[brightn'ove]

it wont end 2-2...

because torres is going to score a hat trick.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

On the subject of Italy
UEFA investigate Balotelli banana reports - Yahoo! Sport UK