WC 2018 play off draw

[Billy Whizz]

N.Ireland v switzerland
Croatia v Greece
Denmark v ROi
Sweden v Italy

Just realised that Slovakia who were 2nd in our section, didn’t qualify😳

[Tobias Funke]

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N.Ireland v switzerland
Croatia v Greece
Denmark v ROi
Sweden v Italy

Just realised that Slovakia who were 2nd in our section, didn’t qualify😳

Tough one for N Ireland that, especially with the 2nd leg being away from home. Opposite for ROI who will fancy their chances I reckon.

[hibsbollah]

One in the eye for those that thought the draw would be rigged in favour of the remaining 'big' nations. The Italians and swedes won't have wanted to be drawn together.

[cabbageandribs1875]

mon Le suisse

[Firestarter]

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Tough one for N Ireland that, especially with the 2nd leg being away from home. Opposite for ROI who will fancy their chances I reckon.

Denmark are improving more and more.

Sweden v Italy will be a cracker.

[Mr White]

Switzerland Croatia Denmark and Italy to qualify IMO. Hopefully one or even both of the Irish sides get through but I don't think they will.

[IGRIGI]

Sweden Italy will be a cracker, very tough draw for NI, ROI must fancy their chances.

[Sylar]

Some tasty draws there.

But it's the 2018 World Cup, not the Euros.

[Swedish hibee]

Oh Sweden 🙈🙈🙈

[Firestarter]

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Oh Sweden 🙈🙈🙈

Zlatan back for the WC hopefully.

[Sir David Gray]

It wasn't that long ago that a game v Switzerland would be viewed as winnable but their qualifying results were brilliant and they were extremely unlucky to be paired with Portugal, who were equally as good.

Very tough for Northern Ireland.

[Smartie]

As much as we slaughter our team, there's nobody there that I'd have been particularly anxious about Strachan's squad playing.

[Sir David Gray]

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As much as we slaughter our team, there's nobody there that I'd have been particularly anxious about Strachan's squad playing.

We would have had no chance of beating Italy, Sweden, Croatia or Switzerland in my opinion.

[cabbageandribs1875]

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We would have had no chance of beating Italy, Sweden, Croatia or Switzerland in my opinion.

played 5 against croatia, drawn 3 and won 2...why couldn't we beat them again ? croatia is the team i hoped we would have been drawn against, and my 2nd choice would have been italy

[Swedish hibee]

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Zlatan back for the WC hopefully.

Fingers crossed he's fit. And fingers crossed we stuff those pizza munching cheats!!!😂

[Sir David Gray]

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played 5 against croatia, drawn 3 and won 2...why couldn't we beat them again ? croatia is the team i hoped we would have been drawn against, and my 2nd choice would have been italy

Greece, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland would have presented our best chance.

As it turned out we couldn't have played any of them as they were all unseeded (as we would have been).

[Smartie]

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We would have had no chance of beating Italy, Sweden, Croatia or Switzerland in my opinion.

We've a very good recent record against Croatia.

Zlatanless Sweden wouldn't really worry me.

Italy would normally worry me, but Macedonia beat them last month. If Macedonia can beat them, surely there's not that much to fear.

Switzerland are a good side and would be the one of all of them that I'd want to avoid but they're not unbeatable.


I normally quite fancy Scotland taking on bigger teams in ties like this. We punch above our weight at home and can sometimes pick off surprisingly good away results. Strachan seemed to have s bit of momentum and some pretty good spirit in the squad and I'd have fancied our chances.

I'd certainly fancy that over a game in Georgia/ World Cup game vs Costa Rica/ Peru/ Iran/ 10 man Uruguay/ game in Faroe Islands etc etc etc.

[ancient hibee]

When have we been beating these big teams again?

[patlowe]

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When have we been beating these big teams again?

For me the point is that we would have a chance against most, if not all, of the teams in the playoffs. If we'd sneaked through to this stage then that's all you can ask for really. I couldn't imagine us beating Italy over two legs but that's possibly more about their history and size than a comment on their current team.

When you look at some of the teams that have (Iceland, Serbia) and haven't (Wales, Holland) qualified and the way their respective fortunes have changed recently, you can see that international football doesn't always work out as an exact science. I don't think we're anything special at all but we're also not a million miles away from getting to one of these tournaments.

[renato]

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We've a very good recent record against Croatia.

Zlatanless Sweden wouldn't really worry me.

Italy would normally worry me, but Macedonia beat them last month. If Macedonia can beat them, surely there's not that much to fear.

Switzerland are a good side and would be the one of all of them that I'd want to avoid but they're not unbeatable.


I normally quite fancy Scotland taking on bigger teams in ties like this. We punch above our weight at home and can sometimes pick off surprisingly good away results. Strachan seemed to have s bit of momentum and some pretty good spirit in the squad and I'd have fancied our chances.

I'd certainly fancy that over a game in Georgia/ World Cup game vs Costa Rica/ Peru/ Iran/ 10 man Uruguay/ game in Faroe Islands etc etc etc.

Small correction - Italy drew with Macedonia at home, losing a late equaliser in effectively a meaningless game, given they had pretty much already achieved a play off place. This was on the back of the humbling from Spain in Madrid, so they were also short of confidence, following an almost flawless points haul beforehand.

Italy have some really promising players coming through just now but Ventura is really struggling to get the team playing fluently and they look too disjointed, in my view. A mad 424 system also doesn’t suit the players and part caused the 3-0 hammering in Spain, with 2 versus 6 in midfield meaning they were completely overrun!

Despite this, they pretty much always do enough when it’s needed or the chips are down - as well as Scotland did in the latter half of qualifiying, it would have been an almost impossible task to overcome Italy in a playoff game. Sweden will be very tough but I fancy Italy to qualify.