World Cup 2014 Playoffs

Nuri Sahin

A mod can merge if there is already a similar thread around.

Just been confirmed that the Euro part of the Playoffs will be:

Portugal v Sweden
France v Ukraine
Greece v Romania
Iceland v Croatia

Top two games should be good entertainment.

Johner

Sweden, France, Greece and Croatia to go through.

jaykay74

Ah crap, was hoping Sweden would get an easier draw

Ganymede Glow

Fancy Sweden to beat Portugal to be honest. France will make hard work of Ukraine too I reckon but they'll scrape it.

Wisesmurf

Romania got the best of the ties available. Not great news for Ireland's seeding..

keano_afc

Right, we're all Ukranians from now on.

wp_rathead

Farce that there are seedings for the playoffs
Should be an open draw

Nuri Sahin

Damn shame we'll be lose either Ronaldo or Ibra.

Just a gut feeling more than anything, but I fancy either Romania or Iceland to pull off a shock.

Ukraine winning really wouldn't be a shock however. Better and more organised unit both going forward and defensively from the few games (v Germany + v England twice) I've seen of them over the past year compared to Euro 2012. Sad that Sheva retired after that. Always had him as their finisher for so many years obviously, but not the creative talent supporting him. Now they do with Konoplyanka and Yarmalenko, both of whom will cause France some problems like they've done to many very strong team this year.

StephenHendry

some good games there, shame iceland got croatia but you never know.

roanoke

StephenHendry wrote: »

some good games there, shame iceland got croatia but you never know.

I think Croatia are the best team they could have got (dismal form, sacked manager etc).

Three very interesting ties for me anyway:

Ibra v Ronaldo (one will miss the world cup!)
Iceland v Croatia (can the minnow go from 6th seed to qualification?)
Romania v Greece (we need Greece to at least draw one of the games for Ireland to get a 2nd seed).

Ganymede Glow

StephenHendry wrote: »

some good games there, shame iceland got croatia but you never know.

They should take heart from the fact that Scotland have beaten them twice and Liechtenstein gave them quite a scare too in the qualifying group.

jaykay74

I presume Sweden are home second leg ?

LuckyLloyd

Funking Iceland hard. Hope their game is shown by one of the million channels peddling football these days.

gnfnrhead

keano_afc wrote: »

Right, we're all Ukranians from now on.

Why? France have nothing to do with Ireland, it's Romania we need to worry about for seeding. If anything, we should be supporting Greece.

mikeym

Hope Iceland go through but it will be a tough task.

keano_afc

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Why? France have nothing to do with Ireland, it's Romania we need to worry about for seeding. If anything, we should be supporting Greece.

Their pissy rant about the draw and how they should be treated preferably.

Idbatterim

Romania got the best of the ties available. Not great news for Ireland's seeding..

I wouldnt agree with that and seeing as I dont have much of a clue where some of the lesser teams are at, I checked the rankings, there is no way that Greece are the weakest team out of those in the play offs. Hoping the Portugal, Ukraine, Greece and Iceland make it...

Rnk Team Pts +/- Pos
1 Spain 1513 0 Equal
2 Germany 1311 1 Up
3 Argentina 1266 -1 Down
4 Colombia 1178 1 Up
5 Belgium 1175 1 Up
6 Uruguay 1164 1 Up
7 Switzerland 1138 7 Up
8 Netherlands 1136 1 Up
8 Italy 1136 -4 Down
10 England 1080 7 Up
11 Brazil 1078 -3 Down
12 Chile 1051 4 Up
13 USA 1040 0 Equal
14 Portugal 1036 -3 Down
15 Greece 983 -3 Down
16 Bosnia-Herzegovina 925 2 Up
17 Côte d'Ivoire 917 2 Up
18 Croatia 901 -8 Down
19 Russia 874 -4 Down
20 Ukraine 871 6 Up
21 France 870 4 Up
22 Ecuador 862 -2 Down
23 Ghana 860 1 Up
24 Mexico 854 -3 Down
25 Sweden 850 -3 Down
26 Denmark 824 -3 Down
27 Czech Republic 783 5 Up
28 Serbia 778 15 Up
29 Romania 767 2 Up
30 Slovenia 752 -1 Down

Their pissy rant about the draw and how they should be treated preferably.

yeah the absolute hippocracy of their rant and that disgraceful sportsmanship performed by that p**ck Henry, where he thought he was playing basketball for a while, the bit where he shafted us out of a penalty shoot out, with a decent chance of only Qualifying for the mickey mouse world cup, thats all though...

gimmick

I know it will be good for Irelands seeding should Greece beat Romania twice, but Jesus Christ - do we want them stinking out yet another tournament? They are the most awful side I have ever had the misfortune to see play.

12 goals in 10 qualification matches says a lot.

noodler

gimmick wrote: »

I know it will be good for Irelands seeding should Greece beat Romania twice, but Jesus Christ - do we want them stinking out yet another tournament? They are the most awful side I have ever had the misfortune to see play.

12 goals in 10 qualification matches says a lot.

4 or 5 consecutive finals appearances says alot more!

gimmick

Playing a putrid style of football. No one is arguing against their solid efficiency. I am just saying they are a scourge to watch.

roanoke

gimmick wrote: »

12 goals in 10 qualification matches says a lot.

Greece qualified in 2004 with 8 goals in 8 games and 6 clean in a row down the closing stretch.

This time the've scored 12 in 10, 8 clean sheets in 10 and 5 in a row down the closing stretch.

I'd say they're bang on form. :pac:

I gotta say I love how they grind out results and I'd be happy to watch Greece at the WC. If they do us a favor along the way then all the better.

Coillte_Bhoy

Idbatterim wrote: »

yeah the absolute hippocracy of their rant and that disgraceful sportsmanship performed by that p**ck Henry, where he thought he was playing basketball for a while, the bit where he shafted us out of a penalty shoot out, with a decent chance of only Qualifying for the mickey mouse world cup, thats all though...

What was hypocritical about their rant? I thought it was to do with lesser number of teams in their group to accumulate points, no?

Lennonist

gimmick wrote: »

I know it will be good for Irelands seeding should Greece beat Romania twice, but Jesus Christ - do we want them stinking out yet another tournament? They are the most awful side I have ever had the misfortune to see play.

12 goals in 10 qualification matches says a lot.

Greece do not have to beat them twice for Ireland to get 2nd seed spot for the next Euro qualifiers, it's the other way around Romania have to win both legs - I think.

roanoke

One thing just occurred to me but that is up to now everyone has been saying "Romania have to win both play-off games to knock Ireland down to the 3rd seed".

I don't think this is case! Romania simply have to qualify. Then they can still pip Ireland by getting good results in the group stage.

Say for instance Romania only get a win and draw v Greece. Then I make it that Romania can still edge us out in certain circumstances (for instance say as little winning their group and then going out at the last 16 on pens). There are many scenarios.

Conversely too (and this is good for Ireland) even if Romania do win both play-off games they're still not guaranteed to pip us for second because a bad showing by Romania at the finals will actually drag their coefficent back down below us again.

I'll have to look at it in more detail later but I think it is correct. Bottom line though is I don't think all this Ireland v Romania formulating is over until Romania are actually eliminated.

So basically we should be hoping Greece win the tie by whatever means possible because I make it that if Romania get to the WC finals then Ireland are still potentially 3rd seeds for EC2016.

LETS BE AVN IT

The draw is in Feb before the world cup boy

roanoke

LETS BE AVN IT wrote: »

The draw is in Feb before the world cup boy

Really? Phew! Ok then. Problem solved. Go right ahead Romania and win the World Cup.

bohsfan

roanoke wrote: »

One thing just occurred to me but that is up to now everyone has been saying "Romania have to win both play-off games to knock Ireland down to the 3rd seed".

I don't think this is case! Romania simply have to qualify. Then they can still pip Ireland by getting good results in the group stage.

Say for instance Romania only get a win and draw v Greece. Then I make it that Romania can still edge us out in certain circumstances (for instance say as little winning their group and then going out at the last 16 on pens). There are many scenarios.

Conversely too (and this is good for Ireland) even if Romania do win both play-off games they're still not guaranteed to pip us for second because a bad showing by Romania at the finals will actually drag their coefficent back down below us again.

I'll have to look at it in more detail later but I think it is correct. Bottom line though is I don't think all this Ireland v Romania formulating is over until Romania are actually eliminated.

So basically we should be hoping Greece win the tie by whatever means possible because I make it that if Romania get to the WC finals then Ireland are still potentially 3rd seeds for EC2016.

Draw takes place in Feb. seedlings taken from the end of the WC14 qualifying, so Romania need 2 wins

Michael D Not Higgins

What's with BBC predicting who's going to win?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fixtures?filter=competition-119001881

GavRedKing

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

What's with BBC predicting who's going to win?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fixtures?filter=competition-119001881

Theyve said every team playing at home 1st is going to win the tie overall.

Personally I'd rather play the 2nd leg at home given you know what you have to do in front of your fans.

Michael D Not Higgins

GavRedKing wrote: »

Theyve said every team playing at home 1st is going to win the tie overall.

Personally I'd rather play the 2nd leg at home given you know what you have to do in front of your fans.

Oh I know, it's probably just a placeholder. I was being flippant.

Really hope Ukraine give France a run for their money.