Well done ICELAND

[joeinbrighton]

Chile are a pretty good team these days. Bielsa got them playing attractive football before he went off to manage Athletic Bilbao when they got to the final of the Europa League playing with plenty of attacking verve. They have Vidal of Juventus and Alexis Sanchez of Barcelona among their key players.

Iceland's improvement I would imagine is due to them having a good crop of youngsters coming through. They had a strong showing in the under-21s tournament a year or two back and those players will have now been integrated in the senior team. They did benefit, mind you, from a very weak group.

I have been following Mexico's results with interest as I wrote a piece for a website about them just prior to their last 2 qualifiers. A link is here for anyone that's interested in reading it - http://stateofthegame.co.uk/2013/10/11/mexico-in-danger-of-being-next-summers-biggest-absentees/ .

Since they lost to Costa Rica, I gather they have got rid of their manager Vucetich, who they had only appointed a month ago and who is the most successful coach in Mexico. It will be interesting to see if the new manager keeps faith with Javier Hernandez for the play-off as he missed a penalty against Panama and then performed poorly against Costa Rica. With him not getting game time at Manchester United, they might drop him and go with Peralta up front who scored the 2 goals that won them the Olympic football final last year. I expect they will get through, but they will be very fortunate to make it to Brazil if they do.

 

[Ernest]

Portugal v Sweden
Ukraine v France
Iceland v Croatia
Greece v Romania

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

so the world cup is going to lose one of the flair attractions in either zlatan or ronaldo.......IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!

that's a tough draw for France and they're far from guaranteed a place in the finals. Greece-Romania is particularly unappealing and I'd be surprised if Iceland got past a good Croatia side

 

[Mowgli37]

so the world cup is going to lose one of the flair attractions in either zlatan or ronaldo.......IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!

Personally I find it dull when all the pundits go on about is how the golden boys are doing. It just got tedious in 2012 when all they seemed concerned about was how badly Robben and RVP were playing and flapping about when Ronaldo was going to stick one away. I absolutely love it when international tournaments throw up the unknown heroes e.g. Roger Milla, the Greece side of 04 etc

 

[MattBackHome]

so the world cup is going to lose one of the flair attractions in either zlatan or ronaldo.......IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!

that's a tough draw for France and they're far from guaranteed a place in the finals. Greece-Romania is particularly unappealing and I'd be surprised if Iceland got past a good Croatia side

Can I take this opportunity to ask whats happened to Flairwatch in tslr?

(I agree it's a disaster to lose either CR7 or The Zlat. Still can't work out who I'd rather have there. Zlatan is obviously capable of more iconic flair moments, but CR7 delivers on sheer star quality, and no-one quite does 'I know my team-mate scored the winner but more than anything I'm pissed off that it wasn't me' like him.)

 

[Stat Brother]

I wonder how Roy would be viewed if Ukraine turn over France?

 

[Greg Bobkin]

So not only will the most expensive player in the world not be there, one of the best players in the world won't be either? Shame.

 

[Albumen]

I can't stand Ronaldo, come on Zlatan!

 

[MattBackHome]

No-one keeps Georgios SAMARAS out of the limelight. Come on Greece.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Team ZLATAN.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Greece will definitely qualify....again....and they will be boring as ****....again

 

[Austrian Gull]

so the world cup is going to lose one of the flair attractions in either zlatan or ronaldo.......IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!

that's a tough draw for France and they're far from guaranteed a place in the finals. Greece-Romania is particularly unappealing and I'd be surprised if Iceland got past a good Croatia side

Disagree about Croatia. They should be good but have been in disarray for the last few matches. Igor Stimac has resigned/been sacked. I think this is a decent draw for the Icelanders.

Head says:

Portugal
France
Romania
Croatia

Heart says:
Sweden
France
Romania
Iceland

 

[PWA]

Good Luck to Iceland, hope they pull off the impossible.
Looking forward to visiting Reykjavik in December.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

In terms of match ups that is a LOVELY draw. Should be 4 really competitive ties with France Ukraine the only one which could be one sided if the French get off to a quick start.

However, I have to say I'm GUTTED that RON and ZLATAN are being forced to fight each other for a spot in Brazil.

Of course I'd love to see the Z-BOMB at WC2k14 but the purist in me HAS to go for the greasy one. One of the greatest players I'll ever see so it would just be wrong for him not to be there with his useless teammates. Imagine if Portugal ever actually got a normal striker?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Great player he may be, but the thought of Ronaldo's tearful face if Portugal fail to qualify is highly amusing. Ibrahimovic for me every time. At least he's got a bit of personality.

I'd love to see Iceland do it. Croatia have a decent pedigree, but as someone else has stated above, I think they've had a few problems recently, poor form and a bit of infighting. Maybe, just maybe, Iceland have a chance. Hopefully the weather in Reykjavik will be far too cold for Croatia to cope with and they will- in the physical and mental senses- freeze. Away in Zagreb 2nd leg will be tough though.

 

[Eggman]

Team ZLATAN.

Ditto

 

[Lady Whistledown]

 

[hans kraay fan club]

View attachment 47857

...

"It's not fair. The fans sang a song for Helder Postiga. They're supposed to be MY fans. I'm not playing any more"

 

[Durlston]

I can't see the Croatian fans letting the game finish if they're going out of the World Cup in the play-off second-leg. They'll be hurling coins, seats and flares onto the pitch. Good luck to Iceland in that type of atmosphere in Zagreb.