Euro 2008

Vokes

Germany...not the worst.

Lemlin

Group C is a walkover. We just got the Czechs, dammit

Vokes

Czech Rep. ........


Looks like N. Ireland aren't going to the Euros

radiospan

Group D
1. Czech Republic
2. Germany
3. Slovakia
4. Republic of Ireland
5. Wales
6. Cyprus
7. San Marino

gimmick

Bah, I was hoping for England.

Manageable group Id imagine.

GuanYin

Noone I'd fear too much. Czechs are obviously the main danger. I'd take Germany.

Some really interesting groups there.

England will have a tougher task than they're used to.

masterK

We've got to be happy with that, it could of been so much worse. The Czech's are an aging team and the Germans haven't been great the last few years.

segadreamcast

Lemlin wrote:

Group C is a walkover. We just got the Czechs, dammit

Yep, first thought on my mind... "wish we were in group C".

whiskeyman

I'd say England are well happy with their draw.
Some nice fixtures for us.
Of course its gonna be tough.... we are a 4th seed after all.
Really looking forward to the Czech and Germany games... we always seem to excel ourselves in the big ties... and probably fook up against San M.
Trip to Cardiff will be a blast too

cournioni

I'm happy enough with that. I am confident that we can beat any of the teams in our group if everything is done properly.

Kinetic^

PORNAPSTER wrote:

if

Yes I agree with that word

BaZmO*

That's not too bad. I'd be worried about the Czechs and Germany (more so the Czechs) of course but it could've a helluva lot worse. I'll look forward to my trip to the Aluminium Stadium so...

dr zoidberg

Could've been a lot worse, it'll be very tough but Germany are at their weakest in years. The Slovaks will be tough, but they're beatable as are all the seeds below us.

gimmick

Greece and Turkey in the one group. LOL.

Vokes

masterK wrote:

The Czech's are an aging team

No way, they've got a good few players in their early to mid twenties.

masterK

There's not too much travelling involved, only slovakia in eastern europe.

Lemlin

Poor old Scotland:

Group B
1 France
2 Italy
3 Ukraine
4 Scotland
5 Lithuania
6 Georgia
7 Faroe Islands

That's a group of death if ever there was one.

cournioni

Keyser Soze 69 wrote:

Yes I agree with that word

Well it is really all "if's" and "buts" in football at the end of the day.

super_furry

That's a good draw for us. I expect us, Germany and the Czechs to battle it out for the top two places.

meepmeep

Group B
1 France
2 Italy
3 Ukraine
4 Scotland
5 Lithuania
6 Georgia
7 Faroe Islands

Ah balls

Pighead

Pighead expects Ireland Wales and slovakia to bravely battle it out for third place. Although i must admit it could have been a lot worse.

whiskeyman

Pighead wrote:

Pighead expects Ireland Wales and slovakia to bravely battle it out for third place.

Doesn't matter how bravely they battle it out for.... it won't mean squat.
Only top 2 teams from each go through - 2 from 7 groups = 14 qualifiers.
Austria & Swiss are auto = 16 total.
No playoffs this time.

Someone tell Stan quick in case he's already planning for a 3rd place finish....

segadreamcast

whiskeyman wrote:

Doesn't matter how bravely they battle it out for.... it won't mean squat.
Only top 2 teams from each go through - 2 from 7 groups = 14 qualifiers.
No playoffs this time.

Yeah...besides, I'd be very disappointed if Ireland had to battle for a position with Wales and Slovakia. No offence to either country but, christ, it'd kinda show how far backwards we've gone in the last 4-8 years...

Pigman II

Decent draw. I will reserve judgement on our chances until I see the fixture list.

yom 1

really have to be happy with that considering what we could have got

We are still a team in the early stages of a big transition so it's very difficult to really assess our chances. But on the other hand I'd say that Germany and Czech Republic aren't too happy about drawing us so bring em on.

gracehopper

Could have been worse, We might nick second

dirkey_wynne

Does anyone know when they announce dates etc? Don't they usually head into a room today and try thrash stuff out, or am I totally wrong?

Pigman II

Could be a while. The Group D teams have 30 days to hand an agreed fixture list into UEFA otherwise UEFA tell them to take a flying leap and organise the results for them.

segadreamcast

Pigman II wrote:

and organise the results for them.

Sure that's handy enough !

Mr Moon

Ireland Vs Germany in Croke Park 80,000 people! Should be good!

Pigman II

NoelRock wrote:

Sure that's handy enough !

FAI'd better start a whip-round right now I guess! Who do we write the cheque out to?

iregk

I think we did quite well. plus the lads are on their way to cardiff and prague, happy days that will be two savage sessions.

Brian017

The U-21 draw was also made today and if we get through our preliminary match against Azerbaijan, we will be in Group 4 alongside Belgium and Greece.

Bluetonic

i imagine Stan and Delaney are on the web as we speak now, "wow look 0.99c flights to Germany, and if we get the lads to carry on their bags we can save a few more euro."

Lets hope Germany don't mind playing us midweek, not during peak times, and 300 miles west of Berlin.

redspider

That is a reasonable to so-so draw. More difficult than the qualification group we just had for the WC, but with Slovakia, arguably the weakest 3rd seeded team, we have an outside chance. I wouldnt hold my breath though on qualification but 3rd is a viable target. and we need it.

Whilst Wales are poor recently, they could put it up to us and be a potential spanner, especially in Cardiff. Germany are never easy even when they are in a slump as they are now, and CZ always seem to do well in the qualifiers. We may get a point or two off the top-2 teams but we are likely to drop some elsewhere, such as against SK or Wales. We must win the home games against Wales and SK and one of those countries away.

At least we avoided some of the tougher countries, but its still tough enough. The ideal group would have been C with Greece and Turkey, arguably the two weakest teams in their respective pots.

Btw, The GAA must be delighted to have avoided England. But will the Welsh insist on God Save the Queen though, play two anthems or just the "yaki da" one?

I hope that Ireland get 3rd and at least challenge for 2nd spot in some way. Staunton has a good task in front of him in that there is no expectation to qualify, whereas with Kerr there definitely was.


Btw, I also think Uefa should change their system. 52 countries is too much, and especially with some so small and so weak. I think I've suggested in a thread before, but it would be better if there were two tiers, with relegation and promotion between the levels, maybe something like:

Tier-1: 8 groups of 4 (32 countries). Top-2 qualify, bottom relegated.
Tier-2: 4 groups of 5. Top 2 in each group get promoted to Tier-1.

The benefit is less travelling to places like the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan, but also less games for the all countries. For the smaller countries, it also means they can actually "win" something for a change by getting promoted, and Uefa could even go as far as handing them out little tropies in recognition of this. Uefa need to be honest. Lichtenstein is never going to win the world cup.

Another way to think about it, could you imagine the English league ran under a similar system to what Uefa do? Say with 12 groups of something like 8 clubs each, seeded, etc, so the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, etc never meet.

I think the current Uefa system is terrible.

redspider

Bungalow Bill

There really is a lot of games to look forward to actually. Couple of friendlies and then 12 qualification games!

England always manage to get a handy group don't they?

Guy:Incognito

redspider wrote:

Btw, I also think Uefa should change their system. 52 countries is too much, and especially with some so small and so weak. I think I've suggested in a thread before, but it would be better if there were two tiers, with relegation and promotion between the levels, maybe something like:

Tier-1: 8 groups of 4 (32 countries). Top-2 qualify, bottom relegated.
Tier-2: 4 groups of 5. Top 2 in each group get promoted to Tier-1.

The benefit is less travelling to places like the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan, but also less games for the all countries. For the smaller countries, it also means they can actually "win" something for a change by getting promoted, and Uefa could even go as far as handing them out little tropies in recognition of this. Uefa need to be honest. Lichtenstein is never going to win the world cup.

Another way to think about it, could you imagine the English league ran under a similar system to what Uefa do? Say with 12 groups of something like 8 clubs each, seeded, etc, so the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, etc never meet.

I think the current Uefa system is terrible.

redspider

Under that system, another few bad results and we'd be relegated. I like the idea of giving the smaller teams a chance. At the end of teh day,we've onl6y qualified for 1 european chanpionships (with a big leg up form Scotland) so we can't really say we deserve it that much more than any other team.

redspider

Stekelly wrote:

Under that system, another few bad results and we'd be relegated. I like the idea of giving the smaller teams a chance. At the end of teh day,we've onl6y qualified for 1 european chanpionships (with a big leg up form Scotland) so we can't really say we deserve it that much more than any other team.

Yeah, under that 2-tier system we would have been relegated out of a group of 4 of France, Switzerland, Israel and us (if WC qual would be ran under a similar system).

The system I'm proposing doesnt make it any easier for Ireland per se, each country still lives on its own merits. It just cuts out a lot of wasted energy, eg: matches such as Georgia v Faroe Islands at the end of the qualification when the match matters to no-one.

redspider

Necronomicon

Well, it could have been worse I guess. With everything that's gone on in the last few months, and our failure to qualify for the WC, I haven't been holding my breath. I mean, for the last Euro campaign we were top seeds and still didn't manage to qualify. It was always going to be tough.
But, I do think we could have done worse than Germany and the Czech Republic. Funnily enough I feel better about our chances against the Germans than travelling to Cyprus or Slovakia. The Czech Republic look likely to lose a few players to retirement after the WC, like Pavel Nedved, so they might be going through a period of transition when we come up against them.
Not the happiest about drawing Wales though, you never know what could happen in a derby like this. Definately a potential bananna-skin.

Pigman II

redspider wrote:

Btw, I also think Uefa should change their system. 52 countries is too much, and especially with some so small and so weak. I think I've suggested in a thread before, but it would be better if there were two tiers, with relegation and promotion between the levels, maybe something like:

Tier-1: 8 groups of 4 (32 countries). Top-2 qualify, bottom relegated.
Tier-2: 4 groups of 5. Top 2 in each group get promoted to Tier-1.

The benefit is less travelling to places like the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan, but also less games for the all countries. For the smaller countries, it also means they can actually "win" something for a change by getting promoted, and Uefa could even go as far as handing them out little tropies in recognition of this. Uefa need to be honest. Lichtenstein is never going to win the world cup.

Whilst I am a huge advocate of reducing the number of qualifiers I'm am also a staunch believer that it is unfair not to at least give the smaller teams a 'chance' to qualify for any given tournament 'N' (something that doesn't seem to be provided under your idea).

I would much prefer a preliminary system where by the top 32 in Europe are granted an automatic place in the qualifiers and the bottom 18 or so would have mini-tournaments during the summer of a finals for 8 more places in the qualifiers (total 40teams). This based on 8 groups of 5 btw. The numbers could be altered to suit the number of finalists allotted but the idea would be 8 qualifying games max.

Each of these 18 teams would play around 4 games each to decide the 8. More than likely none of these 18 would have qualified for the finals of the upcoming tournament so it wouldn't be like their summer calender was booked up or anything.

If they were against off season matches perhaps the four fixtures could be played between January and May.

Pighead

whiskeyman wrote:

Doesn't matter how bravely they battle it out for.... it won't mean squat.
Only top 2 teams from each go through - 2 from 7 groups = 14 qualifiers.
Austria & Swiss are auto = 16 total.
No playoffs this time.

Someone tell Stan quick in case he's already planning for a 3rd place finish....

Pighead was aware that the top 2 teams only qualify. I was implying we'd be battling it out for the heroic failure 3rd place spot with the other two teams.

To be honest i'm not too sure if playing in Croke Park is going to help our chances. Our team won't be used to it and if anything we'll be at a disadvantage playing the germans as they're used to the wider dimensioned larger playing field. The rather cramped narrow Landsdowne road was a definite advantage in my opinion palying the bigger teams.

Either that or i'm full of ****.

Pigman II

Pighead wrote:

if anything we'll be at a disadvantage playing the germans as they're used to the wider dimensioned larger playing field.

Yes the Germans are known for their fondess for extra space.

Pighead

Pigman II wrote:

Yes the Germans are known for their fondess for extra space.

If thats a reference to the Germans fondness for building roomy cars then i'm giving that post an lol and a if its some weird german pornographic refernece then i'm going for the . Also if its something obvious that Pigheads missed i give you this wee fella in advance.:o
By the way I reckon we should have a Steve Staunton smiley (a clear circle with red hair and freckles will do) introduced to show him boards are behind him. The context of the smiley will depend on his results.

BaZmO*

redspider wrote:

and Uefa could even go as far as handing them out little tropies in recognition of this.

and maybe a bag of sweets and some pop too...

Nunu

Pigman II wrote:

Yes the Germans are known for their fondess for extra space.

I hope it's not a reference to what i think it is. Don't mention the War and all that:( .........

whiskeyman

Pighead wrote:

Our team won't be used to it and if anything we'll be at a disadvantage playing the germans as they're used to the wider dimensioned larger playing field. The rather cramped narrow Landsdowne road was a definite advantage in my opinion palying the bigger teams.

Either that or i'm full of ****.

Stan has yet to consult the grounds-staff at Croke Park in relation to his requested dimensions.
He could arrange to narrow the playing area (within FIFA regulations) for the Germany game if he wanted.
Just because the grass area at Croker is bigger, doesn't mean we have to utilise the maximum area available.

Vokes

What is the narrowest dimension allowed? Say about 70yrds is it?

Pigman II

It was up for discussion recently. IIRC it was just 45yards (tho there's probably stricter rules considering it's a UEFA competition and such )

abccormac

I honestly can't see us qualifying from that group. Even 3rd place will be tough with a mediocre team and an inexperienced manager.

Vokes

I remember reading somewhere that it's around the 65/70 mark for international competition. Or that could be just FIFA competitions.