How do you think we'll do in Group E?

SantryRed

I'm pretty sure we had one of these polls before the last Euros, and I'm pretty sure everyone was immensely optimistic when we were in one of the toughest groups in Euros history probably.

I'm interested to see if our recent memories have dampened our optimism for this Euros, or if people's optimism has perked up again!

For me, personally I'm not sure we have the strongest defence or the most potent attack to actually win a game. Unfortunately I think we'll draw with the Swedes and it'll effectively put us in the position where we'll need to win one of the final two games.

However, there is definitely legitimate reasons for us to be genuinely optimistic for both games, and my reasoning is below:

Sweden: They are of a similar standard to us, albeit with the one of the best players in the world playing up front. Zlatan has a history of struggling playing against English clubs, and with our English style centre backs playing against him, he may not like the rough and tumble that O'Shea will greet him with, so we may be lucky that he'll curl up into his shell. After that, we have teams of a similar standard, so we could easily nick a win.

Belgium: Whilst there players would be of a much higher standard overall, the majority of the squad are playing in the Premier League, meaning the majority of our first eleven should be used to playing them and be weary of their qualities. Obviously their two biggest threats will be through De Bruyne and Hazard. Wales showed that it is possible to frustrate them if you drop deep and not give them the space, and Belgium failed to score in 180 minutes against them. We have the players to do this, so a draw could be easily nicked.

Italy: Everyone knows about their injuries and the fact they will be missing some of their top quality players. Whilst Italy went unbeaten in the group, they did seem to struggle to score goals, only beating Malta 1-0 twice, and only winning two games by more than a goal. We also need to state that the Italians may already be through by the time that we play them, therefore they may have their eye off the ball, allowing us to nick a draw.


There's enough optimism above to state that we may be able to get to 4 points, which would probably get us into the last 16. But the key game really is the Sweden game, we need to win it to give ourselves a realistic chance of getting into the knock out rounds. I just really hope we give the first game ago, and ourselves and the Swedes aren't happy to start our campaigns with a point each.

wally79

5 points

Third place and get through.

you should have added a poll

Skylinehead

4 points

3 points might be enough, but it would be close. I can't see us not losing at least one game, so that means we really need to beat Sweden to progress.

Shanotheslayer

5 points

Went with 4 points. Beat Sweden and get a draw of either of the others.

ricero

4 points

First game is huge. I have an awful feeling it could be the same as last euros and we lose all 3 games. Sorry for being a miser. As i said sweden game is huge, win and were through i think

The Backwards Man

In a group with four very beatable teams, the ones that get the best results against each other will qualify

Nine points.

That_Guy

4 points

Think we'll beat Sweden.... Just.

I think we'll be outdone by Belgium and Italy though unfortunately. I really want to be proven wrong.

Father Hernandez

4 points

Went with 3, have since changed to 4 points.

Narrowly beat Sweden 1-0, lose to group winners Belgium and last minute equalizer to draw with the Italians.

Second round extra time loss to eventual champions France.. good tournament all round.

callaway92

2 points

Draw with Sweden and lose the next two I think.

GavRedKing

2 points

I reckon 3 pts and adecent goal difference will be enough to get one of the 4, best 3rd places.

However, I think we'll draw with Sweden and lose the rest.

Like Euro 2012, we've the "easiest" game 1st and anything short of a positive result will see us all but out IMO.

I hope I'm wrong and we pick up 3pts + though.

Bounty Hunter

3 points (3 draws)

Hope I'm wrong but I think we will get 2 points.

1 point against Sweden who will also be targeting a win in their opening and easiest fixture vs us.

We will lose to Belgium by a goal or two, while Italy beat Sweden by a single goal.

Then in the third game we will get a point against the Italians in a 1-1 draw.

Sweden may actually end below us if the above happens but I don't think 2 points would be enough for a 3rd place team to go through. 2 draws from 3 matches and you don't really deserve to go through anyway

HalloweenJack

3 points (3 draws)

The Sweden really is key. A defeat and we're up the creek. I'm not too familiar with the Swedish players but we should also be careful not to focus too much on Zlatan, Berg and Guidetti are also decent strikers. Wernblom, Kjallstrom and Larsson (also a set piece threat) are solid midfielders. There's a lot of focus on Lindelof as he's supposed to be the next big thing while Lustig and Olsson have been solid when I've seen them and I've always been impressed by Isaakson in goal too. A win is ideal and we really should go for the kill against them, they are (relatively) the weakest of our three opponents. But again, I'm not familiar with their players or their style of play so I'm not sure how they'll line up.

Belgium have a great squad of players, in pretty much every position they have a lot of competition. How they play together is another thing. I think there's a real risk they'll overrun us and peg us back for most of the ninety minutes. If we go into this game on the back of a defeat, it will take a superhuman effort to win (they only conceded five goals in qualification) especially if they happen to lose to Italy.

Italy seem to tread a thin line. They only scored 16 goals in qualification and conceded 7 but won 7 and drew three. They're not going to overrun us like Belgium could do but they will probably do enough to be on top. It'll definitely be a very close game.

Best case scenario: we beat Sweden by the odd goal, Belgium beat Italy so they come into our game a bit more relaxed and we can get something out of it, a draw maybe, Italy beat Sweden so going into the last game a draw would probably be enough for both of us to go through or Italy try really hard to get a win and because of the close margins they play with, we can get a draw on the break.

More realistically, I think we will draw two and lose one. I think we have the weakest squad and if we don't get a win against Sweden, it will be very hard to get anything out of the other games, especially if Belgium come into the game against us on the back of a defeat.

Potential Underachiever

1 point

Voted Zero, we're shíte lads, let'e be honest. Complete and utter shíte. We'll play abysmal football and get humped like the last Euros, as you can probably figure out I'm not exactly buzzing about this tournament.

Chancer3001

5 points

went with 4,

2-0 win against the swedes - flying

3-0 loss to belgium - fukc. Them Belgians are feckin class lads. Sure we can still get through....

0-0 cagiest cagy match in a cage made of cagey cages - country celebrates like wild and we all pretend it was an epic.

Last minute loss to the Germans in the next round

Father Hernandez

4 points

Potential Underachiever wrote: »

Voted Zero, we're shíte lads, let'e be honest. Complete and utter shíte. We'll play abysmal football and get humped like the last Euros, as you can probably figure out I'm not exactly buzzing about this tournament.

Bah Humbug!

GBX

5 points

4 Points

Korat

9 points

7 points, I believe in miracles.

Potential Underachiever

1 point

hogey143 wrote: »

Bah Humbug!

I know, I just can't get optimistic!

Harry Palmr

3 points (3 draws)

2 points if you're lucky probably 1

Sweden only require one Zlatan moment, Belgium are lumpy but solid, Italy not what they were but hard to actually beat when it matters and the final game may well. Two draws is the most I can foresee.

kfallon

1 point

HalloweenJack wrote: »

I'm not too familiar with the Swedish players but we should also be careful not to focus too much on Zlatan, Berg and Guidetti are also decent strikers. Wernblom, Kjallstrom and Larsson (also a set piece threat) are solid midfielders. There's a lot of focus on Lindelof as he's supposed to be the next big thing while Lustig and Olsson have been solid when I've seen them and I've always been impressed by Isaakson in goal too.

So you're not too familiar with them but then again you are familiar with them :P

HalloweenJack

3 points (3 draws)

kfallon wrote: »

So you're not too familiar with them but then again you are familiar with them :P

I'm not an expert by any stretches. I've seen those players at their clubs over the years but the last time I saw Sweden play was at the last Euros.

ShooterSF

GavRedKing wrote: »

I reckon 3 pts and adecent goal difference will be enough to get one of the 4, best 3rd places.

However, I think we'll draw with Sweden and lose the rest.

Like Euro 2012, we've the "easiest" game 1st and anything short of a positive result will see us all but out IMO.

I hope I'm wrong and we pick up 3pts + though.

We really need to avoid this view. Psychologically I think the team were out of the tournament after Croatia 4 years ago. On our day we can get a result against any of these 3 and unlike then, one win will probably be good enough.

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

Sweden may actually end below us if the above happens but I don't think 2 points would be enough for a 3rd place team to go through. 2 draws from 3 matches and you don't really deserve to go through anyway

Two groups finished with 3 points and two with 4 in the last tournament so yeah I don't think 2 points will be enough. But a win with 6 groups now should do us and I think we can win any of our 3 if we don't let our heads drop if the Swedish result is a bad one.

Sin City

6 points

HalloweenJack wrote: »

I'm not an expert by any stretches. I've seen those players at their clubs over the years but the last time I saw Sweden play was at the last Euros.

5 points beating Sweden and drawing the other two

Beating Iceland in the last 16
Beating England on pennos after a 1 -1 draw

Coming up against the Italians again in the Semies pennos see us through

Spain in the final

After a hard fought 90 mins we pip the with a late goal

Carlsberg dont do dreams but if they did .............:D

GavRedKing

2 points

ShooterSF wrote: »

We really need to avoid this view. Psychologically I think the team were out of the tournament after Croatia 4 years ago. On our day we can get a result against any of these 3 and unlike then, one win will probably be good enough.

Two groups finished with 3 points and two with 4 in the last tournament so yeah I don't think 2 points will be enough. But a win with 6 groups now should do us and I think we can win any of our 3 if we don't let our heads drop if the Swedish result is a bad one.

We have to win at least one game, lot of the players invovled will know Sweden from the WC playoff a few years back, we were poor over two legs but Sweden were not much better.

Its our best chance at points and I reckon a draw or better against Sweden will set us up well for the Belgium game.

brianregan09

3 points (1 win)

I think we'll draw all 3 games and go through

Arghus

My heart: Sure we'll make short work of The Swedes and push on from there. Italy are no great shakes. Second in the group.

My head: Could be marginly better than 2012 but we'll still be strong favourites to prop up the group.

briany

1 point

I fear it will be three straight defeats, but battling ones. I'm going to do the classic thing of not getting the hopes up too much, that way you can not be disappointed. Anything more and I'll be glad to be wrong.

Iused2likebusts

Beat Sweden ( if walters is fit)lose to Belgium and draw with italy

3hn2givr7mx1sc

5 points

Draw with the Swedes and beat the Italians. Get hommered by the Belgians!

Maximus Alexander

2 points

A draw, two losses and the Fields of Athenry. /Euro2016

deadybai

well beat Sweden 2-1, draw with Belgium 1-1 and lose to the Italians 0-1

Turtyturd

2 points

Maybe scrape a draw against Italy. Think bias has people seriously downplaying Sweden in here though.

donegal.

5 points

4pts
win-lose-draw

Andre 3000

1 point

Hammered by Belgium, beaten clearly by Italy and pipped by Sweden. Irlande nil points. Irlanda, nada. Irlandia, meethen vathmee. Irlande, keine punte. Irshka, bash bodova. Irlandia, nurda proken. Irlande, nil punten. Irlinia, nurda purda. Irlenski, nurte point lete.

AndyBoBandy

5 points

Stating the obvious, but I think the Sweden game is our whole tournament.

Win, and its game on, with a very real chance of qualifying, maybe needing another point.

Lose, and I feel our tournament will be over,

Draw and it's all still to play for, however needing a victory in the other 2 games might just be a bit too much pressure for the boys.



(Either way though, how exciting has it been the last few days/weeks knowing that the party is about to start, and we got invited!! especially when it's only the sixth party we've ever been asked to attend).

The days/weeks leading up to a tournament you are qualified for are great, it just adds so much more to the whole experience. (bonus points for Norn Iron & Wales being here too)

BoJack Horseman

1 point

Lose all three games.

It's the consistency at finals that breeds greatness.

xtal191

5 points

Beat Sweden, lose to Belgium and draw with Italy.

BullBlackNova

3 points (3 draws)

Draw with Sweden, lost to Belgium, draw valiantly with Italy and crash out with a miserly two points.

Debil

2 points

1 point against Sweden. 1 point in Total.

SEPT 23 1989

1 point

Would love them to score a goal

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

CSF

2 points

Draw with Sweden, finishing 3rd on 1 point but obviously that won't be enough to be one of the best 3rd placed teams.

Francie Barrett

1 point

Go way out of yourselves with your optimistic predictions of 2 or 3 points. We're not getting anything.

mattman_iflaf

3 points (3 draws)

I agree first game is massive... All depends on what Zlatan shows up, as it's the first game, he could be really up for it and worries me, they could sneak a win against us, and if that happens then we are really in trouble as both Belgium and Italy will be out to beat us to guarantee they get ahead of Sweden.

Given our recent performance against Belarus it's worrying, I'm going to go with 2 points, and hope Sweden lose to both Belgium and Italy, so we should finish 3rd, but not sure if it will be a good enough 3rd place to make it further.

KaiserGunner

5 points

Went with a very optimistic 4 points. Going for a win against Sweden, loss to Belgium and a draw against the Italians. 4 years ago I optimistically went for 4 points, with a win against Croatia, defeat to Spain and draw against Italy. In reality we will probably be lucky to get a point.

Straight Edge Punk

I think we will draw with Sweden, lose to Belgium and beat Italy. You'd have to imagine that will be enough to see us through to the 2nd round.

Billy86

2 points

I'm struggling to see us getting more than a lucky point to be honest, and I'm kind of liking it... everything is a bonus from here on out!

KungPao

2 points

We'll do a Leicester, we'll be fine. Shane Long will be our Vardy, McClean our Mahrez, Whelan our Kante...lol.

Draw with Sweden, surprising win over a disappointing Belgium, a solid draw with Italia.

Or 3 brutal defeats and we're the laughing stock of Europe again.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Moist Bread

1 point

Voted 0. We will get hooped in all games I reckon. I also don't think we will score either. I don't think I've recovered after 2012 so I have thown all my optimism this time.

Ganymede Glow

5 points

A big meek 2-1 loss against Sweden. A gutsy 1-1 draw with Belgium. A startling late 0-1 win against Italy


Nail. Colours. Mast.

Paully D

2 points

1 point for me (Sweden).