Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

So, the third placed qualifiers then.

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

  • Guest
    Guest replied
    So, the third placed qualifiers then.

    In the final group game, didn't Santos pass a note to Ronaldo to tell him not to try for the last bit of the match, in order to get onto the right side of the draw? False story, luck or masterstroke?

    Leave a comment:


  • Rogin the Armchair fan
    replied
    So, the third placed qualifiers then.

    There is a train of thought that Portugal, needing a win not just a draw to qualify, might have beaten Hungary in that last group game. If they'd done so 4-3, they'd have replaced Hungary as group winners, so gone into the group with the Swiss and the Poles, instead of being eliminated altogether. Fine margins indeed.

    Leave a comment:


  • Rogin the Armchair fan
    replied
    So, the third placed qualifiers then.

    If UEFA had not gone for a last 16 round, but had opted for the "quarter-final" groups of 3 as per the 1982 World Cup, those second-round groups at Euro 2016 would have been:

    Group A - France, Germany, Iceland

    Group B - Wales, Croatia, Belgium

    Group C - Switzerland, Poland, Hungary

    Group D - England, Spain, Italy

    So it looks like we'd still have got showdowns between France and Germany, and Wales and Belgium. England would have suffered a less embarassing exit than they did. And "Group C" would have produced another surprise semi-finalist, Poland, I reckon, looking at it.

    Conspicuously, of course, Portugal wouldn't have been in it.

    Leave a comment:


  • So, the third placed qualifiers then.

    The rules letting third place qualifiers into the tournament and third placed group positions into the round of 16 were seen by some as diluting the competition. Did they in the end.

    The third placed qualifiers were Turkey (who qualified automatically), Hungary, Ukraine, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia who went into the play-offs with Ukraine, Sweden, ROI and Hungary all progressing.

    Out of those 5, Turkey came third but not good enough to progress out of the groups with one win against Czech Republic who came bottom. Hungary topped their group beating Austria and drawing against Portugal and Iceland and capitulated to Belgium after 75 minutes in the R16. Sweden pretty much stunk the place out, I thought, but perhaps others are less harsh on them. ROI progressed as third placed team in their group and had a decent enough tournament, I thought. Ukraine were crap.

    Out of all of those, I think that Hungary and ROI were definitely worth being there but, probably, Hungary were the only ones that were good value at the tournament.

    As for the third placed going into R16, aside from Turkey and ROI who we have already covered, there was Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Portugal. Neither Slovakia nor NI had the greatest teams but their supporters added a lot (well, Slovakians clapped us out of the stadium and the NI supporters were good value and outsang us in Paris) and certainly Slovakia provided some interesting results. They were both certainly worth their R16 places. That leaves us with Portugal, of course, who only kicked into gear when they beat us deservedly by being the best team on the night and won the whole thing by being the team prepared to be a bit more positive in the final.

    There has been talk that the third placed qualifier for the tournament ruling allowed teams such as ourselves, Iceland and Albania to play more positively, without fear and less cautiously due to there being more chance of us to qualify with a couple more defeats than normal. Firstly, I am not sure this holds water - Iceland beat Holland home and away, we beat Belgium at home and drew away (0-0 as well fairly pragmatically) and Albania beat Portugal away (albeit losing at home. Also, if it does encourage teams to take more risks and be more positive, then that is a good thing, no?

    Personally, I think that, while the third place qualifiers were, on balance, a success whereas the third-placed groups qualifiers into R16 were possibly more mixed. I have to say that, although they were deserved semi-final and final winners, Portugal's whole run-up to the semi-final was fairly sub-standard and uninspiring. Of course, it comes back to a similar situation as to when Greece won - they succeeded under the rules fair and square. Greece weren't the best team in Europe in 2004 and Portugal probably aren't now but that isn't the point and none of the management, players and supporters are going to give the square root of fuck all and rightly so.

    The question is what we want the Euros and World Cups to be - devices to find the best teams in Europe or the World or to be entertaining celebrations and demonstrations of great football. I could be wrong but I suspect most would want the latter and I think that the third-placed qualifiers to the tournament added to that - aside form Ukraine, real stinkers like Russia and Sweden qualified automatically - but the third placed team to R16 weren't quite so convincing.
Working...
X