Euro 2016 Qualifiers - The Road to France

[Deutsch Wolf]

What a header by Lewandowski. Not very good defending but he's 15 yards out and it's gone in like an absolute rocket.

 

[jd1981]

Long off injured to a tackle that was nowhere near as bad as O'neil probably thought it was.

 

[Freddeno]

Exciting game this, ireland just need one goal..

 

[Freddeno]

Peszko on!!!

 

[Freddeno]

Poland through, o'shea and walters misses first play-off match i think?

 

[jd1981]

Yep, Ireland showed a lot of huff and puff but hardly created anything other than the header from Keogh. Could potentially have to meet Croatia, Denmark, Ukraine or Sweden.

 

[Freddeno]

Looks like play-off for us then when russia leads 2-0 at home to montenegro...i wonder who we will meet, i hope we get seeded

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Looks like Hungary are going through as best third placed team - they contrived to lose to Greece yesterday, but as Greece finished bottom of the group that result doesn't count when calculating this table. Only Ukraine can prevent them from going through automatically and they need to beat Spain at home tonight.

If Ukraine don't win, based on the last set of national coefficients, the seeded teams for the playoffs as it stands would be Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia and Sweden. Denmark, Ireland, Slovenia and Turkey would be unseeded. It's going to be tight though as Croatia, Sweden and Denmark were 12th, 13th and 14th on that list in 2013. Also Holland will definitely get seeded if they beat the Czech Republic tomorrow and Turkey lose to Iceland.

 

[Freddeno]

Cheers dan, not easy to figure this out!

 

[Freddeno]

I would prefer slovenia or ireland of that lot

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

England team tonight:

1 Butland 2 Walker 3 Gibbs 4 Shelvey 5 Jones 6 Jagielka (c) 7 Chamberlain 8 Barkley 9 Vardy 10 Kane 11 Lallana

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Cheers dan, not easy to figure this out!

Since when have UEFA made life simple!

Worth noting Croatia would have gone through as best third team on goal difference ahead of Hungary if they hadn't been docked a point for having that swastika shaved into the pitch vs Italy. Assuming of course Ukraine don't win tonight, I don't think they will. I also don't think Turkey will lose tomorrow so Holland will be out.

 

[Lycan]

Interesting team. Definitely a 4-4-2?

Might watch this one. Is it on terrestrial?

 

[Freddeno]

I will watch it too..nice to see walcott rested for PTG reasons

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Interesting team. Definitely a 4-4-2?

Might watch this one. Is it on terrestrial?

ITV mate.

I'm guessing it's 4-4-2 with Lallana nominally on the left.

 

[Freddeno]

Is there a chance we can meet norway?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Hadn't realised there was a game to go in that group. Threw me because Croatia are showing as 0 games left to play in the third place race - that's because they have Malta tomorrow who are guaranteed to finish bottom (so the game doesn't count for that purpose).

If Norway lose in Rome tomorrow night and Croatia win in Malta then it'll knock Norway down into 3rd (and they can't qualify automatically if that happens, they don't have enough points). So that would leave a possible Sweden vs Norway match up if Sweden are seeded - Norway definitely won't be.

Edit: Actually Norway need to WIN if Croatia win - a draw isn't enough. If they and Croatia both finish on 20 points then the latter will go through on head to head as their 5-1 win in Zagreb trumps the 2-0 in Oslo.

 

[Freddeno]

Cool, fucking hell this is like the worst mathematical equation ffs

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

We have to assume Norway aren't going to win in Rome, that would be a very strange result. That helps Sweden out a lot, it means they have a much better chance of being seeded - even if Holland pull off a final day heist.

 

[Freddeno]

Yeah, i hope so