Euro 2016 Qualifying

[forestfan]

And we compete to a decent level at virtually every sport in the book. 29 gold medals in the 2012 Olympics? Current Wimbledon champion? Last two Tour de France champions? Won a rugby World Cup just over a decade ago, ranked top in cricket not so long ago. Golf majors, boxing world champions, I could go on... I can't imagine there's a country with a comparable population size that has such a wide range of achievements across the sporting spectrum...

Yes our national football teams are crap, and we only have one tennis player (yet are still in the Davis Cup QFs...) but to suggest we're not a sporting nation is ridiculous, if anything we perhaps spread our efforts too thinly, but a bit of variety is good!

[tommymooney]

thing about the 30,000 in San Marino - is that the actual 'population' is a lot bigger because you can qualify through one grandparent? But still, it is splitting hairs really!

[Mo Bot]

And we compete to a decent level at virtually every sport in the book. 29 gold medals in the 2012 Olympics? Current Wimbledon champion? Last two Tour de France champions? Won a rugby World Cup just over a decade ago, ranked top in cricket not so long ago. Golf majors, boxing world champions, I could go on... I can't imagine there's a country with a comparable population size that has such a wide range of achievements across the sporting spectrum...

Yes our national football teams are crap, and we only have one tennis player (yet are still in the Davis Cup QFs...) but to suggest we're not a sporting nation is ridiculous, if anything we perhaps spread our efforts too thinly, but a bit of variety is good!

I can't think of many countries of any size that are as good as Britain over such .a wide range of sports

[Judio]

Here is the full list

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Dow ... WNLOAD.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A mixture of

Thu/Sun
Fri/Mon
and
Sat/Tue games

Also some at 19:45 and some at 17:00 (UK time)

[Judio]

Looks very even to me

Thu 745 One game
Fri 745 Two Games
Sat 500 Two Games
Sun 500 Two Games
Mon 745 Two Games
Tue 745 One Game

[Mo Bot]

Tough start for Scotland. Germany and Poland away in the first 3 games.

[foxinthebox2001]

Tough start for Scotland. Germany and Poland away in the first 3 games.

Nightmare for Strachan, compared to the stroll England should have, and he wasted no time mentioning that.

Between Gibraltar and Germany the Scots are between a rock and a hard place.

[barry]

Tough start for Scotland. Germany and Poland away in the first 3 games.

Nightmare for Strachan, compared to the stroll England should have, and he wasted no time mentioning that.

Between Gibraltar and Germany the Scots are between a rock and a hard place.

[jimmy ching]

I'm actually surprised by the fixtures. Scotlands group looks good to follow. Irelands fixtures give a testing start. Scotland can't play at Hampdon, Poland and Georgia are not too far to go nowadays.
I do like the fixture layout. Have they taken a leaf out of the Six Nations schedule?
I think that works well.
The opportunity to see other national sides play with out worrying about your teams score and constantly changing channels.

[tommymooney]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/jan ... 57749.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting view from Jan Molby about how the draw emphases that Wembley is a 'white elephant' - he over eggs the case, but has a point.

[Tacalabala]

I don't think anyone will disagree that the 'Week of Football' concept is a good one, I think that will be here to stay but now that we have the groups, the idea that the games are going to be in any tangible way exciting for the big teams and their supporters is laugable. If you are Wales, it is more exciting though, but is that a good reason for ripping up the old format? At least the WC qualifiers will be much like the old format.

[Achiles74]

So to sum up, even if you finish 3rd you have a chance of qualifying.

With England's group, I would expect an manager with balls to play the next generation of English players, give the U21's game time, that way the next generation of English players can be developed for the 2020 WC.

I very much doubt Roy will take that option.

[forestfan]

The FA won't let him... as people have said already they will struggle to sell tickets in any case with this draw, would be even worse if the big names weren't going to be playing.

[Hank_Moody]

Is that what Wales have been doing for the last 40-50 years?

How's that gone for you?

Believe it or not, the U21 tournaments are there to develop the U21 players.

[Tacalabala]

It won't be up to the FA or Roy though. If, as they should, England secure qualification with 3-4 games to go, the clubs will 'Giggs' their players. It might be against the rules, but that's what will happen.

[forestfan]

Yeah, I suppose it will be glorified friendlies from half way through, in fact I'm sure they'd rather have an official friendly against a Brazil or Argentina than most of these qualifiers. They need some sort of incentive for topping the groups, even if it is just seeding which seems the most obvious possibility.

[Achiles74]

I can actually see many of the players from the top clubs getting "injuries" before international games.

When clubs make somuch money from the CL and Prem, why would they risk top players being injured in pointless qualifying games.

[murf]

We'll just screw up the early games then the superstars will be forced to play in the crucial later games......

[Achiles74]

Is it 2 international games in the week?
Weekend and Thursday?

then normal Prem games at the weekend?

I can see Premier teams breaking away from the national FA's soon.

Its a bit like someone buying a 40million Ferrari, and the local boyracers borrowing it for a week, and returning your 40million Ferrari wrecked.

Are the BIG teams in Europe really going to stand for this anymore?

I don't think so.

[forestfan]

I'd have predicted 10 years ago that we would have an independent European league along the lines of the major American sports leagues by now... not sure why club owners are still answering to the likes of Blatter and Platini, even if an organisation run by Abramovich, the Glazers etc. would be equally bad for football!

[Tacalabala]

Yeah, I suppose it will be glorified friendlies from half way through, in fact I'm sure they'd rather have an official friendly against a Brazil or Argentina than most of these qualifiers. They need some sort of incentive for topping the groups, even if it is just seeding which seems the most obvious possibility.

That's a good shout actually, if it was done on an overall league table with seedings for the qualies in the 2018 WC based exclusively on that. You could even include France's centralised friendlies under that system. Still, just feels like fixing something that wasn't broken to begin with (16 teams I mean)....

[Achiles74]

I'd have predicted 10 years ago that we would have an independent European league along the lines of the major American sports leagues by now... not sure why club owners are still answering to the likes of Blatter and Platini, even if an organisation run by Abramovich, the Glazers etc. would be equally bad for football!

I think it will happen sooner rather than later, the 2 Spanish giants Barca and RM have been told they can't earn more than 4x the money the lowest club from La Liga gets.

I wouldn't be surprised to see those 2 pushing for a European league.
Add the oil clubs in Europe and it will happen.

[nffc]

Is this the same Bosnia who have qualified for the World Cup? Wales finished, what, 4th in their group?

It is but this is a different Welsh team, we have the most expensive world player.
We have the one player responsible for enabling Arsenal be in the title race this year (Ramsey).
His early form in the season got Arsenal where they are now.

We have some excellent youngsters coming through.

I wouldnt be surprised if Harry Wilson made his senior debut this season

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... p-win.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm sure Bluenosey can tell everyone how good Huws is playing for Birmingham City.

All in all very positive feeling about Wales making it to Euro 2016

Ibisevic and Dzeko with Pjanic behind are gonna love playing against the welsh defence. After Spain, Germany, France and Holland that is probably the next best international attack in Europe.

Wales only have two players I would class as very good or better. Bosnia have 6 or 7. Admittedly one of the welsh players is one of the best in the world but unfortunately when he retires he is going to have them same statistic as Giggs did as being one of the best players never to play in a big international tournament.

[trampie]

The draw was looking good for Wales until the last draw which was the second tier teams and we got Belgium, I was hoping for Ireland, Hungary or Switzerland, but still not bad for Wales we have got Bosnia, Belgium, Israel, Cyprus and Andorra.
We always have trouble with the Balkans teams and Bosnia are flying that's why they are in the top pot, but Bosnia some would say was the best draw for us to have from pot 1, with Belgium possibly the worst draw from pot 2, Israel, Cyprus and Andorra from their respective pots I'm happy with.

As always for a small nation we need our top players available as strength in depth is a problem, if we have the likes of Bale, Ramsey and also Ben Davies, Ledley, Allan, Ashley Williams etc playing most of the games we have a chance as there will be 23 qualifiers.

Third place teams get into a play off and the top 2 qualify automatically, Wales need to take Israel to get third on seedings, i would hope we can challenge Bosnia for second, Belgium although second seeds look strong and are odds on with the bookies and are expected to win the group.

[forestfan]

Belgium top seeds for the World Cup finals but not for Euro qualifiers. Work that one out!

[blahblah]

And Liverpool are better than Brazil, Sterling is better than Messi, blah blah blah...

Don't drag me into that

I doubt the advertising revenue will support these non-games...

[trampie]

I've got reservations about Wales playing Israel, should Wales play such a colonialist apartheid state that unequivocally breaks international law ?, i suppose it would be up to the likes of FIFA and UEFA to take a stand but by and large they don't seem to get involved in such matters, it is often said that sport and politics should not mix, for me unless the football authorities ban Israel then Wales should play them but i'm uneasy about it.

[roadrunner]

Where would you draw the line though? The UK is not exactly shy about breaking international law, and that probably goes for most countries, especially the major ones. You could end up with Norway v New Zealand in the World Cup Final. I'm not a fan of Israel's foreign policy but if you are talking about human rights then a lot of its neighbours are worse!

[trampie]

Where would you draw the line though? The UK is not exactly shy about breaking international law, and that probably goes for most countries, especially the major ones. You could end up with Norway v New Zealand in the World Cup Final. I'm not a fan of Israel's foreign policy but if you are talking about human rights then a lot of its neighbours are worse!

NewZealand and their treatment of the Maoris ? [or are the original colonists that took their land getting the blame ?], either way New Zealand in the fairplay final ?

Exactly where do you draw the line ?, Israel is well over anybodies line [that has no agenda] by any standards surely, but as regards AN Others how many of them are over the line ?, Israel is an open and shut case by any test surely but sporting authorities don't seemingly want to act and that may be because some big fish might also fall foul of the 'fairplay' line, like you point out.

I think its up to the powers that be and they let more or less anybody in.

[Pincher]

Germany v Gibraltar is going to be a cricket score.

Aren't Gibraltar the only unbeaten team in the world?

(Played 1 Drawn 1 - unless I've missed the excitement of their second ever game)

I think they got beaten by Hibs in a friendly last year, so they really can't be up to much (and I'm a Hibbee)