Euro 2012 qualifiers (1 Viewer)

[Richie]

The draw for the qualifying groups is tomorrow morning at 11am.. RTE2 are showing it if anybody's interested.

Pot 1: Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia
Pot 2: Greece, Czech, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, IRELAND, Scotland, N. Ireland, Austria, Bosnia
Pot 4: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, Macedonia, Cyprus
Pot 5: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Lichtenstein
Pot 6: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

6 groups of 6 and 3 groups of 5, with the 9 group winners and best second place side going through, and the remaining 8 second place teams going into seeded playoffs.

Group of Opportunity:
Croatia
Sweden\Slovakia (Czechs, Romania and Turkey also good options based on recent form)
Ireland
Wales
Lichtenstein
San Marino

Group of Death:
Spain
Serbia
Ireland
Slovenia
Montenegro
Faroe Islands (you just know they'd get a result against us)

Group of Revenge:
France
Switzerland
Ireland
Macedonia
Lichtenstein
San Marino

 

[Moods For Mallards]

I think you've called it about right there.
Croatia as the first seed would be great.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

I fear more heartache with all this, it's so difficult to qualify. Very frustrating being in the 3rd pot, I'd rate us as being the best in it.
I'd take either Holland, Portugal, Croatia, England or Russia from pot 1.
We seem to perform better against strong teams so I don't really mind too much what the draw is.

 

[trev]

we got paired with France in the rehearsal!!!

 

[Jerry Twig]

The draw for the qualifying groups is tomorrow morning at 11am.. RTE2 are showing it if anybody's interested.

Pot 1: Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia
Pot 2: Greece, Czech, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, IRELAND, Scotland, N. Ireland, Austria, Bosnia
Pot 4: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, Macedonia, Cyprus
Pot 5: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Lichtenstein
Pot 6: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

6 groups of 6 and 3 groups of 5, with the 9 group winners and best second place side going through, and the remaining 8 second place teams going into seeded playoffs.

Group of Opportunity:
Croatia
Sweden\Slovakia (Czechs, Romania and Turkey also good options based on recent form)
Ireland
Wales
Lichtenstein
San Marino

Group of Death:
Spain
Serbia
Ireland
Slovenia
Montenegro
Faroe Islands (you just know they'd get a result against us)

Group of Revenge:
France
Switzerland
Ireland
Macedonia
Lichtenstein
San Marino

Fair dues Richie - you got it all right there
Also at http://video.uefa.com/video/Competitions/EURO/Season=2012/liveDraw_videoFlash.html

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

this is underway on RTE 2

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

A bit of politics!
Russia cannot be in the same draw as Georgia!

 

[Richie]

We're in Group B - Macedonia, Andorra and Armenia so far!

 

[Richie]

Slovakia!

 

[Jerry Twig]

Peachy

 

[Jerry Twig]

Sweet - Russia!!

 

[Richie]

Russia!

 

[Richie]

That is a pretty good draw, all things condsidered! Lots of trips to distant eastern locations but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Northern Irelands group looks tough as fuck - Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, poor bastards!

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

Happy with that. Probably the easiest on paper compared to the other "Home Nations"

 

[CinnamonBoy]

Great draw. Only 2 sides in the top seeds who didn't qualify for the World Cup and we got one. Hopefully we go to Bratislava early and catch Slovakia on the hop after their World Cup exploits.
Armenia finished bottom of their group, losing 8 games. Macedonia came second from bottom, winning just 2 in a weak group with minnows such as Scotland. Andorra conceded 39 goals in 10 games.

 

[Jerry Twig]

I'm not so bothered about the lower teams - in fact having stronger can have its advantages in stealing points off your opponents. Having very weak ones means that Ireland HAS to beat all of them, something we are not historically that good at.
But what matters is the top two, and with those I'm delighted. Only Croatia, Greece looks a tad easier. But I think we've a lot to look forward to going into this.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

I'm not so bothered about the lower teams - in fact having stronger can have its advantages in stealing points off your opponents. Having very weak ones means that Ireland HAS to beat all of them, something we are not historically that good at.
But what matters is the top two, and with those I'm delighted. Only Croatia, Greece looks a tad easier. But I think we've a lot to look forward to going into this.

If we can't win those games we're not good enough to qualify and having weaker ones is better than having pretty decent teams like Montenegro or Lithuania. And while they're clearly not very good, there's always the possibilty Armenia might be fired up for a match against Russia and take some points off them. But basically if we can win those games, draw with Slovakia and Russia away and beat them at home we'll be ok. And that doesn't sound too hard.
Also, Andorra were in our group for the 2002 qualifying. Hopefully it's a good omen.

 

[Richie]

It's true that Macedonia and Armenia are the sorts of teams we traditionally struggle to dispatch but you'd have to hope that the extra toughness the team has built under Trap should see us through those games. I'm delighted with the first and second pot sides we got.. Russia are on paper among the least strong of the top-seeded teams and if we're really lucky Hiddink will jump ship (Turkey are trying to lure him away at the moment). Moscow will be a very tough trip as always but aside from that game I don't see any reason to be pessimistic about this group. Slovakia won their World Cup qualifying group but they had a lot of luck in that the Czechs and Poles basically collapsed. We beat them once and should have beaten them twice under Stan and with any luck they'll have a bit of a hangover from their exploits in South Africa.

 

[Jerry Twig]

I hear ye about the weaker teams - but all I'm saying is it doesn't matter that much who they are, as the top three have to play them all, what matters is who are the real competition.

 

[St. Fechin]

At the end of the day, I'm over the moon we got Slovakia - they'll be sick as a parrot after their World Cup exploits.