October 7, 20177 yr The Netherlands are effectively out for second consecutive tournament but that was a proper group of death they were in, you'd expect France, Sweden & them to easily be through if they were all in separate groups. Not a given the way they've been playing. And they finished 4th in their Euro 2016 qualifying group. Nigeria qualified tonight and expect to see the likes of Poland, Costa Rica and Egypt join them in the next few days.
October 7, 20177 yr Switzerland have won all nine of their matches but go into their final match against Portugal knowing that they will only finish second if they lose :o
October 8, 20177 yr Author strange question, but how come England ALWAYS get a piss-easy group yet the likes of Portugal and Holland always have hard groups?
October 8, 20177 yr Happy to see Nigeria qualify for the World Cup, getting to the last 16 would be a good achievement for them and all of the African teams. Can't believe Holland are going to miss out on the World Cup. It will be a shame to see players like Robben and Blind not taking part but the squad as a whole is a shadow of it's former self. Their 2010 team would have qualified easily from their group!
October 8, 20177 yr strange question, but how come England ALWAYS get a piss-easy group yet the likes of Portugal and Holland always have hard groups? Based on world rankings at the time. England are currently ranked 15th in the world, so I suspect they won't get the easiest of draws the next time around
October 8, 20177 yr Based on world rankings at the time. England are currently ranked 15th in the world, so I suspect they won't get the easiest of draws the next time around Regardless of our ranking, we should be able to qualify for Euro 2020 even if we have a top team in the group. UEFA are meant to be massively shaking the qualifying up though, so chances are we might be the best team in the group as other teams will have already have qualified. We need to have a good World Cup and Euro 2020 though (providing we qualify) to have a good shot at qualifying for 2022.
October 9, 20177 yr Massive day for Argentina tomorrow, if they lose their final group match then they will miss out on the World Cup for the first time since 1970. The thought of a World Cup without Argentina and Lionel Messi is mind blowing!
October 9, 20177 yr Iceland have qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Here's hoping for a re-match against England! :P
October 9, 20177 yr First Scotland & now Wales are out. Both Irelands in the play-offs, hopefully at least one of them can qualify.
October 10, 20177 yr Syria miss out in extra time to Australia in their two-legged playoff. France and Portugal through as expected. Switzerland have to go the playoffs after winning their first 9 games losing in the final game. Holland officially out.
October 10, 20177 yr Gutted for Syria, it would have been nice for them to qualify. I guess Australia are practically guaranteed their place now unless if USA finish 4th in the North America/Caribbean and play them in another play off. The Argentina match could be epic potentially!
October 10, 20177 yr Would have been funny if Portugal lost out on a place in the World Cup after their fluke win in the Euros. And Netherlands out of the World Cup after beating Brazil in the World Cup semi's three years ago they are not the team they used to be.
October 11, 20177 yr After being on the brink of missing out on the World Cup Argentina have qualified thanks to a hat trick from Messi against Ecuador in a 3-1 win. The 3rd goal from him in particular was really good and they have finished in 3rd place. Uruguay and Colombia also qualify automatically and Peru will face New Zealand in a play off match to decide which of those two teams qualifies. Chile drop to sixth place and are out which means that Alexis Sanchez and Auturo Vidal amongst others wont be going to Russia next year. Panama could possibly pip United States to the last automatic North America/Carribean place as things stand during the matches that are taking place right now. Edited October 11, 20177 yr by Houdini
October 11, 20177 yr As it stands Honduras will take the last automatic North American/Caribbean place.
October 11, 20177 yr Incredible, Panama have qualified for the first ever World Cup. Honduras will play Australia in the playoff and USA are out.
October 11, 20177 yr What a night of qualifying, the perfect antidote to following England! I knew the Dutch were gone, and Chile going out wasn't a surprise but never thought the USA would be eliminated! Especially before a play-off! To finish 5th in that group is pretty shocking. I've done some calculations and have projected these pots for the finals draw. There's a change this year - instead of the ranking just deciding the seeds and the rest of the pots geographical this year all the pots will be decided by world ranking. So as it stands... Pot 1: Russia, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, France Pot 2: Spain, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay Pot 3: Egypt, Iran Pot 4: Panama, South Korea, Saudi Arabia (the winner of the Ivory Coast/Morocco group also guaranteed to be Pot 4). (still to be decided: Iceland, Costa Rica, Serbia, Nigeria, Japan). Although from an English perspective, there isn't an easy group anymore. :lol:
October 11, 20177 yr What a night of qualifying, the perfect antidote to following England! I knew the Dutch were gone Holland aren't very good any more like they used to be for some reason! Gutted for Syria, it would have been nice for them to qualify.Indeed, I was hoping they would qualify. Both Irelands in the play-offs, hopefully at least one of them can qualify. Yes hopefully!
October 11, 20177 yr Fantastic to see another new or unusual country such as Panama qualifying for the World Cup, I suspect they will become everyone's 2nd favourite team similar to Trinidad & Tobago in the 2006 World Cup. I'm surprised at United States not qualifying and it will feel weird not seeing them take part.
October 11, 20177 yr Embarrassing for the United States. It does however prove at the same time how difficult CONCACAF qualifying is despite people thinking it's a cakewalk. The "Hex" is extremely difficult and unpredictable. Just look at the U.S. being eliminated this time around and Mexico being on the brink of elimination last time. American coach Bruce Arena put it best when he said "I'd love to see some of those hot-shot European teams try to qualify having to play at some of the venues we deal with." He's probably right considering the big European squads play the Liechtensteins and Moldovas of the world. UEFA needs to amend their qualifying and have at least two round, so that some of the lower teams get eliminated early on which prevents pointless 8-0 blowouts from occurring and allows the developing nations to play other nations on their level and be competitive. Edited October 11, 20177 yr by DJHazey
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