Hehe I'm surprised there wasn't more violence last night, as in the cities there were Turkish parties everywhere. So annoying.

Funny stat: of the last 13 times a European team got 3rd place at a WC, 9 of those didn't make the next Euros. In fact, Turkey was the last one before us to do that.

two_sheds

Croatia104 Posts

October 14 2015 11:14 GMT

#3044

Seeds for play-off round are determined, draw is on Sunday.

Seeded: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Sweden, Hungary
Unseeded: Denmark, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Slovenia

I guess best draw would be Hungary from seeded group and Slovenia/Ireland from unseeded.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

October 14 2015 11:33 GMT

#3045

Hardest team in unseeded would be Ireland hands down for me. They would give a good game to whoever they draw against. They conceded the fewest goals in their group which had Germany and Lewandowski's Poland in. Pretty good going that.
I think Norway might even be the best draw im not sure, they might be a bit mentally crushed after missing out on automatic qualification.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

October 14 2015 11:55 GMT

#3046

Seeds are set for the tournament too;
Note: Using highest seeded teams from playoffs to make up the pots.

Pot 1

Germany

Spain

England

Portugal

Belgium

France (Auto Seeded into Group A)

Pot 2

Italy

Russia

Switzerland

Austria

Croatia
Bosnia & Herzegovina

Pot 3

Ukraine

Czech Republic

Sweden

Poland

Romania

Slovakia

Pot 4

Hungary

Turkey

Iceland

Wales
Albania (flag coming soon

)

Northern Ireland

Group of deaths
Germany
Italy
Poland
Wales/Iceland/Turkey

Holy hell alot of group of death possibilities! Nice new tourney structure UEFA xD

BeaTeR

Kazakhstan4130 Posts

October 14 2015 12:10 GMT

#3047

agree with pandemona here
Ireland is the toughest team from unseeded pot

Mafe

Germany5966 Posts

October 14 2015 12:26 GMT

#3048

Group of death is possible, sure. And even if there isnt one by objective standards, the media still will find one. But then we might have a possible 4 groups of
belgium/austria/slovakia/albania
portugal/bosnia/romania/hungary
seeded team +croatia/slovakia/iceland
another seeded team + switzerland/ukraine/northern ireland

And for either of such a group, I doubt they will create much excitement but for the countries involved.
For most of the bigger nations, the real tournament should start only once the knockout stages begin.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

October 14 2015 12:50 GMT

#3049

True guess for the hard groups you could end up with some unfavorable ones. Lets hope for a good group draw in December :D

RvB

Netherlands6326 Posts

October 14 2015 13:20 GMT

#3050

On October 14 2015 05:55 Ysellian wrote:
On paper I feel turkey have the second best squad so I can understand he feels turkey underperformed despite qualifying, but Turkey certainly deserve to qualify. We didn't and we didn't.

I only hope that this means the KNVB will be cleaned up.

It has to right? This is such a colossal failure...

two_sheds

Croatia104 Posts

October 14 2015 13:31 GMT

#3051

On October 14 2015 21:10 BeaTeR wrote:
agree with pandemona here
Ireland is the toughest team from unseeded pot

Maybe I'm still under the impression of their last game vs Poland, where they did almost nothing the entire game. They really looked terrible there.

Norway played good every game in qualifiers, except the games vs Italy, especially this last one. But I might be biased, as i watched quite a lot of Norwegian football lately (National team + Strømsgodset and Molde in 4 games vs Croatian teams), so they kinda grew on me :p

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

October 14 2015 13:40 GMT

#3052

Haha indeed, but don't forget last year you beat them 5-1

(croatia vs norway i mean)

two_sheds

Croatia104 Posts

October 14 2015 14:03 GMT

#3053

On October 14 2015 22:40 Pandemona wrote:
Haha indeed, but don't forget last year you beat them 5-1

(croatia vs norway i mean)

Yeah, that result is really misleading, everything we tried went in and Norway didn't look bad at all

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

October 14 2015 14:14 GMT

#3054

Oh right fair enough. I guess maybe there isn't any weak teams in the playoffs then, could all be really close games. Isn't any France vs Ireland or Sweden vs Portugal like we have had in the past, but still might be worth a watch.

Spanish and Germans fans i suggest watch the playoffs instead of watching your sides get pummeled by England in friendlies :D

PoulsenB

Poland7764 Posts

October 14 2015 14:18 GMT

#3055

I just hope the Polish national squad will finally break the pattern and play in the tournament itself at a similar level as in the qualifiers. Previous EC and WC tourneys were pretty miserable for us in this respect (at least in this century). Coach Nawałka seems to have a good head on his shoulders and we finally have several world-class players (not only Lewandowski, but also Milik, Krychowiak and Glik, and I guess Fabiański and Szczęsny to some extent), so I guess it's now or never.

Dingodile

4139 Posts

October 14 2015 14:18 GMT

#3056

On October 14 2015 20:55 Pandemona wrote:
Germany
Italy
Poland
Turkey

Holy hell alot of group of death possibilities! Nice new tourney structure UEFA xD

This is probably the most dramatical/rivalry group from german view at all. Only Netherland is missing I think.

Liquid`Drone

Norway28918 Posts

October 14 2015 16:36 GMT

#3057

On October 14 2015 20:33 Pandemona wrote:
Hardest team in unseeded would be Ireland hands down for me. They would give a good game to whoever they draw against. They conceded the fewest goals in their group which had Germany and Lewandowski's Poland in. Pretty good going that.
I think Norway might even be the best draw im not sure, they might be a bit mentally crushed after missing out on automatic qualification.

definitely not crushed, norway's team is on a massive psychological upswing right now. aside from the 50 minutes we were leading vs italy in the final match, nobody in Norway had any real hopes of us directly qualifying at any point, because we were huge underdogs coming into this group.

Like, if this was one year ago, I would be saying that Norway is clearly the worst team in the payoffs. We looked terrible, none of our domestic teams looked good, and our high profile players outside Norway were largely not playing for their teams. Now, Rosenborg has had a great season, Molde is leading europa league group with fenerbache, ajax and celtic after two match days, Norway has two conceded goals in the past 6 matches (sweden, azerbaijan, croatia, italy, malta and bulgaria), with the matches against croatia, malta and bulgaria being really really solid.. It's still Norway, I'm not saying we're necessarily favorites in any matchup, but I think we have a really fair chance against every other team in the playoff.

Honestly with our current momentum I'd argue that yeah, Ireland #1, but Norway is #2 of the unseeded teams. even 8 months ago I'd say we were clearly #4, so this can change quickly, but right now we're doing good.

Boucot

France15997 Posts

October 14 2015 18:07 GMT

#3058

On October 14 2015 20:55 Pandemona wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

Seeds are set for the tournament too;
Note: Using highest seeded teams from playoffs to make up the pots.

Pot 1

Germany

Spain

England

Portugal

Belgium

France (Auto Seeded into Group A)

Pot 2

Italy

Russia

Switzerland

Austria

Croatia
Bosnia & Herzegovina

Pot 3

Ukraine

Czech Republic

Sweden

Poland

Romania

Slovakia

Pot 4

Hungary

Turkey

Iceland

Wales
Albania (flag coming soon

)

Northern Ireland

Group of deaths
Germany
Italy
Poland
Wales/Iceland/Turkey

Holy hell alot of group of death possibilities! Nice new tourney structure UEFA xD

Well, yes, some groups could be hard but don't forget that it is a 24-team Euro now where the 4 best thirds qualify anyway for Ro16. Which means teams that lose 2 out of 3 matches can go through. I don't know how you all feel about that but from the very beginning I'm very skeptical about the move from 16 to 24.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

October 14 2015 18:11 GMT

#3059

Yeah i loved 16 man tournament, was great because all 4 groups were extremely strong. England Italy Sweden were the group last EUROs for example, was great.
Netherlands Portugal Germany wasn't it as well?

Micro_Jackson

Germany2002 Posts

October 14 2015 18:46 GMT

#3060

On October 15 2015 03:11 Pandemona wrote:
Yeah i loved 16 man tournament, was great because all 4 groups were extremely strong. England Italy Sweden were the group last EUROs for example, was great.
Netherlands Portugal Germany wasn't it as well?

In my mind the EUROs were always "ok who wins this is really the best of the world", because you cant slip a single game. the 2014 version of Brazil would not have made it out of a single group from euro 2012.

Yea they could be okayisch groups but i see a lot of meaningless game 3s.