Originally posted by Kevin S
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Originally posted by Eggchaser View PostAnd they'd moan about the state of the pitch.
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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?
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- Mar 2008
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Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View PostMust 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?
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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?
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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.
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Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostSatchmo, 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?
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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.
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Originally posted by Kevin S View PostNo. The four League D group winners get promoted to League C.
The playoff bit for qualification comes after the proper Euro 2020 qualifying competition.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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