Scotland v Albania

[Lendo]

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Sorry but this is not correct. It's not like the Intertoto Cup at all. Win this group and we are in a play-off, guaranteed, for Euro 2020 - i.e. the thing, other than automatic qualification, we've been striving for since about 2003/4 when we last made a play-off! It is a legitimate route to the Euros and I could not give a monkeys how we get there, if we get there.

This. People will start to take it more seriously as our chances of Euro qualification become more apparent.

[SideBurns]

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Rubbish?? Absolute nonsense. Are you forgetting we could have scored another 2 or 3?

Aye. Albania had a period after we scored when they created a couple of great chances but if we'd taken even half of ours in the first half then the game would've been over by the break. You'll never go 90 mins without stopping the opposition having one or two opportunities, and this is a team with players in some good leagues throughout Europe - they're not a San Marino or Gibraltar.

[Nakedmanoncrack]

A decent performance, thought McGinn played very well - apart from two ridiculous moments of gifting possession which could have been costly, he played some great passes & is certainly a first choice in that position now, and for years to come.

[PeeJay]

Only saw the 2nd half - spirited performance from Scotland against a pretty poor Albanian team (although it still managed to walk through our "defence" at times!) - easily deserved 3 points, but everything wrong with Scottish football was on show for all to see here - saw absolutely nothing here to suggest the Scottish game is going anywhere good soon ...

[Bristolhibby]

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It's not a glorified friendly.

It's a competition which offers a realistic chance of qualification to Euro 2020.

Why hasn't the press, or the SFA for that matter, explained that properly?

This is a serious tournament.

Correct.

Win our Nations League group and we are a semi and final against another two group C teams for a place in the Euros. The semi games are played in March 2020.

However, if we qualify for the Euros by finishing in the top two of the normal qualifying group, then we are qualified already and don’t need to play the Nations Cup Semi.

The seedings for the Euro qualifiers are also dependant in the Nations League performance. Win the group and we go into pot 2. A distinct advantage.

These games are definitely worth winning and are NOT glorified friendlies.

J

[B.H.F.C]

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Only saw the 2nd half - spirited performance from Scotland against a pretty poor Albanian team (although it still managed to walk through our "defence" at times!) - easily deserved 3 points, but everything wrong with Scottish football was on show for all to see here - saw absolutely nothing here to suggest the Scottish game is going anywhere good soon ...

In general, it doesn’t appear that the game is going anywhere fast and we’re all well aware of the issues with our game. But if you forget everything you know about Scottish football for a minute, I’m not sure what all these bad things were that were on show last night. We were fairly decent.

It’s not going to happen over night but there are a number of good young players in the team and they need to start somewhere. The introduction of the nations league gives us a more than fair chance of qualifying for the Euros IMO so perhaps this is the start of something.

[GreenOnions]

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A decent performance, thought McGinn played very well - apart from two ridiculous moments of gifting possession which could have been costly, he played some great passes & is certainly a first choice in that position now, and for years to come.

I agree. I think he'll be very important for us - not least because he can operate deeper as well as further up the pitch. I like to see him in an advanced position but thought that the three in the middle in the second half with McGinn deeper was much stronger for us than when McDonald was playing in the first half.

We seem to have more players at the moment who can play further forward in midfield and not so many who can play deeper (unless McTominay is the option there) so maybe McGinn deeper with Armstrong and McGregor further forward is our best midfield at the moment?

I am quite optimistic really. We have quite a few players early to mid twenties who have quality and could be in the side for a good few years. Tierney, Robertson, McKenna, Souttar (who I thought looked good last night), McGinn, McGregor, Armstrong, McTominay and Fraser are all good players.

I like the fact that - for the first time in a while we have a couple of younger central defenders who look like they have ability in McKenna and Souttar and we Hibs fans will be aware before others of the potential of Porteous for the future. If we could just identify a couple more goalscorers ...............

[blackpoolhibs]

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I get that, it’s the intertoto cup for national teams. If this is our route into 2020 then, as we all probably know deep down inside if we are being honest with ourselves, is a sad state tbh. Regarding the press and SFA, don’t mean to be rude but really don’t think I need them to “explain”it to me. It is what t is with or without uefa propaganda, which will no doubt churn a few more coins.

I think they do need to explain it to you properly, as you clearly dont know the difference between a friendly and us having a very realistic chance of qualifying for a major competition?

[Hibrandenburg]

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It's not a glorified friendly.

It's a competition which offers a realistic chance of qualification to Euro 2020.

Why hasn't the press, or the SFA for that matter, explained that properly?

This is a serious tournament.

This will just be another back door entrance to the bigger nations who fail in the qualifying rounds to enter the competition and ensure maximum financial gain.

[Gordy M]

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This will just be another back door entrance to the bigger nations who fail in the qualifying rounds to enter the competition and ensure maximum financial gain.

Im not sure it would be though.....teams will qualify from groups A B C and D....so only one big team from group A can qualify? The others will be lesser teams including one from group D who is the group including San Marino etc. Thats my understanding

[JimBHibees]

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Correct.

Win our Nations League group and we are a semi and final against another two group C teams for a place in the Euros. The semi games are played in March 2020.

However, if we qualify for the Euros by finishing in the top two of the normal qualifying group, then we are qualified already and don’t need to play the Nations Cup Semi.

The seedings for the Euro qualifiers are also dependant in the Nations League performance. Win the group and we go into pot 2. A distinct advantage.

These games are definitely worth winning and are NOT glorified friendlies.

J

That would seriously increase our chances of qualifying if we could be regularly in pot 2.

[Hibbyradge]

Fans have been complaining about meaningless friendlies for decades.

Now UEFA have implemented a tournament which reduces the frequency of them, yet folk still complain.

[silverhibee]

Silly comment from Mcleish about being justified dropping Griffiths for Naismith, baldy yam wasn't even picked for he squad but got a call up later on, Griffiths will be injured for the next batch of international games.

[Hibbyradge]

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Correct.

Win our Nations League group and we are a semi and final against another two group C teams for a place in the Euros. The semi games are played in March 2020.

However, if we qualify for the Euros by finishing in the top two of the normal qualifying group, then we are qualified already and don’t need to play the Nations Cup Semi.

The seedings for the Euro qualifiers are also dependant in the Nations League performance. Win the group and we go into pot 2. A distinct advantage.

These games are definitely worth winning and are NOT glorified friendlies.

J

I didn't realise that the overall seedings were affected by this. That makes the tournament even more significant.

[Diclonius]

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The seedings for the Euro qualifiers are also dependant in the Nations League performance. Win the group and we go into pot 2. A distinct advantage.

I don't think we do. The highest we can finish in the tournament (by overall ranking) is 25th and that puts us in pot 3 (given there's ten groups). I think what's actually the case is that we have to win the group to be guaranteed pot 3 - even finishing second may put us into pot 4.

[JimBHibees]

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Silly comment from Mcleish about being justified dropping Griffiths for Naismith, baldy yam wasn't even picked for he squad but got a call up later on, Griffiths will be injured for the next batch of international games.

In terms of performance last night he was proven to be right. Naismith was good and Leigh wasnt that great.

[IGRIGI]

Also 10 of the starting 11 were born in Scotland (Tierney surprisingly born on Isle of Man), great to see less reliance on the "here to add a 0 to my transfer fee" brigade.

[Smartie]

I've also liked that McLeish has picked players playing well for Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock so far, and chosen players based on what he's seen with his own eyes rather than being dazzled by how good a player must be if they occasionally get a game in the English Championship.

[CMurdoch]

Lots of folk on this forum saying we were rubbish against Belgium and that although we beat Albania it is worth little because they are rubbish.

Anyone who has played a sport at a decent level will know that you can only play as well as you are allowed to.
Additionally if you make a mistake against a top opponent you will be ruthlessly punished.

If i play my given sport against a Belgium level player I am not able to hurt them with my usual tricks and strategies and i can be made to look pretty poor. Additionally if i really go for it the risks are high and i will inevitably be taken out if i make a small tactical or execution error.

If i then go in against an Albania level guy i can exert my game and strategy on them. If they don't play smartly and make mistakes i will take them out. Additionally i can probably make a mistake without suffering a fatal take out.

Albania are not rubbish, most of their players play in Italy. Our players are better than theirs but not a patch on the Belgians who are mostly World class.

Last night was a good performance from Scotland.
Being a Scotland supporter is like being a Hibbee, you need perspective or you will get hurt.

[GreenNWhiteArmy]

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Prediction - win tonight followed by the announcement tomorrow that we'll be remaining at Hampden.

Taking this as a scoop, for sure :-)

[SquashedFrogg]

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Fans have been complaining about meaningless friendlies for decades.

Now UEFA have implemented a tournament which reduces the frequency of them, yet folk still complain.

Not me mate. I love nothing more than a good old fashioned meaningless friendly.

Preferrably against nations I didn't even know existed 😀

[G B Young]

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Sorry but this is not correct. It's not like the Intertoto Cup at all. Win this group and we are in a play-off, guaranteed, for Euro 2020 - i.e. the thing, other than automatic qualification, we've been striving for since about 2003/4 when we last made a play-off! It is a legitimate route to the Euros and I could not give a monkeys how we get there, if we get there.

Depends what you're looking for from our international team I guess. Do we want to see them qualify thanks to steady improvement or does the fact we haven't qualified for a major tournament in 22 years mean it's all about qualifying at any cost?

By making the process easier it might mean we finally improve our lamentable qualification record, but when we're only having to beat teams of a similar, or lesser, standard to ourselves it's not going to improve our game. As I mentioned on another thread, the proposed 48-team World Cup indicates that the powers that be are looking for quantity rather than quality (presumably with a view to cashing in on more TV games).

[O'Rourke3]

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Lots of folk on this forum saying we were rubbish against Belgium and that although we beat Albania it is worth little because they are rubbish.

Anyone who has played a sport at a decent level will know that you can only play as well as you are allowed to.
Additionally if you make a mistake against a top opponent you will be ruthlessly punished.

If i play my given sport against a Belgium level player I am not able to hurt them with my usual tricks and strategies and i can be made to look pretty poor. Additionally if i really go for it the risks are high and i will inevitably be taken out if i make a small tactical or execution error.

If i then go in against an Albania level guy i can exert my game and strategy on them. If they don't play smartly and make mistakes i will take them out. Additionally i can probably make a mistake without suffering a fatal take out.

Albania are not rubbish, most of their players play in Italy. Our players are better than theirs but not a patch on the Belgians who are mostly World class.

Last night was a good performance from Scotland.
Being a Scotland supporter is like being a Hibbee, you need perspective or you will get hurt.

Someone posting sense on a fan's forum. Whatever next, Scotland winning a competitive fixture...

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[Hulk1875]

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First Scotland home competitive game in about 10 years I'll be missing tonight.

Strange line up. No objection to the formation as we play similar and with pretty poor central defensive options going with 3 makes sense to me - can't grasp that Armstrong and Griffiths are on the bench though

Huge game. Lose this and i can't see how McLeish will turn it around.

Prediction - win tonight followed by the announcement tomorrow that we'll be remaining at Hampden.

Not read all the pages after but after this result then the announcement it’s first thing I thought of aaaahhhh!!! Lol

[jacomo]

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Fans have been complaining about meaningless friendlies for decades.

Now UEFA have implemented a tournament which reduces the frequency of them, yet folk still complain.

It’s almost as if there are lots of different opinions amongst fans of the world’s most popular sport.

[CMurdoch]

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Someone posting sense on a fan's forum. Whatever next, Scotland winning a competitive fixture...

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Sorry, I got a bit carried away.
it won't happen again .

[ancient hibee]

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Depends what you're looking for from our international team I guess. Do we want to see them qualify thanks to steady improvement or does the fact we haven't qualified for a major tournament in 22 years mean it's all about qualifying at any cost?

By making the process easier it might mean we finally improve our lamentable qualification record, but when we're only having to beat teams of a similar, or lesser, standard to ourselves it's not going to improve our game. As I mentioned on another thread, the proposed 48-team World Cup indicates that the powers that be are looking for quantity rather than quality (presumably with a view to cashing in on more TV games).

More TV money to the SFA will give them a chance of improving standards therefore getting there is more important than how we get there.