Do believe the draw is on Saturday 30 November. Little odd doing it before the playoffs which don't start until March. Group B has almost been sorted as Belgium are with Russia and Denmark. UEFA do like to mess with tradition, whatever happened to doing the draw when all teams had qualified.
Whatever happened to not over-complicate things? Hopefully some juicy encounters in the group stages. We're in pot 2 so whoever we get will be quite interesting.
Rome. Baku. Work. In that order. Honestly chuffed with that group, from what was available to us. Firstly, we've avoided two away games which is huge. We've then avoided the really strong sides in Pot 2 and 3, with a decent chance of progression. Also our Baku games are back to back, which saves us another 8000km of travelling between games. Perfect!
In a surreal situation where not only could we be playing Germany in motherfugging Dublin (of all places) in the KOs, but Northern Iron could beat Ireland in the play-offs and end up playing two of their group fixtures in the Irish capital. Carnage.
This whole qualifying thing is a bit of a joke now. I heard someone on Talksh*te saying they should just let everyone in, have a mini-tournament for the minnows in the first week and then on to knockouts. Sounds better than this.
Jesus Christ! France and Portugal. Thank **** for that First this overcomplicated qualification mode (still waiting for the 4th one in our group) and now this shit. Although we often played very well against Portugal in tournaments but this is a bit of a downer. The current Euro Champion plus the current World Champion plus the last World Champion in one group.
I don't see anything wrong with the size of the tournament, if it was played in one country all the permutations in this draw wouldn't exist. Your benefitting from this over complicated format though, with three games at home. You've got a difficult group, but there's been groups of death before. Euro 2008: Italy (then world Champion), France (world cup runners up), Netherlands
It's all a bit of a joke really. I think it would have been better off being a completely random draw, If you are lucky enough to get drawn in a group where you would play at home then good luck to you.
We'll see if this will benefit us. France or Portugal at home isn't any easier than France or Portugal away for us atm. So what? Should I now be happier with this draw because there were groups of death before?
I'm just not exactly sure what your complaining about. You've criticized the complicated format, but it has nothing to do with that, its purely down to luck. You can be unhappy with it, but not because of a format that's benefitted you. Your in a better boat than Portugal or France because of the format.
I complained about the format because it's too complicated. Yes, we have now 3 home games, fine. But I meant it generally it's a shite format, when you have a draw and the final contestant in our group will only be known in a few months. I don't like this format of a Euro not in one country either. And, as I said, we will see if this format with now 3 home games will benefit us in the end. We haven't the best record at home against France. Anyway. let us end this. Enjoy your draw. I see Wales is in a group with Italy, Switzerland and Turkey. And let me moan a bit about France and Portugal . Peace!
Also, we get the best of the playoff teams in the group. I'm Portuguese, BTW...so I'm used to it. Seems we wind up in one of the toughest, if not the toughest group more often than not in the International Finals tournaments we're in: 2000 Euro - Germany, England, Romania 2004 Euro - Spain, Russia, Greece (and we were the hosts ) 2010 World Cup - Brazil, Ivory Coast, North Korea 2012 Euro - Germany, Holland, Denmark 2014 World Cup - Germany, Ghana, USA Oh well..."nothing worth having is ever easy," I always say.
Welcome to the forum! Always good to have a fellow Portuguese fan around As I mentioned in the Euro qualifiers thread, I know it’s our fault for finishing second.. but having the previous European champions and nations league winners in pot 3 seems crazy to me
