2020 vision.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Will travelling wales fans have the biggest carbon footprint? That's a lot of time in planes.

What did the poor Danes ever do to deserve this. Yes they created Dublin and limerick, and Yes they gave the world the Normans, but I think it's time to move on.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

They could arrange to play Slovakia and Hungary back to back. Bratislava and Budapest are only about 80 miles apart. Although given one of the finals groups will also fans going back and forward between Rome and Baku I doubt UEFA give a shit.

[Duncan Gardner]

The Group of Tonic Wine

Ballyross
Ultonia
Cloggers
Krauts
Ystonia

[anton pulisov]

I still don't understand what happens if somebody finishes in the top 2 of their group and also gets in through the Vagueness League Playoffs

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Anyone finishing in the top two of these groups doesn't need to bother with the playoffs. The 16 teams pre-guaranteed a playoff place will see their place go to the next team on the nations league list who also haven't qualified, with the exception of the group winners from Leagues B C and D who won't get moved up and won't be asked to play anyone from a higher League.

Potentially the biggest losers in the process could be teams that finish third in their group, but don't get moved "up" into a playoff place and won't get moved "down" into one either but someone who finishes fourth or fifth in their own group will. It's taken me eight months to get my head round this ...

[Patrick Thistle]

Shit group for Wales, that.

[Patrick Thistle]

Shit group for Wales, that.

Not shit as in difficult. Shit as in boring.

[Sean of the Shed]

Anyone finishing in the top two of these groups doesn't need to bother with the playoffs. The 16 teams pre-guaranteed a playoff place will see their place go to the next team on the nations league list who also haven't qualified, with the exception of the group winners from Leagues B C and D who won't get moved up and won't be asked to play anyone from a higher League.

Potentially the biggest losers in the process could be teams that finish third in their group, but don't get moved "up" into a playoff place and won't get moved "down" into one either but someone who finishes fourth or fifth in their own group will. It's taken me eight months to get my head round this ...

Clear as fucking mud, that.

[Satchmo Distel]

Anyone finishing in the top two of these groups doesn't need to bother with the playoffs. The 16 teams pre-guaranteed a playoff place will see their place go to the next team on the nations league list who also haven't qualified, with the exception of the group winners from Leagues B C and D who won't get moved up and won't be asked to play anyone from a higher League.

Potentially the biggest losers in the process could be teams that finish third in their group, but don't get moved "up" into a playoff place and won't get moved "down" into one either but someone who finishes fourth or fifth in their own group will. It's taken me eight months to get my head round this ...

I can see the merit of saying that the 4 teams who won their Tier D groups deserve a playoff more than a Tier C team that finished 3rd in its group, or even Germany if they keep screwing up.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Slight tangent, sorry, but I've only just noticed how Latvia have sunk in the rankings. WTF has happened to them? The country has qualified for the Euros before, albeit only once and that back in 2004. And now they are ranked lower than both Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands! That is quite something.

[Satchmo Distel]

One of the poorest countries in Europe; maybe it's just economics?

[ad hoc]

I suspect that 2004 was just a blip. Some good players (Marians Pahars, for example) possibly a good draw etc. It's one of the European countries in which football is not the biggest sport (I suspect behind basketball and ice hockey though that's a guess not knowledge) and so a good football team comes along rarely

[3 Colours Red]

Not shit as in difficult. Shit as in boring.

I'll take boring right now. Boring gives us a chance.

[jameswba]

Last time Slovakia and Wales were in a qualifying group together, it was for the 2008 Euros. They each scored five on the other's ground. Slovakia won 5-1 in Cardiff, with Paul Jones letting at least three fly past him from 30 yards. Then it was 5-2 to Wales in Trnava, with Craig Bellamy ripping the Slovak defence to shreds. Of all the adjectives that could be used to describe those games, boring is not one. It was a decent game when they played each other in 2016 too.

I imagine Bratislava would be fun as an away fan (Tehelne Pole's reconstruction is now almost complete), while Budapest is the best of the Vysegrad capitals by miles.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

One of the poorest countries in Europe; maybe it's just economics?

It wasn't poor when I went to Riga. It had city-wide free wifi and was full of western stag parties.

I did however get the impression that football was way down their list of concerns compared to ice hockey, but that might have been because I went during the ice hockey world cup.

[ursus arctos]

Higher GDP per capita than Hungary, Romania or Poland, for example.

But more importantly, what ad hoc said.

[Duncan Gardner]

NI's last 13 home goals were scored by 13 different players. Fritz, Brinker and co wont know who to mark as someone in the False 9 hole sneaks through to bag the winner.

Im predicting Turkey, Serbia and Greece will be the lower seeds to progress automatically

[Bored Of Education]

Not shit as in difficult. Shit as in boring.

I don't know. Croatia is a great place to watch football and a great team. We haven't played Hungary in years competitively and Budapest is an amazing city. Admittedly, Slovakia and Azerbijan are recent opponents but the latter is supposed to be a good trip. The 2008 home qualifier against the former was the first time my son saw Wales play a game live and was also, I think, the last.

[Crystal Staples]

Anyone else applied for tickets? Eleven days left of the window as of tonight. My application is for all seven Wembley games, but I don't expect (or particularly want) to get more than one.

[seand]

Anyone else applied for tickets? Eleven days left of the window as of tonight. My application is for all seven Wembley games, but I don't expect (or particularly want) to get more than one.

I have more than one application in for each of the four games in Dublin. I'd considered applying for Hampden and/or Wembley too but nearly all the Hampden games clash precisely with Dublin and logisitcally it makes sense just to try and get the 4 Dublin games one way or another and save any travel cash/credit-with-the-wife for Dundalk in Europe. The Irish do love a bandwagon event, so I'll be surprised if I get any game and astounded if I get more than one. In some ways it'd suit me if Ireland don't qualify. Greece v Norway tickets would be easier to source.

[Bored Of Education]

I applied for these under the vague idea that I can sell on any that I don't need and, now I have a proper job, I will only be able to do weekend ones.

Match 3, Saturday 13 June 2020, Copenhagen, Group B vs. Group B

Match 7, Sunday 14 June 2020, 00:00 (local time*), London, Group D vs. Group D

Match 19, Friday 19 June 2020, 00:00 (local time*), Glasgow, Group D vs. Group D

Match 22, Saturday 20 June 2020, 00:00 (local time*), Bilbao, Group E vs. Group E

Match 40, Sunday 28 June 2020, 00:00 (local time*), Budapest, 1stC vs. 3rdD/E/F

Match 37, Saturday 27 June 2020, 00:00 (local time*), London, 1stA vs. 2ndC

Match 49, Tuesday 7 July 2020, 20:00 (local time*), London, W45 vs. W46

Match 50, Wednesday 8 July 2020, 20:00 (local time*), London, W48 vs. W47

Match 51, Sunday 12 July 2020, 20:00 (local time*), London, W49 vs. W50

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I did mine today, kept it simple with two Hampdens and two Wembleys (including the final).

[Bored Of Education]

Hmmmm, bit worried that most of mine appear to be kicking off at midnight.

[Third rate Leszno]

Given that there's going to be a ticket exchange portal enabling you to swap tickets that you no longer want, I'm disappointed that you can't apply for tickets for more than one game on the same day - I'd like to go to either Dublin or Bilbao for a few days, but can't put in for games in both locations on two of the three group game dates - I'd hoped to see what (if anything) I got before planning flights etc and whether I needed to sell anything back on the ticket exchange. Now I'll need to create multiple accounts to do that, or pick one location on each of those two dates and reduce my chances of getting a game.

[Benjm]

I've applied for games in Bucharest, Budapest, Munich and Amsterdam (matches 18, 23, 36 & 38) across a ten day period. If all come in, hoping to travel between cities by rail but anything other than first and last only should allow for a decent trip. Also the semis and final in the bottom price category but not expecting anything there.