Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

UEFA Nations League

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
    Haha, yes, there's only one other stadium in England which could have seated the 81000 who went that game. A stadium which is, in fact, owned by England's national association of another sport, no less.
    And they'd moan about the state of the pitch.

    Comment


      Originally posted by Eggchaser View Post
      And they'd moan about the state of the pitch.
      Would that be before or after the RFU denied the FA from hosting a game at rugby stadium then promptly asking to play rugby at several football stadiums so they can fill their own coffers a bit more..?

      Comment


        Must be bitter sweet for Spain to beat the two teams who contested the World Cup semi they should have been in. OTOH it doesn't refute the argument that they are back to their pre-2008 trend of flattering to deceive, with defensive frailty still apparent.

        Is there a suspicion that Croatia are getting relegated to secure an easier future path?

        Comment


          I think losing their manager 2 days before the tournament was the bigger factor

          Comment


            Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
            Must be bitter sweet for Spain to beat the two teams who contested the World Cup semi they should have been in. OTOH it doesn't refute the argument that they are back to their pre-2008 trend of flattering to deceive, with defensive frailty still apparent.

            Is there a suspicion that Croatia are getting relegated to secure an easier future path?
            If they get relegated, they could get Spain again in the Xmas draw (as they would likely then be a second seed). That more difficult path outweighs the easier path to future play-offs.

            Comment


              Satchmo, you seem to be a bit obsessed with this competition's alleged "back door" to Euro qualification when it will only fill four of the 24 slots and is unlikely to involve any of the "big" nations.

              Why would Croatia purposely tank their coefficient when they are currently assured of being in Pot 1 for the actual qualifiers?

              Comment


                Originally posted by ingoldale View Post
                Would that be before or after the RFU denied the FA from hosting a game at rugby stadium then promptly asking to play rugby at several football stadiums so they can fill their own coffers a bit more..?
                Our Spivs are cannier than your Spivs.

                Comment


                  My daughter is doing A level maths this year. I've been trying (and failing) to help her with some of her homework. I'm dreading that she asks "explain the Nations League format to me"."Mmmm, later honey, let's go back to these horrific quadratic equations.

                  Comment


                    Two things here :

                    A) you’re changing your claims each time you are called upon them. Firstly that Tueday’s low level firendly “shows there’s no need for Wembley” when it did nothing of the sort and secondly that “there are plenty of other stadiums with a similar capacity” to Wembley which is just flat out wrong.

                    B) there is certainly an argument as to if the initial rebuilding of Wembley was necessary (especially given the debt incurred and location of it) and if the ownership should he retained by the EFA which I tend to agree with you on. You’re just making some bald, plainly incorrect statements as your starting points before showing your workings which are really about different points.

                    I’m no slavish fan of Wembley, it’s a largely bland unsatisfactory stadium in of itself. It’s not an issue that the stadium is a symbol of “national pride” as I’m not English, couldn’t care less about their national side and come from a country with a far superior, better located and more atmospheric national stadium even if our football side only use it rarely at the moment.

                    I’m also a regular attendee at grassroots football and would love the EFA to put the money they have locked up in Wembley to good use there, I just don’t really believe it will happen.
                    Last edited by Ray de Galles; 12-09-2018, 22:49.

                    Comment


                      Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                      Satchmo, you seem to be a bit obsessed with this competition's alleged "back door" to Euro qualification when it will only fill four of the 24 slots and is unlikely to involve any of the "big" nations.

                      Why would Croatia purposely tank their coefficient when they are currently assured of being in Pot 1 for the actual qualifiers?
                      Fair points. I will shelve this obsession.

                      Comment


                        Tiebreaker will be head to heads before goal difference so that should make last games either interesting (like the second leg of a cup tie) or dead rubbers (4 team group, can't win it or go down on head to head)

                        France v Germany is an odd one in that the Dutch seem to be no-hopers and it's unusual in this format to have a relegation certainty in a top tier group (this is also happening with Iceland it appears).

                        It's certainly a positive point that a fixture between teams in the two lower tiers has more meaning here than when they are fighting for a purely honorary 4th place in the group. In theory you start with a 1/13 chance of a place in the Euros but it could be better than that if you're a big fish in your tier.
                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 13-09-2018, 12:36.

                        Comment


                          Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                          I think it'll be good for a laugh when England lose to Luxembourg at Euro 2020 and everyone on Talksport has an utter meltdown
                          By my reckoning Luxembourg are current Group D leaders.

                          Do the Group D winners of this one go to Euro 2020?

                          Comment


                            Yes, the four group winners in League D play-off, with one guaranteed qualifier.

                            Comment


                              No. The four League D group winners get promoted to League C.

                              The playoff bit for qualification comes after the proper Euro 2020 qualifying competition.

                              Comment


                                Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
                                No. The four League D group winners get promoted to League C.

                                The playoff bit for qualification comes after the proper Euro 2020 qualifying competition.
                                True, but highly unlikely that a D team would qualify through the regular process, at which point it would revert to the semi-finals for the D group winners.

                                Comment


                                  I like how we're on page 14 and still trying to work this competition out.

                                  Comment


                                    I’m guessing it’s possible for Scotland to win every game and still not qualify

                                    Comment


                                      I'm with Ray against bix, if only on a point of pedantry: there are definitely not 'plenty' of stadiums in England with a similar capacity to Wembley. There's Twickenham (which as Eggchaser says isn't an option for the FA), which is 8,000 smaller, then there's Old Trafford, which is 14,269 smaller than Wembley, and then there's a drop of almost another 10,000 to the Olympic Stadium (I know West Ham don't call it that), whose capacity according to Wikipedia is 66,000. Which is near enough three-quarters the size of Wembley. I don't think we can say that's a similar capacity. So if we're being rather generous to Old Trafford, there's one other association football stadium in England with an approximately similar capacity to Wembley. That isn't 'plenty'.

                                      It might very well be 'enough for the desired purpose', obviously.

                                      Comment


                                        The London Stadium drops to 57,000 capacity if the crowd needs to be segregated.

                                        Comment


                                          It's been dropping a lot lower than that around the hour mark this season.

                                          Comment


                                            The current edition of World Soccer has a useful flowchart graphically visualising all the permutations.

                                            Comment


                                              Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post
                                              The current edition of World Soccer has a useful flowchart graphically visualising all the permutations.
                                              Thanks for the heads-up on this - have now bought the September edition and am now (slightly) less confused about the whole process.

                                              Comment


                                                I caught up with Spain v Croatia and Sweden v Turkey last night. Croatia were slightly on top until Spain scored. Saśl is a huge plus for Spain. There seemed to be more quick movement and interchanging in this Spain side than I've seen for a while, but Croatia left the flanks exposed, in which they ran amok. Turkey was all about the impact of Emre Akbaba on the game, and Sweden sitting back too much expecting Turkey to just pass it around aimlessly.

                                                Kosovo getting to the finals might justify the change of format.
                                                Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 16-09-2018, 14:50.

                                                Comment


                                                  A good guide to Euro 2020 seeding ramifications. The top League D side does have the advantage of going into Pot 4, whilst the bottom 2 League A sides are in Pot 2 and the bottom 4 League B teams get Pot 3, which is a huge loss for them:

                                                  https://www.footballseeding.com/inte...nts/euro-2020/

                                                  This does mean that "deliberately playing badly" is not the serious risk I assumed it was. The penalty of dropping into Pot C far outweighs the benefit of an easier Nations League draw next time.
                                                  Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 28-09-2018, 20:12.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Looking ahead two years, I'm not sure how they can blend this into a WC qualifying format that will only produce 13 qualifiers. The old system would presumably fit 8 groups of 6 and one of 7 with the winners qualifying plus 4 teams from play-offs, but a truncated March-Nov calendar would make that hard to do.

                                                    Looking ahead 4 years, they presumably cannot play Nations League in 2022 because the WC starts in November.

                                                    So although the Nations League may be a qualified success this Autumn, the timing is bad.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X