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.

Italy will have to work far harder in the home leg if they are going to qualify for the World Cup. They were disappointing in the first leg as they allowed Sweden to outwork & out-muscle them. The Swedes certainly deserved an advantage going into the second leg..

Honduras 0 Australia 0. Many chances created for the away goal but none taken. 30 hours travel back to Sydney before Wednesday's decider.

The Republic have completed the first half of the challenge, now for the second leg!!

Well that's the first 11000+ miles of the 24000+ mile round trip for Scunny's Clayton Lewis and the other UK based All Whites .......

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41860130

No goals last night as the first leg decides both games.
Disappointing result for Northern Ireland to what was an outstanding campaign.
Croatia had done more than enough in the first leg & I am sure that few football fans will be sorry to see the exit of the Greek side...

goodison wrote: ↑

November 10, 2017, 4:48 pm

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.

Just ask the fans in Germany who are all up in arms because their teams are forced to have it for league matches. Massive protests and even their main footie journal "kicker" has said it wants VAR out. Even had one VAR referee sacked coz he was using it to influence the ref in decisions about the team he supported

I think it very much depends exactly how it is introduced Statts & I think that the authorities have done far too little by way of suggesting methods & trialling them - I would have thought that meaningless friendlies was an ideal time to try a few different things, personally.

The methods used in both cricket & tennis work, in my opinion, exceptionally well. However they are both games with many natural interludes in the action anyway. The 'number of wrong referrals allowed' at least makes a good stab at stopping ridiculous appeals going off the field.
I am often surprised, while watching cricket, just how good the umpires are in their decision making, given the speed of the ball.

I have watched (howbeit a limited amount) of rugby league & I think they have the technological assistance just about as wrong as it is possible to get. Every score sees the referee ask the video judge to adjudicate on some part of the play. I think that the fact he knows he can & will do this means he doesn't bother to make the tough decisions himself while the play is in motion. To be honest he may as well not be on the pitch & let the man in the stands make all the decisions once the ball crosses the line..

Italy not in a World Cup for the first time since 1958..
they were in an almost impossible group to qualify out of, being paired with the best national team in Europe - Spain. They took the first leg against Sweden far too casually though, while Sweden worked their socks off. This game was all Italy (76% possession) but Sweden knew that if they defended successfully then they were through...

Can't remember ONE of Italy's chances where you would say they SHOULD score. Plenty of half chances and tame shots, but in truth they didn't look like scoring. Ventura their coach has resigned (and so should the people in the Italian FA who appointed him in the first place) with Carlo Ancelotti and (I want to go back to Italy) Conte being touted as possible successors. Putting it into perspective, the best player on the park over 2 legs was Andreas Granqvist who at the peak of his career (about 10 years ago) played for Wigan Athletic, and the Swedes also relied on Seb Laarson who lets face it couldn't get into the Sunderland team
Can only say that Russia 2018 will be a better place WITHOUT Italy

NOT QUITE THIS THREAD BUT, England v Brazil Friendly game is being shown at 03:00 hrs (Wed) on Bugaboo.TV Is that a streaming only channel? Don't see it on TrueVisions?