Ирландия против России (1 Viewer)

[Cormcolash]

This group is still not confusing enough yet. Slovakia beat Russia, we win the last two games... we are in the finals as far as I can see. Didn't really need Armenia to sneak up out of nowhere though.

It's the dream scenario, come on Slovakia! Looks like the Armenian goalkeeper had the game of his life today. Unlike the Slovakian defence.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

I think we can beat Czechoslovakia.

 

[Richie]

:heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart:

:heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart:

If you see an Armenian, buy him a pint (until they beat us in October).. How do they have such a hex over Slovakia?
I hope Trap is sending a hamper of the finest Italian wines and cheeses to Yerevan because they've pretty much saved his job for the time being.

We just need to win the last 2 games, not that I'd be especially confident of us dispatching the lads above, and for
Russia not to beat Slovakia and we could top the group, having taken just 3 points against the top 2 seeds.. crazy stuff altogether.

 

[ratmonkey]

Russia would have to lose to Slovakia for us to top the group seeing as they'd have a better record against us (or drop points to Andorra as well, but that's not going to happen).

 

[Richie]

Yeah you're right, for some reason I confused our Slovakia and Russia head-to-head records. Come on the Slovaks in October so.. They have to win that game to stay in contention so they'll have a proper go at it at least.

 

[actwithoutwords]

There'll be dancing in the streets of System of a Down tonight.

The Slovak Russia game is a bit of a pickle though. Slovakia win, and the path is open for us to top the group, but should we fail to beat Armenia, which is eminently eminently plausible, then we'd be totally fucked. If Slovakia draw or lose to Russia, then (as long as we beat Andorra), we're grand for second place with a draw in the last game. Not sure which I'd prefer. Limping into the playoffs followed by dour but brave defeat is definitely more our style.

 

[shitepipe]

If by humdinger you mean "Complete shit-fest full of atrocious football as both teams strive to ensure they don't concede a goal," then no doubt you are right!

is there any other meaning?

 

[evil bandit]

It's perfectly poised for Slovakia to beat Russia then for us to be winning 1-0 against Armenia only for McShane to score an own goal with the last kick of the game which will then send us into a play off ............. against Portugal.

Has no former-Irish-international-cum-pundit made an ill-advised "genocide" comment yet? I am disappointed.

Sadly it wasn't being covered by Cascarino ?!?!?

 

[Hector Grey]

well, the russia game went just about as you'd expect, but armenia? wow.

praying for sloavkia to beat them russinas. they need to. i don't fancy any of the current second place teams at all. except mybe monetnegro, bt even then....can't take another play off...

not to mention how our co-efficient would benefit were we to "win" the group.

come on lads, it's about time we got some jam.

 

[washingcattle]

What a few days. Jesus Christ I was sweating bullets during that, I couldn't even have a pint cos it was 4 o clock and I was streaming it at work for fuck sake. Same as it was before this round really. We were unlucky not to win against Slovakia considering the two big chances that we had and we were steeped in Luck and Richard Dunnes sweat to get a point in Russia. Dunne is suspended - bad luck but it's for the next match in Andorra - Good luck. Armenia did us a favour, yes, but we have to look at that as an abberation Slovakia aren't that bad and Armenia aren't that good. Just one of those freakish results really. I'd like to see us really go for it against Armenia, We'll probably have all our fair weather bastard fans back so a full house at home in the pissing rain and bitter cold against a side that we've already beaten. On the basis of how we played recently we should be out of it completely and we can still top the group. There are positives.


C'Mon the lads.

 

[ratmonkey]

not to mention how our co-efficient would benefit were we to "win" the group.

I don't think actually winning the group makes any difference, it's just results in individual games. Actually qualifying for a tournament and not doing completely shite in it would probably help though.

 

[xrockridgex]

I don't think actually winning the group makes any difference, it's just results in individual games. Actually qualifying for a tournament and not doing completely shite in it would probably help though.

Our coefficent was almost good enough to put us into the second pot for the World Cup draw, which is the only damn thing it is good for, but I would suspect any progress at Euro 2012 would be wiped out by the two spankings we would likely get from the Germans in WC 2014 qualifying as well as the inevitable draws home and away to Sweden and Austria.

 

[Unicron]

There is also the small potential to finish as best placed runners up too ...


Grp
Teamv · d · e
Pld W D L GF GA GD AG Pts Notes Current sixth-placed team Rating
H Denmark 6 4 1 1 9 4 +5 4 13 1,3 — 12
D Bosnia and Herzegovina 7 4 1 2 8 7 +1 3 13 1,3 Luxembourg 20
E Sweden 6 4 0 2 15 8 +7 6 12 1,3 San Marino 10
B Republic of Ireland 7 3 3 1 8 5 +3 4 12 1,3 Andorra 19
F Greece 6 3 3 0 6 3 +3 2 12 1 Malta 9
G Montenegro 6 3 2 1 5 3 +2 2 11 1,3 — 30
I Czech Republic 6 3 1 2 8 5 +3 5 10 3 — 14
A Turkey 6 2 2 2 6 7 –1 1 8 3,6 Kazakhstan 17
C Serbia 6 2 2 2 6 9 –3 2 8 3 Faroe Islands 13

Key to notes

1 - Team may potentially finish first in its group
3 - Team may potentially finish third or worse in its group
6 - Sixth-placed team in group may change (so ranking of second-placed team may improve or worsen even if it does not play)

 

[Richie]

I had a look at that the other day, and if I'm correct it looks like we need quite a few results to go our way to be in the mix for the best 2nd placed team, like Denmark not picking up more than 2 points in their final 2 games (which includes Cyprus) and Sweden failing to beat Finland, etc.. It doesn't seem very likely in other words. Our best chance is definitely for Slovakia to beat Russia and then we need to win the final 2 games to win the group. Failing that, if Slovakia don't win then we should hope for Armenia to lose to Macedonia so there's no threat to us getting a playoff spot in the final round of games.

 

[snakybus]

My prediction is that Russia will beat Slovakia, we'll realise that all we have to do is beat Andorra and draw with Armenia to get a second-place playoff, and then we'll go ahead and do just that.

 

[ann post]

this is the most optimistic thread in ages. fair play.

 

[ratmonkey]

Does expecting to get knocked out in the playoffs count as optimism?

 

[coast to coast]

How are they going to seed the 2nd places? As in will it be the 2nd places ranked 2nd-5th versus 2nd places ranked 6th-10th from that table Unicron just posted, or will UEFA just grab all the 2nd place teams, see who they want to qualify and assign them what they consider an easy draw, like last time?

By the way, snakybus' scenario sounds very plausible.

 

[ratmonkey]

It'll be going according to the rankings, like last time. Except they actually decided to mention that beforehand this time.

(actually, what's a complete load of shite is including friendlies in these rankings. Kind of defeats the purpose of having friendlies if they're going to end up affecting your seedings.)

 

[actwithoutwords]

Yeah, it will be based on coefficients again, and we would again be on the wrong side of the draw (should we get that far). Slovakia and Macedonia winning the next round of games would be a dream scenario. But more likely the aforementioned scenario of us needing a win and a draw for second.
The seeding of teams in the play-offs really is total bullshit. There's no sporting justification for it. Teams have already had the benefit of seeding at the beginning of the competition. Play-offs should either be a free draw or based on the teams' actual record in the group stage. You don't have Real or Barca seeded in the second round of the Champions League if they come second in their group, just because they were ranked higher before the tournament started.