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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Feb 26, 2014 19:55:46 GMT 1
Scotland will be all but out by the time they meet Gibraltar looking at their fixtures
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rewardman
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Post by rewardman on Feb 26, 2014 20:09:10 GMT 1
Scotland will be all but out by the time they meet Gibraltar looking at their fixtures Sadly, I fear you will be prescient on this. :-(
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Post by Panda on Feb 27, 2014 0:02:01 GMT 1
So which Portuguese ground are Gibraltar playing at? Was intrigued if it was the one near Faro airport that is hardly used after the Euros? Yes, it's that one.
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Post by Panda on Feb 27, 2014 0:07:39 GMT 1
I actually fancy Scotland to qualify. There's not much to choose between them, Poland and Ireland and out of those 3, I think Ireland are the weakest right now, though they should improve under Martin O'Neill. It'll be very close for 2nd and 3rd in that group.
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Feb 27, 2014 1:10:21 GMT 1
Isn't gordon strachan scotland manager?
Thats gotta be a hindrance
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Post by Panda on Feb 27, 2014 1:54:43 GMT 1
Yeah, you'd think. But they actually seem to be making progress under him.
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Post by Shireblogger on Feb 27, 2014 8:16:46 GMT 1
Isn't gordon strachan scotland manager? I think Strachan's a good choice for Scotland manager. I think he's very under-rated, and at Southampton he's considered to be one of the best managers we've ever had (and we've had plenty to compare him to). Also, international management is very different from club management, and I can imagine many Scottish players, worn down by the grind of a league season, really looking forward to spending a week with Strachan, training in a different way to what they're used to, and generally being highly motivated to play for their country. I can see Scotland finishing 3rd, and making it to the pre-tournament knock-out stage, where the luck of the draw will determine whether or not they qualify.
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Post by smokeyb on Feb 27, 2014 20:56:02 GMT 1
Strachan's record for Scotland is P10 W5 D1 L4 Win rate 50% includes beating Croatia home and away. I think they stand a much better chance of finishing second than they have for the last 10 years or so.
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Feb 27, 2014 22:34:09 GMT 1
his 1990s style of football must suit scottish football (although half their best players over the years haven't been scottish)
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rewardman
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Post by rewardman on Feb 27, 2014 23:49:14 GMT 1
Don't mention Bruce Rioch!
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ligerdog7
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hollyyyyyyyyyyyy..... ages get bak post laters
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Post by ligerdog7 on Mar 1, 2014 22:42:03 GMT 1
grovvyy I say we will whre be yooooooooooo nooo diggtyyyyy
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Post by o on Mar 2, 2014 10:09:07 GMT 1
Gibraltar 1 Faroe Islands 4! Oh dear!
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Paddy
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Post by Paddy on Mar 2, 2014 11:27:49 GMT 1
Disappointing but only a friendly
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Post by smokeyb on Mar 2, 2014 11:56:09 GMT 1
Gibraltar 1 Faroe Islands 4! Oh dear! Have the Faroe Islands ever scored 4 in a match before?
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Paddy
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Post by Paddy on Mar 2, 2014 12:06:30 GMT 1
No. They've scored three several times
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Post by Earl Purple on Mar 2, 2014 12:21:02 GMT 1
Does anyone know how the 24-team tournament will work, as I never felt the 24-team world cups worked that well.
The first time they did it there was a second-phase group of 3 with only the winner qualifying, but that meant whoever played the first two was at a disadvantage. England were also a bit unlucky in 1982 in the fact that by winning the group we got Spain and Germany, whilst France who came 2nd in our group got Northern Ireland and Austria in their group. Of course the real "group of death" that round was Brazil, Argentina and Italy all in the same group and nobody gave Italy much hope but they beat both the others to go through and then won the world cup.
The next 3 tournaments we were getting 3 teams through from 4 of the 6 groups which meant the emphasis was more on not losing and finishing bottom than actually winning, and I don't think that worked too well.
I'd prefer to see 4 groups of 6 so every team that qualifies plays at least 5 games, then 8 teams go through to the knockout phase although that would of course mean the winners end up playing 8 games. However I don't see that is such a big deal. They play 7 in the world cup now.
Better might have been 25 teams, 5 groups of 5, winners and 3 best runners up go through. That means in some groups only one goes through. Alternative is 5 winners and one best runner-up go through, other 4 play an extra knock-out phase to eliminate 2 of them.
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Post by suedehead on Mar 2, 2014 12:45:10 GMT 1
I agree that there is no satisfactory way to organise a 24-team tournament. Having four groups of six would mean a lot of dead games towards the end of the group phase so that is also flawed. Reducing 25 to eight would have the same issue. Besides, 24 teams is already nearly half of the total so increasing it further seems ridiculous.
Twenty teams would make more sense with four groups of five and the top two qualifying. The fixtures could be arranged so that the lowest seeded team in each group misses the last set of games in the expectation that they would have been eliminated by then.
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Post by Panda on Mar 2, 2014 12:50:52 GMT 1
It's going to be the same format used in the most recent 24-team World Cups - top 2 + best 4 3rd place teams through to the knockout stages.
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Post by suedehead on Mar 2, 2014 16:49:35 GMT 1
It's going to be the same format used in the most recent 24-team World Cups - top 2 + best 4 3rd place teams through to the knockout stages. As I recall, those World Cups provided some of the most boring group stages ever which doesn't bode well.
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Post by o on Mar 2, 2014 18:14:03 GMT 1
Anyone know the crowd for the Gibraltar game?
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