Posted July 31, 201113 yr Draw was made yesterday, here's the home nations: Group A 1 Croatia 2 Serbia 3 Belgium 4 Scotland 5 FYR Macedonia 6 Wales Group C 1 Germany 2 Sweden 3 Republic of Ireland 4 Austria 5 Faroe Islands 6 Kazakhstan Group F 1 Portugal 2 Russia 3 Israel 4 Northern Ireland 5 Azerbaijan 6 Luxembourg Group H 1 England 2 Montenegro 3 Ukraine 4 Poland 5 Moldova 6 San Marino Also interesting is France were drawn with Spain. You would like to think England would qualify from that.
July 31, 201113 yr I was pleased when we got H over I. The rest of France's group is weaker but we should win this group. Ukraine and Poland are not what they were 6-12 years ago, Montenegro whilst a good side and certainly make our Euro 2012 group the Group of Death, are a good pick as a 2nd seed, San Marino and Moldova shouldn't cause any troubles. The group could definitely have been easier, but it could also have been much worse. Group A is ridiculously wide open! Wales and Macedonia are probably the strongest teams from each of the bottom two pots, Belgium are improving, Scotland generally have a decent home record and the top 2 aren't the strongest they could've been.
July 31, 201113 yr England should qualify with ease. But they need a good coach and NOT Stuart Pearce. The players coming through at the moment are very technically gifted. A manager needs to be brought in who can mantain the style of the players and make England a top team again. RoI will fancy their chances of finishing second. NI will struggle, but it's possible. If Scotland wantto qualify for a major tournament again then this is going to be their best chance for a while.
July 31, 201113 yr England should always qualify but they need a big replacement for Capello. Get it wrong and it all goes Steve McClaren. Still bemused as to how England were 4th in the world until recently :lol:
July 31, 201113 yr Because there were only three teams better than us. It was slightly skewed because the old Copa America points got taken off before this years were added on so all of the South American countries took 1 month plummets. I think 6th is spot on to be honest, purely because over the last four years I can't pick anyone else who you can say has been better than us. You look at the top European teams... Portugal? No. France? No. Italy? Not a chance. Russia? No. Croatia? No. Even NORWAY and GREECE were top Euro seeds. Argentina? :lol: They're utterly terrible. Paraguay got to the final of the Copa America by drawing every game. The USA never play anyone decent, other than Mexico, neither of who have done anything over the last four years to be ranked above us. There's only one team I could feasibly argue should be ahead of England and that's Ghana who went further in the World Cup and got to the final of the African Nations, but the only African team in the top 25 is Ivory Coast in 16th.
July 31, 201113 yr France are improving though. England still have a lot of issues mind. We need a manager who has a footballing philosophy as for once we've actually got players coming through who are technically gifted. I don't thin England have ever had two midfielders like McEachran and Wilshere. England become a great force again, and perhaps even WIN the World Cup in 2014 or 2018, but we need a good coach. Pearce is obviously being groomed, but anyone who watched the Euro 21 Championships could see he is just going to make the same mistakes as all the recent managers have done.
July 31, 201113 yr France are improving and is why I was so glad to avoid them, they may be better now but the rankings are based over the previous four years, and for three of those they were worse than England with a coach who at times made Capello's reign with England look rather spectacular.
July 31, 201113 yr It's an interesting group. Ukraine will have faded from their quarter-final appearance in 2006, but they still shouldn't be a pushover. Montenegro have been the biggest surprise of football recently for me, they'll be good opponents. Poland won't be a walkover either. We should have 12 points guaranteed from Moldova and San Marino though. So we should qualify fine, no worries for that stage of the competition. Only Montenegro could feasibly sneak in ahead of us, and in that case, we'll be off to the playoffs. :drama: As far as I'm worried about international football though, I'll be hoping we can do good at Euro 2012 first, obviously. This is quite far in the future. That could work in our advantage though, all the young players I've noticed are of high quality.
July 31, 201113 yr I do wonder how good Yugoslavia would be if it still existed as a footballing nation - the combined talent pools of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia would be pretty good.
July 31, 201113 yr I do wonder how good Yugoslavia would be if it still existed as a footballing nation - the combined talent pools of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia would be pretty good. Someone ought to make a dream team using only footballers from those nations. I'd do it myself, but I couldn't name one to save my life. But seriously, I expected Montenegro to be a walkover. Seems their split of the good ones from S&M's split is fairly equal. Same with the USSR really. Most of its descendant teams are fairly crap, but a dream team made of the best of Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Uzbekistan (the only teams I could think of who aren't appallingly shit) would, despite containing mostly Russian players, would be interesting. Yugoslavia's better though, because it seems the talent has been fairly evenly spread.
July 31, 201113 yr I do wonder how good Yugoslavia would be if it still existed as a footballing nation - the combined talent pools of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia would be pretty good. I don't think it would be that good a team currently. 2006-2007 it would be very good, but not so much now.
August 1, 201113 yr Someone ought to make a dream team using only footballers from those nations. I'd do it myself, but I couldn't name one to save my life. But seriously, I expected Montenegro to be a walkover. Seems their split of the good ones from S&M's split is fairly equal. Same with the USSR really. Most of its descendant teams are fairly crap, but a dream team made of the best of Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Uzbekistan (the only teams I could think of who aren't appallingly shit) would, despite containing mostly Russian players, would be interesting. Yugoslavia's better though, because it seems the talent has been fairly evenly spread. Mainly because most of the countries are of a similar size, compared to in the USSR :lol:
August 1, 201113 yr England should top the group, but knowing us.. There'll be a few surprises along the way Looking forward to seeing the new generation make their mark though as we have some talented youngsters coming through
August 1, 201113 yr Montenegro have come a long way in a very short space of time. In the 2006 World Cup the Serbia & Montenegro squad contained just one Montenegran who IIRC was the third choice keeper.
August 2, 201113 yr LOL at Group G Greece Slovakia Bosnia-Herzegovina Lithuania Latvia Liechtenstein Greece is not what it used to be, Slovakia did well in 2010, Bosnia and Lithuania are improving and Latvia cannot be written off.
December 15, 201113 yr Hopefully England will win the upcoming world cup I can't see that happening anytime soon
August 30, 201212 yr England squad selected for Moldova and Ukraine matches Goalkeepers: Jack Butland [birmingham City], Joe Hart [Manchester City], John Ruddy [Norwich City] Defenders: Leighton Baines [Everton], Ryan Bertrand [Chelsea], Ashley Cole [Chelsea], Gary Cahill [Chelsea], Phil Jagielka [Everton], Glen Johnson [Liverpool], Joleon Lescott [Manchester City], John Terry [Chelsea], Kyle Walker [Tottenham Hotspur] Midfielders: Michael Carrick [Manchester United], Tom Cleverley [Manchester United], Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain [Arsenal], Steven Gerrard [Liverpool], Adam Johnson [sunderland], Frank Lampard [Chelsea], James Milner [Manchester City], Theo Walcott [Arsenal] Forwards: Andy Carroll [Liverpool], Jermain Defoe [Tottenham Hotspur], Daniel Sturridge [Chelsea], Danny Welbeck [Manchester United]
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