Another amazing win tonight and shows what a great manager they have. People said he had taken them as far as he could a d shouldve walked after the euros. Well theyve conceded just 2 goals all qualifiers - both away to reigning world champions Germany.

7 clean sheets. What an effort.

Such a shame theyve changed the system now as looks like they will have to face the play offs but some effort.

Its feasible they could face the republic in a play off. Imagine that.

At 2 to 1 a great price on my acca too

Amazing effort, watched them tonight instead of England, played really well and brilliantly organised when the Czechs pushed on in the 2nd half.

Unfortunately if N.Ireland and Ireland get to the play offs it is unlikely they'll face each other as they'll, at the moment, be likely to be in the unseeded pot for the play off draw.

Shay McCarton on the bench I notice for NI.

The playoffs today would see Portugal through as best runner up.
The seeds would be(and FIFA rankings): Poland(5), Italy(12), Sweden(19) and Slovakia(22)
The remainder are: Norn Iron(23),Ukraine(27), Rep of Ire(29) and Bos & Herz(30)
Scotland and Wales are not dead in the water yet so it could all change.

Tbh would fancy northern ireland to give even italy a game.

piston broke wrote:The playoffs today would see Portugal through as best runner up.
The seeds would be(and FIFA rankings): Poland(5), Italy(12), Sweden(19) and Slovakia(22)
The remainder are: Norn Iron(23),Ukraine(27), Rep of Ire(29) and Bos & Herz(30)
Scotland and Wales are not dead in the water yet so it could all change.

Just a slight change as Portugal would go into the play offs, out of the 9 2nd placed teams the worst team, from group points, would be out and then the best 8 would go into the play offs.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Such a shame theyve changed the system now as looks like they will have to face the play offs but some effort.

1994 qualifers was the last time where the 2nd placed teams qualified without need for play-offs.

Since then only 1998 and 2006 qualifers are the only times when the best 2nd placed team/s have qualified without needing the play-offs.

Dazzler wrote:1994 qualifers was the last time where the 2nd placed teams qualified without need for play-offs.

Since then only 1998 and 2006 qualifers are the only times when the best 2nd placed team/s have qualified without needing the play-offs.

Must be thinking of the euros. Or being nostalgic.

Apologies for my earlier mistake so if the worst runner up goes that is currently the Republic on 13pts with Boz&H and Ukraine on 14.
Next round will see some crucial matches.

I always like to watch the south American qualifiers. It is just a straight league system with the top 4 going through automatically and 5th going into a play off with the oceana fed I think. It is much more passionate and much more unpredictable. The team I've always followed in that region is chile. Such a fantastic side to watch but they were the victims of the ultimate smash and grab against Paraguay on Thursday night blowing the standings wide open! Brazil are through in 1st, then it's anybody's and with 3 games left you have Argentina in 5th! Next round of games tomorrow.

Don't forget, points taken against the team finishing bottom of the group are removed. So at the moment I believe Bosnia are going out with only 8 points.

piston broke wrote:Apologies for my earlier mistake so if the worst runner up goes that is currently the Republic on 13pts with Boz&H and Ukraine on 14.
Next round will see some crucial matches.

Bosnia are currently worst runners up because UEFA decided that games against the team in last place in each group wouldn't count towards the ranking of 2nd place teams. Think it was because at the time of the draw there was 2 groups with 5 teams but then that changed with the admission of Gibraltar and Kosovo.

Beat me to it Claretburns

HendricksHair wrote:Bosnia are currently worst runners up because UEFA decided that games against the team in last place in each group wouldn't count towards the ranking of 2nd place teams. Think it was because at the time of the draw there was 2 groups with 5 teams but then that changed with the admission of Gibraltar and Kosovo.

I knew in previous years the reason for taking off the points was because some groups had 6 and some with 5 but looking at it this year with all the groups teams of 6 I couldn't work out why the points were being remove so thanks for the explanation.

does it not beg the question why the hell they are there those bottom placed teams?

diamondpocket wrote:does it not beg the question why the hell they are there those bottom placed teams?

I agree. IMO teams such as San Marino, Gibraltar, Kosovo etc. should be placed in one bigger group to fight for a spot or two at a world cup or the Euro's. Or you could have two groups consisting of the weaker teams involved at this stage of qualifying. e.g. The teams that finished bottom and 2nd bottom in each group in the previous qualifying stages.