Timmy Cahill gets 2 and the Aussies are still alive and looking forward to the two leg playoff against either Panama or Honduras. Cahill has now scored at least a goal for the Socceroos in every year since 2004 - what a legend.

As you know Mark you're preaching to the converted. Watched yesterday's game and feel T.C. Could still do a job at Goodison where he remains a LEGEND.

France fairly comfortably qualify. Holland came good at the end, but it was all too little to late & Sweden go into the play offs.
Portugal did enough in their last match to topple the Swiss into the play offs.
Belgium walked through group H, with a draw their only blemish. Greece go into the play offs..

So the 9 European qualifiers are:
Belgium, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Serbia & Spain.

Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Greece are into the second placed play offs, with Slovkia (second in England's group) the side to miss out.
Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Denmark are the top FIFA rated teams, so they will be seeded. Meaning that a Northern Ireland v the Republic cannot happen.
The draw takes place on the 16th..

Lionel Messi scored a superb hat-trick as Argentina came from behind to win away in Ecuador and qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Brazil had already qualified and Luis Suarez scored twice as Uruguay beat Bolivia 4-2 to qualify, with Colombia also advancing with a 1-1 draw in Peru.
Peru finished fifth in South American qualifying and will now meet New Zealand in a two-legged play-off.
But Alexis Sanchez and Chile are out after losing 3-0 away in Brazil.

BobHelm wrote: ↑

October 11, 2017, 7:52 am

Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Greece are into the second placed play offs, with Slovkia (second in England's group) the side to miss out.
Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Denmark are the top FIFA rated teams, so they will be seeded. Meaning that a Northern Ireland v the Republic cannot happen.
The draw takes place on the 16th..

I'd think the Irish teams would certainly want to avoid Italy and,quite possibly,Croatia ??

20:54
It's over for Strachan

Scots opt for new direction

It always looked likely after their failure to qualify for the World Cup and now it's official.

Bit tough on the man to be honest. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
The Scottish FA (very much like the English ) take the all too easy answer of sacking the manager for failure because to solve the huge underlying issues are way beyond them !! & are probably cash related, which makes biting the bullet even more unlikely!!

Its ironic that Strachan gets the chop when Scotland are having the best spell for a number of years.....is it 6 games unbeaten now ?
If they wouldn't have had such a poor start to their World Cup campaign they would have easily made the play offs.

Zidane wrote: ↑

October 10, 2017, 10:54 am

There is, then, a real danger that Argentina, Lionel Messi and all, will be missing from the 2018 World Cup.

Oh yea of little faith, Zid!

panmotor wrote: ↑

September 6, 2017, 5:45 pm

Interesting also in Sth America that Chile and Alexis Sanchez probably wont even make the play off with one of their games away to Brazil.

Mats last comment reminded me I said this earlier in the thread. I am at York races today so, hopefully my predictions will stay hot!

Imagine being a fan of a football team and being told the three favourites for the managers post are David Moyes,Alex McLeish and Paul Lambert !

Alex McLeish says it would be "hard" to say no if the Scottish Football Association asked him to manage the national side for a second time.
Gordon Strachan left the post on Thursday, four days after the team failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Ex-Scotland winger Pat Nevin says David Moyes would be the ideal successor.
His fellow former internationals Barry Ferguson and Kris Commons have praised Paul Lambert.
Former Scotland midfielder Ferguson believes McLeish would take the job "in a second".
The former Rangers captain added: "We weren't great to watch [under McLeish in 2007], but we played a certain way and we got results at the end of the day."
'
Moyes is a former Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociedad manager but has been out of work since leaving Sunderland following their relegation to the Championship in May.
Nevin acknowledges the 54-year-old's "star has slightly fallen" since he built his reputation at Everton, but says he would have no hesitation in approaching him.
"If it was my choice, I would go straight for David Moyes," Nevin told BBC 5 live.

Lambert, 48, was a Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund and won eight major trophies in seven seasons at Celtic, including four Scottish titles.
The former Scotland captain, who won 40 caps from 1995 to 2003, has managed Livingston, Wycombe, Colchester United, Norwich City and Aston Villa, before brief stints at Blackburn and Wolves in England's Championship.
"I would go for someone like Paul Lambert," Ferguson told BBC Scotland's Sportsound.
Former Celtic and Scotland midfielder Commons also endorsed Lambert's credentials.
"Paul would be ideal," he told Sportsound."Talking to him a few weeks ago about spending time with different coaches in different countries, he wants to fill that brain of his with as much football intelligence as he can from all over the world. There is no-one who knows the Scottish game better than Paul Lambert."

I think that both Irelands will be reasonably happy with the draw.
Sad news is that it means YET ANOTHER disruption to the Premier League as all the other European countries will be playing ridiculous friendlies at the same time..

Yes, and this lot of ridiculous friendlies will be more of a problem as National managers "try out" fringe players who would normally be at home training with their own team managers.

This really HAS to be the last World cup to be in this format. The current state of the game has moved on and Internationals are now looked on by almost everyone as a "pain", rather than the highlight of yesteryear

Not only are players risking injuries playing on substandard pitches etc, team managers are having to leave players out of following games due to exhaustion/tiredness/mental issues due to non qualification etc etc

Just watched text feeds (yes thats how sad I am) of England beating Brazil in the semis of the under 17s world cup. Seems like we have a few "golden generations" coming through (until they discover beer and p***sy).

A Liverpool kid got his 2nd hat rick in consecutive games and the MOM was apparently a Man City youngster who Pep allegedly rates highly. This was without our star Jadon Sancho who was recalled by his club, Dortmund.

Wouldnt it be great if some of these lads got a chance in the Prem this year with a view to taking them to Russia.....no chance

Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday

What a great ........ WARNING ...... limited attention span reached ......... please re boot when proper football season restarts

Croatia firmly in charge of their qualifier as the defence, for once, let Greece down. They do have an away goal but it will need a huge turnaround for that to come into play.

Northern Ireland now face an uphill struggle in their match after the Swiss were handed (pun intended) a very soft penalty to win the game. In truth the visitors did most of the pressing & looked the better side..

Switzerland now have a record of Played 11 Won 10 in this World Cup so the chances of turning it round in the second leg are pretty slim indeed

Poor refereeing gifted the Swiss their goal. Once again the mentality of UEFA comes into question. They are allowing VIDEO ASSISTED REFEREE for tonight's friendly England v Germany but not for an Important W. C. Qualifier Play Off Game like last night's. Go Figure.

goodison wrote: ↑

November 10, 2017, 11:56 am

Poor refereeing gifted the Swiss their goal. Once again the mentality of UEFA comes into question. They are allowing VIDEO ASSISTED REFEREE for tonight's friendly England v Germany but not for an Important W. C. Qualifier Play Off Game like last night's. Go Figure.

Would have thought that was easy to "figure" goodison ............. they couldn't give a rats a*se if England v Germany is a fiasco with referees going to the "technology" every time someone breathes too heavily.
If they don't trust the decisions of the referee then put TWO of them onto the pitch (they have radio contact anyway) to control the game and get one of the ballboys to hold up the changes board and listen to the managers rants on the touchline

As an ice hockey fan of many years, I can tell you there is nothing more bloody frustrating for the fans than having 3 (sometimes 4) referees on the ice, and then spending 60 - 120 seconds + at a time, whilst they go to watch a replay from 17 different angles to see if the puck hit someones skate on the way into the net

Surely as long as the correct decision is eventually made then V.A.R. is the solution. it works in Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, nothing more frustrating than to work for a period of a few years on preparing for a competition to have those preparations flushed down the drain by an inept official who picks up his pay check regardless of his poor performance and what it means to Managers (the sack), Players (benched) and fans ( mickey-taking on a web-site) etc.etc.