Mezz
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The World Cup 2010 ThreadGroup 1:
Portugal
Sweden
Denmark
Hungary
Albania
Malta
Group 2:
Greece
Israel
Switzerland
Moldova
Latvia
Luxembourg
Group 3:
Czech Republic
Poland
Noerthern Ireland
Slovakia
Slovenia
San Marino
Group 4:
Germany
Russia
Finland
Wales
Azerbaijan
Liechtenstein
Group 5:
Spain
Turkey
Belgium
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Armenia
Estonia
Group 6:
Croatia
England
Ukraine
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Andorra
Group 7:
France
Romania
Serbia
Lithuania
Austria
Faroe Islands
Group 8:
Italy
Bulgaria
Republic of Ireland
Cyprus
Georgia
Montenegro
Group 9:
Holland
Scotland
Norway
FYR Macedonia
Iceland
Qualification is different than it used to be, with the 9 group winners proceeding straight to the finals and 8 runners-up facing a play-off.
I stand to be corrected on this, but because Scotland are in a group of 5 rather than 6 I suspect we'll have to actually win our group in order to progress as the other 8 groups will provide the second placed teams that enter the play-off...
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il ferret
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You're buggered then 
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Mezz
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Sorry, I keep forgetting that all England have to do is turn up in order to qualify for tournaments and that the Scots should bow down to your international might.
Nonetheless, all the best with your four trips to Eastern Europe and your three-way battle with Ukraine and Belarus to finish second behind Croatia...
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Myles
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Between ourselves and Cyprus for 3rd place then. At least i might be able to add Palladino's signature to my shirt if i catch him at the airport in Dublin.
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saviola
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Mezz - as I understand it, when the qualifying campaign finishes, teams in the groups of six lose any points they have acquired against whoever finished bottom of their group. The best 8 runners-up then go into the play-offs. Don't ask me anything about what I have just written, if there are any complications then I don't know the answer and nor, probably, do the authorities.
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nino
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Wales Germany again! England Croatia tee hee. Can't wait to see the tosh the newspapers come up with for those matches.
As for us, a good draw, though one of those nations will probably have a great team all of a sudden a la Scotland/Wales when placed in our group.
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Dave
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I think that this qualifying model has been used before (was it the last but one World Cup? The Euros?) The team finishing 6th is disregarded when comparing the 2nd placed teams, so if you're in a six-strong group and thrash the side that finishes bottom 6-0 and 7-0 in the two games you play against them, the results only count towards your position in your group.
The points gained against the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th placed sides are added together and then compared with the 2nd-placed team in the 5-strong group. If the points are equal between two sides, then some other calculations (I forget what they are) come into play - again disregarding the bottom sides in the 6-strong groups.
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zeds
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The seedings do seem absurd. England muck it up in one Qualifying campaign and get downgraded to the 2nd pot, whereas Greece who didn't even qualify for the last World Cup are somehow top seeds in a group where Israel (who haven't qualified for anything for as long as I remember) are second in that pot with Serbia only 3rd seeds in another group  ...
Slovakia who are a fairly decent side find themselves in the 4th pot, whereas Northern Ireland are 3rd seeds.
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Mezz
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| Dave wrote: | | The points gained against the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th placed sides are added together and then compared with the 2nd-placed team in the 5-strong group. If the points are equal between two sides, then some other calculations (I forget what they are) come into play - again disregarding the bottom sides in the 6-strong groups. |
There's a good chance that I've got the completely wrong end of the stick here, but isn't this unfair on the second placed team in the group of 5 seeing as they'll have two less games to get points for comparison against the other second placed teams?
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saviola
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The second placed team in the group of 5 don't have their points removed, Mezz, the point of removing them is to achieve a fair basis for comparison with that group.
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Mezz
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Aaah, gotcha!
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ForzaFiori
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Reasonable draw for Scotland, better than the last one anyway.
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Dels
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I'm really happy with the draw, I think we can win all our home games. Should win the away games against Macedonia & Iceland. Maybe a point against Norway, I would assume we'll get beaten by Holland away.
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