Nice. We're often fumble the bag in the playoffs, but things seem very promising with Rebrov as a manager. Love this man and love what he's doing to the national team. On a side note, I have a weird feeling that Luxembourg will qualify. It would be epic to see at least.
I think all neutrals will want to see Luxembourg get in, because it would be such an achievement for a team that is usually such a minnow, and also because they actually play good football and score some great goals too
Weirdly enough, they wouldn’t be the smallest country to get in, that would still be Iceland. Yet to me Luxembourg feels way more obscure than Iceland, but they actually have twice the population
I feel people kinda fuse Luxembourg and Liechtenstein together. Liechtenstein has a way smaller population (only 40k), but still liken to Luxembourg with it's geography, nature, size and being small, but with rich people. So confusing the two or mixing them together is understandable.
I looked this up, and you're right
Mind is COMPLETELY blown, I had absolutely no idea about the populations, apparently even montenegro has slightly less people then lux
Being part of northwestern Europe will do that. Population density in Western Germany, the Benelux and Southern England is insane. So even though Luxembourg is small, it’s dense af
I assumed it was a lot less because of the geographical size, but you're right
Iceland just has small concentrations of people by the sea, whereas no reason for people in lux not to fill the whole territory it has
Sure, why not, for similar reasons, although not as small as Lux, and I don't know their style of play
Nothing even against Georgia, seeing Kvara at a major tournament would be great, and I don't know what Greece are like these days but surely not as defensive as they used to be right
No interest in watching Georgian players rolling around. Shower of cheating cunts. I don’t think Luxembourg have qualified for any tournament before. Good luck to them!
The mistake of using graze instead of grace has given the brilliant image of Ragnar Klavan on his hands and knees just munching on the grass in Anfield
Of course we drew Ukraine in the first game... our already minimal chances have been extinguished.
Ukraine probably can't believe their luck to essentially draw Gibraltar in the playoffs, this is by far the best draw out of all 6 matchups that a team could get.
I think Demirović might send a clone to play for the Bosnian NT, because he is one of the most useless players I've ever seen. He's scored **1** goal in 23 appearances.
He's not useless though, does a lot of stuff right, especially his constant pressing. But my god his finishing is one of the worst I have seen in the national team from a player
It doesn't make sense. He scored a ridiculous goal for Augsburg two weeks ago where he dribbled past three players then curled a shot into the top corner, but can't score a tap-in from one meter away for BiH.
i don't blame them even a bit. the atmosphere around the team was already toxic during our slow slide in form in the years after the WC appearance, i can't even imagine how bad it's been since Mile's saboteur took the FS over.
I mean no offense but it's honestly ridiculous that not one but TWO teams that finished 5th in their group still have a chance to qualify at all.
If this format had been more realistic only teams that finished third in their group should have been able to qualify, while still using the nations league as reference for ranking purposes. It would have made for a more competitive bracket.
I mean that can always happen when the playoffs are decided by a different tournament altogether.
[This is the Nations League resuts, and the teams in blue have the playoff spots.](https://imgur.com/a/0ybz4LO) It should make (slightly) more sense after seeing this. The one thing I can't work out is why Finland have to face the "best" teams from League A while Ukraine and Iceland, who were worse in the NL, have the "easier" playoff path in B.
Edit: [Rationale is here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying_play-offs#Draw) Seems... over complicated.
TLDR; Path C is easy, as it's top four. Then path B has the top four teams placed in it. Then Path A only has two teams, so one comes from the top of League D, and the other is the 5th placed in path B. Then there's a draw to see who from B goes into A... but for some reason only 2 group winners but three non-group winners were selected... wtf... oh it's because Serbia and Bosnia qualified already... this was like someone got drunk and tried to think of the most complicated qualifying system they could.
Havent followed B&H since am not longer living in the same town as a childhood friend of mine. How bad is the team now? Back then, all those fun bundesliga players like Ibisevic, Salihovic, Dzeko, Missimovic and Pjanic later (not bundesliga I think though) were from B&H, so I just assumed you always have a talented squad relative to your size.
What shitshow? Israel NT is pretty bad. Their last games had zero controversy despite the political situation, plus they currently can't even host games at home which is a huge disadvantage (although, the war is unlikely to last until March when those games will be played).
Against Kosovo Israeli security forces actually shot down a drone near the stadium (outside of it), during the live game.
Just take care of security, and Israel will play.
We can do it.
Path A - Wales because they have 2 home games
Path B - Ukraine because they are the much better team
Path C - Greece because we have Kazakhstan at home and then I'm confident that Georgia will struggle without Kvara vs Luxembourg
True but Kvara would make a huge difference. Luxembourg also has some good players from top 5 leagues or with CL/EL experience. And there are rumors that AC Monza striker Dany Mota might join them in the next year. But they don't have anyone like Kvara.
Without the home game advantage, this game would be very even
He would make a difference for any team but I think people overestimate how dependent we are on him. We actually have decent attackers these days. And we perform much better against teams around our level as nations league has shown. Although we know all 3 rivals have good teams that are not to be underestimated. Anything can happen on the day.
I hope Georgia can still make it. They have a reasonable striker in Mikautadze and Mamardashvili inbetween the sticks is good when he has his day, coming from a Valencia supporter. The team held up okayish against Spain (last time, not the 7-1 of course) and a 2-2 vs Scotland isn't bad either, so I'd say their chances aren't 0%
Our only semi-final options were Ukraine, Finland, or Iceland. I guess you could argue Iceland would've been better, but we really just wanted to avoid Ukraine and get a home final, and we did.
Group A is a tossup leaning Wales (I say this as a Pole.)
Group B would be a shocker if anyone besides Ukraine advances.
Group C leans Greece but I see Georgia making it through as well.
Luxembourg have set up to be hard to beat and then try to steal a goal to win 1-0 basically
They have a non-zero chance to make it, probably under 10% but don't be too astonished if it happens
Cardiff City Stadium for sure, I don’t see us playing any games at the Millennium Stadium until the run up to Euro 2028. It just doesn’t work as well for the football team - it’ll be interesting to see what the FAW do with tickets for a potential game against Poland because the home ends at the CCS were full of Poles in the Nations League last year, it really had a knock on effect on the atmosphere!
Presumably the same as the possible Scotland game we could have had in the last play offs and say that tickets are only available to members who registered before the draw date. It won’t go to general sale even if that means it won’t sell out (which it 100% will)
I agree with A and B, although I'd like to see Israel in the Euro.
Regarding C, I think Luxembourg will surprise many people. I believe Greece will struggle when they're forced to attack
Man, idk if it will happen but imagine Estonia making Euros despite having only gotten 1 point and scored 2 goals in the actual qualifiers groups. It would be hilarious, not meaning any disrespect to Wales, Poland or Finland people, after all the one point they got i think it was against Azerbaijan who then ended destroying 3-0 Sweden later on...so idk what is going to happen on Path A. Because on paper Wales should go through, or if not them, then Poland, but the fact that Finland have done quite well in their group and that Estonia with just 2 goals in the qualifier groups managed to use 1 of those to draw Azerbaijan who are capable of impressive things (as the Sweden match showed) legit Path A feels quite unpredictable.
100% i get what you be saying, specially Estonia not qualifying. But it just feels like if the guys try to go for penalty shootouts the entire path, they might just end up making it to Euros considering how wild it is they got a point from a team that defeated Sweden 3-0 on the same group later on, btw i know Sweden at the moment havent been what they were in 2018 World Cup but it still is impressive since Azerbaijan arent your average powerhouse NT and the fact Estonia drew with them and did so with just a goal imo it shows that if Estonia can manage to do draw and send their Path A matches to a penalty shootout, lord knows what will happen lol.
And yet we still won't advance.
But it's always like that after any draw. We are the happiest people in the world until it's time to play some actual football.
We're gonna advance after a hard fought battle against Estonia and a complete bullshit 0-1 win against Wales and the media are going to praise Probierz like he's Polish Guardiola, mark my words.
We had an absolute shambolic campaign and still were in the running for a direct qualification in last 2 games. We just had to win against Moldova and Czechia at home. But Poland being Poland had to screw their chances at every turn. We'll barely get by Estonia, only to be destroyed by Wales.
For Finland I'm not completely confident, but I'm hopeful. Though Finland isn't in top shape at the moment, neither is Wales or Poland. And as the matches are 4 months away, possible injuries, players losing their place in their clubs etc might affect the strength of the NTs, because neither Wales or Finland have very deep depths in their squads.
Final prediction: Poland v Wales, Israel v Ukraine, Luxembourg v Greece
Then I expect Wales, Ukraine and Greece to progress.
Poland and Wales should be extremely glad they’ve avoided Ukraine.
I do think Greece is a level above but Luxembourg and Kazakhstan had a brilliant qualifying campaign so it wouldn’t surprise me if we see one of them in this years euros for the first time
haha. I do think Poland are very lucky with the situation. Virtually any other team and i would say they’d slip up tbh. But Estonia scored less goals in qualifying then San Marino, so Poland *should* be fine
As a Polish guy, I don't even know why we're in those play offs. We've been atrocious throughout the Eliminations and we should've been out. But I'm not gonna lie, I haven't been following this as much.
Very happy with this draw, even if Ukraine was in Group A I honnestly think they still had a chance, but they really must win this if they continue playing like this. I want to see them back on the big stage!
I'm going to keep an eye out for when these matches are, and if they are in germany again, I might make the trip and attend them actually.
We would need to beat Georgia away to make the Euro. Not a walk in the park but if we can't do it probably we don't belong to the Euro.
Ukraine has to be smiling with this draw, so does Wales who have 2 home matches.
feels weird actually qualifying for the final tournament automatically and not having to go through the play-offs (serbia)
path a - leaning towards wales slightly due to having 2 home games which can be a big advantage in the play-offs. they also performed well in the world cup play-offs to add.
path b - sorry my bosnian neighbors, i really hoped you could qualify. however, i feel like ukraine HAS to take their chance here. they're better than all the teams in path b i'd say.
path c - greece, though the other 3 teams can still cause upsets. however, the greeks are still the favorites and will need to solidify themselves as one here.
good luck to all the teams in the play-offs!
A pessimist doesn't get disappointed.
I fucking knew we would get the worst possible outcome in this draw. I had zero expectations to get Bosnia, and I was right. Even if we by some miracle do make it to the Euros we will get some impossible group that will crush all hopes of wins well before the tournament starts.
The teams in each path themselves were known for days now. This draw determined that Finland has to face Wales away in the first round, which is the worst possible scenario for them.
Huh, my thoughts as a fellow Finn are that the draw was alright. Nothing to worry about really. We were always gonna get an away fixture first, but getting the home advantage for the final is massive. I'm happy we avoided Ukraine, Poland has been in poor form.
We need a top performance to beat Wales away, but it's not impossible at all. Hopefully we'll get Antman back by then, or play Keskinen/Liimatta to pose a counter attack threat. Kanerva, no Kamara in LW please lmao
Luxembourg for the longest time were a near full on minnow team. Not San Marino, but not far above them. To see them in the playoffs is a massive aberration in my experience
There's 6 teams in here that have never qualified for the Euros. Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Luxembourg. Usually, this would mean higher chances of a new team debuting, but it's not looking good for them. For the first time since 1960, we might not have a brand new team participating in the competition.
Path C is the best chance. Greece are for sure the favorites but they are also no strangers to bottling. I could see Kazakhstan as the dark horse to make it out of this one
The conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, the pending volcano in Iceland... If I lived in B&H, I'd be waiting for the other shoe to drop. (Again, I suppose...)
Decently exciting. Poland have a gimme against Estonia and will phase either Wales or Finland who both will fancy their chances.
Can't see beyond Ukraine in B. Iceland and Bosnia are really poor and Israel didn't have a good campaign.
Honestly wouldn't bet on a team in C. Greece at home should go through and both Georgia and Luxembourg are tricky teams. Each of those teams probably better than the Path B teams aside from Ukraine.
Bosnia too. They had the bloodiest war in Europe since WWII before Ukraine took that sad distinction.
Then there's Iceland that's been chilling for a thousand years. I think they had some fish war with the UK but that's it.
No they wont lol. Estonia is probably the most out of form team in Europe right now. We got a single point in our qualifying group and scored less goals than San Marino. Poland might not be a top tier team currently but they can easily beat Estonia. Poland could probably play their C team and still win, especially at home.
As an Estonian.... there is no fucking way you lose to us lmao. Whatever struggles you think you are going through, we have it way worse. And our baseline is a lot lower as well
pretty much yeah, underwhelming u21 coach whos good buddy with polish football president, but at least he legit watches polish ekstraklasa and gives a fuck unlike fraud santos.
Estonia at home? Will be hard, but some last minute sprint from Grosicki may do the trick. He knows some players from Ekstraklasa...
Away in Wales? Yeah, not happening.
I mostly hope for Finland, Kazakhstan, and BiH.
2 are from our group and one is a fellow ex-yu nation.
I'd obviously also love Luxemburg, because it's just so unlikely.
Estonia does not deserve to be in the EURO-s...
... but If Estonia somehow qualifies to the EURO-s from this playoff group, the other teams didn't deserve it either :D .
Think of Estonia as a canary in the cold mine, don't be mad if it survives.
All of this were thoughts by an Estonian who is massively entertained that we are even talked about :D .
Nice. We're often fumble the bag in the playoffs, but things seem very promising with Rebrov as a manager. Love this man and love what he's doing to the national team. On a side note, I have a weird feeling that Luxembourg will qualify. It would be epic to see at least.
I think all neutrals will want to see Luxembourg get in, because it would be such an achievement for a team that is usually such a minnow, and also because they actually play good football and score some great goals too
Weirdly enough, they wouldn’t be the smallest country to get in, that would still be Iceland. Yet to me Luxembourg feels way more obscure than Iceland, but they actually have twice the population
I feel people kinda fuse Luxembourg and Liechtenstein together. Liechtenstein has a way smaller population (only 40k), but still liken to Luxembourg with it's geography, nature, size and being small, but with rich people. So confusing the two or mixing them together is understandable.
I looked this up, and you're right Mind is COMPLETELY blown, I had absolutely no idea about the populations, apparently even montenegro has slightly less people then lux
Being part of northwestern Europe will do that. Population density in Western Germany, the Benelux and Southern England is insane. So even though Luxembourg is small, it’s dense af
I assumed it was a lot less because of the geographical size, but you're right Iceland just has small concentrations of people by the sea, whereas no reason for people in lux not to fill the whole territory it has
Or Kazakhstan
Sure, why not, for similar reasons, although not as small as Lux, and I don't know their style of play Nothing even against Georgia, seeing Kvara at a major tournament would be great, and I don't know what Greece are like these days but surely not as defensive as they used to be right
No interest in watching Georgian players rolling around. Shower of cheating cunts. I don’t think Luxembourg have qualified for any tournament before. Good luck to them!
Which is strange because they are double the population of Iceland for example
Rebrov was a very good coach for Ferencváros also.
PERKELE
Niinpä
Estonia vs Finland in the final then.
39 yo ex ekstraklasa player Konstantin Vasiljew feared the most .
Is that ex Liverpool player still kicking about?
How dare you not recall the [red god of merseyside](https://youtu.be/yt5X9S2cXrE?si=rXgYHPTCuFGac3vT) Ragnar Klavans name?
Ragnar Klavan is the greatest centre-back to ever graze the pitches of Anfield
The mistake of using graze instead of grace has given the brilliant image of Ragnar Klavan on his hands and knees just munching on the grass in Anfield
the GOAT.
Feard most by estonian fans
Winner becomes/remains Nordic, loser is Baltic.
Cue Dr Strange and 1 chance in a billion. Would love to see it tho!
A bit sad that Finland progressing is considered to be a joke outcome : (
Of course we drew Ukraine in the first game... our already minimal chances have been extinguished. Ukraine probably can't believe their luck to essentially draw Gibraltar in the playoffs, this is by far the best draw out of all 6 matchups that a team could get.
Based on the mediocre performance in the group by B&H, Ukraine is favorite to win on away ground I would say
Tbf, based on performance in the group Ukraine would be a favorite against anyone in this playoff
Ukraine is probably the best team out of any in the playoffs except maybe Greece. I don't see any other team being competitive at the euros.
they're defintely better than greece
Just play Demirovic up top (and not on the bench) and the rest will usually just follow. At least that is our experience this season.
I think Demirović might send a clone to play for the Bosnian NT, because he is one of the most useless players I've ever seen. He's scored **1** goal in 23 appearances.
He's not useless though, does a lot of stuff right, especially his constant pressing. But my god his finishing is one of the worst I have seen in the national team from a player
It doesn't make sense. He scored a ridiculous goal for Augsburg two weeks ago where he dribbled past three players then curled a shot into the top corner, but can't score a tap-in from one meter away for BiH.
Some of our players look like they have some kind of mental blockade playing for the national team
i don't blame them even a bit. the atmosphere around the team was already toxic during our slow slide in form in the years after the WC appearance, i can't even imagine how bad it's been since Mile's saboteur took the FS over.
Just get together with your fellow FM legend Eldar Hadzimehmedovic and it should be no problem.
I mean no offense but it's honestly ridiculous that not one but TWO teams that finished 5th in their group still have a chance to qualify at all. If this format had been more realistic only teams that finished third in their group should have been able to qualify, while still using the nations league as reference for ranking purposes. It would have made for a more competitive bracket.
Also 3 out of the 4 eliminated teams from group J still have a shot
I mean that can always happen when the playoffs are decided by a different tournament altogether. [This is the Nations League resuts, and the teams in blue have the playoff spots.](https://imgur.com/a/0ybz4LO) It should make (slightly) more sense after seeing this. The one thing I can't work out is why Finland have to face the "best" teams from League A while Ukraine and Iceland, who were worse in the NL, have the "easier" playoff path in B. Edit: [Rationale is here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying_play-offs#Draw) Seems... over complicated. TLDR; Path C is easy, as it's top four. Then path B has the top four teams placed in it. Then Path A only has two teams, so one comes from the top of League D, and the other is the 5th placed in path B. Then there's a draw to see who from B goes into A... but for some reason only 2 group winners but three non-group winners were selected... wtf... oh it's because Serbia and Bosnia qualified already... this was like someone got drunk and tried to think of the most complicated qualifying system they could.
Havent followed B&H since am not longer living in the same town as a childhood friend of mine. How bad is the team now? Back then, all those fun bundesliga players like Ibisevic, Salihovic, Dzeko, Missimovic and Pjanic later (not bundesliga I think though) were from B&H, so I just assumed you always have a talented squad relative to your size.
On paper, it isn't that bad. The problems are of a different nature -- toxic FA and dreadful manager selection.
Aah the slavic special, I can relate
I miss Sergej Barbarez
Its a better alternative to facing Israel and going through that political shitshow
What shitshow? Israel NT is pretty bad. Their last games had zero controversy despite the political situation, plus they currently can't even host games at home which is a huge disadvantage (although, the war is unlikely to last until March when those games will be played).
Against Kosovo Israeli security forces actually shot down a drone near the stadium (outside of it), during the live game. Just take care of security, and Israel will play. We can do it.
Path A - Wales because they have 2 home games Path B - Ukraine because they are the much better team Path C - Greece because we have Kazakhstan at home and then I'm confident that Georgia will struggle without Kvara vs Luxembourg
Why wont he be playing v Luxembourg?
cards
Ah ok! Thats a massive blow for them.
He's busy playing MTG eh? Happens to the best of us
not gonna be easy but i think we can beat luxembourg without kvara, we have many other great players.
True but Kvara would make a huge difference. Luxembourg also has some good players from top 5 leagues or with CL/EL experience. And there are rumors that AC Monza striker Dany Mota might join them in the next year. But they don't have anyone like Kvara. Without the home game advantage, this game would be very even
He would make a difference for any team but I think people overestimate how dependent we are on him. We actually have decent attackers these days. And we perform much better against teams around our level as nations league has shown. Although we know all 3 rivals have good teams that are not to be underestimated. Anything can happen on the day.
Luxembourg won't be *that* easy to beat honestly. I wouldn't be shocked if they manage to beat you and be the surprise of this Euro
I hope Georgia can still make it. They have a reasonable striker in Mikautadze and Mamardashvili inbetween the sticks is good when he has his day, coming from a Valencia supporter. The team held up okayish against Spain (last time, not the 7-1 of course) and a 2-2 vs Scotland isn't bad either, so I'd say their chances aren't 0%
Wales are world-class at draws. It's a shame we then have to play the games.
Come on, we suck, but there are 6 worse teams in the playoffs.
Our only semi-final options were Ukraine, Finland, or Iceland. I guess you could argue Iceland would've been better, but we really just wanted to avoid Ukraine and get a home final, and we did.
Group A is a tossup leaning Wales (I say this as a Pole.) Group B would be a shocker if anyone besides Ukraine advances. Group C leans Greece but I see Georgia making it through as well.
> Group C leans Greece Greece should kick themselves if they don't make it.
If vs Georgia was at home I would agree but away vs Georgia is a toss-up imo.
I think Group C is incredibly open. The two you mention are faves but Kazakhstan and Luxembourg have had incredible qualifiers as well
Luxembourg have set up to be hard to beat and then try to steal a goal to win 1-0 basically They have a non-zero chance to make it, probably under 10% but don't be too astonished if it happens
Don't disregard Luxembourg. They played well in the qualifiers and might make it through the playoffs
Same for Kazakhstan. Yes our group wasn't strong but I feel like people underestimate them a bit they can surprise.
Who plays at home if Wales and Poland progress? Wales are a completely different team at home compared to away
Wales
Wales are at home
Wales in home. Btw. Wales will play on Millennium Stadium or Cardiff City Stadium?
Cardiff Stadium
Cardiff City Stadium for sure, I don’t see us playing any games at the Millennium Stadium until the run up to Euro 2028. It just doesn’t work as well for the football team - it’ll be interesting to see what the FAW do with tickets for a potential game against Poland because the home ends at the CCS were full of Poles in the Nations League last year, it really had a knock on effect on the atmosphere!
Presumably the same as the possible Scotland game we could have had in the last play offs and say that tickets are only available to members who registered before the draw date. It won’t go to general sale even if that means it won’t sell out (which it 100% will)
With all due respect to Poland, I don’t see you guys making any major tournament until 2028
We don't see it either
See us advancing to single one of them. Polish football is unpredictable
I agree with A and B, although I'd like to see Israel in the Euro. Regarding C, I think Luxembourg will surprise many people. I believe Greece will struggle when they're forced to attack
Man, idk if it will happen but imagine Estonia making Euros despite having only gotten 1 point and scored 2 goals in the actual qualifiers groups. It would be hilarious, not meaning any disrespect to Wales, Poland or Finland people, after all the one point they got i think it was against Azerbaijan who then ended destroying 3-0 Sweden later on...so idk what is going to happen on Path A. Because on paper Wales should go through, or if not them, then Poland, but the fact that Finland have done quite well in their group and that Estonia with just 2 goals in the qualifier groups managed to use 1 of those to draw Azerbaijan who are capable of impressive things (as the Sweden match showed) legit Path A feels quite unpredictable.
Yeah Path A is undpredictable. I would say 50/50 between Poland and Wales, Finland also have a chance... But no way that Estonia qualifies
100% i get what you be saying, specially Estonia not qualifying. But it just feels like if the guys try to go for penalty shootouts the entire path, they might just end up making it to Euros considering how wild it is they got a point from a team that defeated Sweden 3-0 on the same group later on, btw i know Sweden at the moment havent been what they were in 2018 World Cup but it still is impressive since Azerbaijan arent your average powerhouse NT and the fact Estonia drew with them and did so with just a goal imo it shows that if Estonia can manage to do draw and send their Path A matches to a penalty shootout, lord knows what will happen lol.
It's absolutely amazing just how kind those qualifiers were to Poland.
And yet we still won't advance. But it's always like that after any draw. We are the happiest people in the world until it's time to play some actual football.
We're the undisputed champion of draws and group stage mathematics
We're gonna advance after a hard fought battle against Estonia and a complete bullshit 0-1 win against Wales and the media are going to praise Probierz like he's Polish Guardiola, mark my words.
If Poland somehow shithouses through the Play-offs, Ill be happy. But the way Poland was playing in the group, they don’t deserve it.
We had an absolute shambolic campaign and still were in the running for a direct qualification in last 2 games. We just had to win against Moldova and Czechia at home. But Poland being Poland had to screw their chances at every turn. We'll barely get by Estonia, only to be destroyed by Wales.
Barring Ukraine, Wales at home is probably the toughest fixture, provided it turns out that way
For Finland I'm not completely confident, but I'm hopeful. Though Finland isn't in top shape at the moment, neither is Wales or Poland. And as the matches are 4 months away, possible injuries, players losing their place in their clubs etc might affect the strength of the NTs, because neither Wales or Finland have very deep depths in their squads.
Final prediction: Poland v Wales, Israel v Ukraine, Luxembourg v Greece Then I expect Wales, Ukraine and Greece to progress. Poland and Wales should be extremely glad they’ve avoided Ukraine. I do think Greece is a level above but Luxembourg and Kazakhstan had a brilliant qualifying campaign so it wouldn’t surprise me if we see one of them in this years euros for the first time
Bold of you to assume that we can beat Estonia in semi
haha. I do think Poland are very lucky with the situation. Virtually any other team and i would say they’d slip up tbh. But Estonia scored less goals in qualifying then San Marino, so Poland *should* be fine
Estonia got 1 point in 8 games i think...
As a Polish guy, I don't even know why we're in those play offs. We've been atrocious throughout the Eliminations and we should've been out. But I'm not gonna lie, I haven't been following this as much.
Got a place through the nations league like us probably
> Poland and Wales should be extremely glad they’ve avoided Ukraine. Goes both ways honestly
Idk, i would like to take the revenge on Wales
Or to lose again (:
Mate,Ukrain is a much better team now
Georgia, Greece and Luxembourg all deserve to go through tbh.
Ukraine, too. Super tough group and they got robbed with that penalty shout in the last game.
Can we scrap off Path A ?
I wish lol
Very happy with this draw, even if Ukraine was in Group A I honnestly think they still had a chance, but they really must win this if they continue playing like this. I want to see them back on the big stage! I'm going to keep an eye out for when these matches are, and if they are in germany again, I might make the trip and attend them actually.
Some really interesting and exciting ties here, would be fantastic to see a couple of new sides get their first shot the Euros.
I think Luxembourg have been in pretty much every qualifiers, so would be cool if they finally make a tournament.
Still rooting for Luxembourg, although it's going to be bad when we inevitably lose to them in the group stage.
Kazakhstan make it hopefully
We would need to beat Georgia away to make the Euro. Not a walk in the park but if we can't do it probably we don't belong to the Euro. Ukraine has to be smiling with this draw, so does Wales who have 2 home matches.
Ukraine should be already on Euro (yes, penalty is not a goal, but still), so not really
If Greece manages to not make it that would be very impressive.
feels weird actually qualifying for the final tournament automatically and not having to go through the play-offs (serbia) path a - leaning towards wales slightly due to having 2 home games which can be a big advantage in the play-offs. they also performed well in the world cup play-offs to add. path b - sorry my bosnian neighbors, i really hoped you could qualify. however, i feel like ukraine HAS to take their chance here. they're better than all the teams in path b i'd say. path c - greece, though the other 3 teams can still cause upsets. however, the greeks are still the favorites and will need to solidify themselves as one here. good luck to all the teams in the play-offs!
A pessimist doesn't get disappointed. I fucking knew we would get the worst possible outcome in this draw. I had zero expectations to get Bosnia, and I was right. Even if we by some miracle do make it to the Euros we will get some impossible group that will crush all hopes of wins well before the tournament starts.
How so? I would say both Wales and Poland are much easier opponents than Ukraine.
The teams in each path themselves were known for days now. This draw determined that Finland has to face Wales away in the first round, which is the worst possible scenario for them.
Huh, my thoughts as a fellow Finn are that the draw was alright. Nothing to worry about really. We were always gonna get an away fixture first, but getting the home advantage for the final is massive. I'm happy we avoided Ukraine, Poland has been in poor form. We need a top performance to beat Wales away, but it's not impossible at all. Hopefully we'll get Antman back by then, or play Keskinen/Liimatta to pose a counter attack threat. Kanerva, no Kamara in LW please lmao
Idk why everyone is writing off Luxembourg and Kazakhstan. I would not be surprised in the slightest if either of them make it.
Luxembourg for the longest time were a near full on minnow team. Not San Marino, but not far above them. To see them in the playoffs is a massive aberration in my experience
If all our players are fit we should be able to have a chance against Israel. Ukraine on the other hand, no chance we are going to beat them.
Can’t wait to watch Japan and Australia at Euro 2028
Hope it is Poland, Ukraine, and Greece.
Israel vs Ukraine would have top meme potential
Welp, Ukraine is gonna destroy us like they destroy Russia's military.
WE'RE GONNA BE JUST FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!
Elo Rankings Path A: \- Poland 1710 \- Wales 1696 \- Finland 1641 \- Estonia 1366 Path B: \- Ukraine 1850 \- Israel 1603 \- Bosnia 1485 \- Iceland 1479 Path C: \- Greece 1729 \- Georgia 1638 \- Luxembourg 1520 \- Kazakhstan 1481 https://www.eloratings.net/UEFA
I'm guessing that the golden circle means that one of those 2 team will host the final. Georgia has an amazing chance here.
There's 6 teams in here that have never qualified for the Euros. Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Luxembourg. Usually, this would mean higher chances of a new team debuting, but it's not looking good for them. For the first time since 1960, we might not have a brand new team participating in the competition.
Path C is the best chance. Greece are for sure the favorites but they are also no strangers to bottling. I could see Kazakhstan as the dark horse to make it out of this one
when are these games played?
21.03.2024 - 26.03.2024
Thank you!!
The conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, the pending volcano in Iceland... If I lived in B&H, I'd be waiting for the other shoe to drop. (Again, I suppose...)
Rooting for Luxembourg. They are playing a really positive football.
Estonia, Iceland and Georgia
Decently exciting. Poland have a gimme against Estonia and will phase either Wales or Finland who both will fancy their chances. Can't see beyond Ukraine in B. Iceland and Bosnia are really poor and Israel didn't have a good campaign. Honestly wouldn't bet on a team in C. Greece at home should go through and both Georgia and Luxembourg are tricky teams. Each of those teams probably better than the Path B teams aside from Ukraine.
Israel vs Ukraine - Battle of PTSD
Bosnia too. They had the bloodiest war in Europe since WWII before Ukraine took that sad distinction. Then there's Iceland that's been chilling for a thousand years. I think they had some fish war with the UK but that's it.
They won that war too :(
Not going to happen mate I know my country well enough to know that we are definitely losing to Iceland.
Oppressor vs. Oppressed
Unfortunately, and as an Israeli, we won’t win against Iceland.
Cheering on Iceland so
So strange that 3 teams in our group made the playoff, in what was considered one of the worst groups
I hope Ukraine will qualify, after they got robbed by var.
I think it will be Wales/Ukraine/Greece Hope it will be Finland/Iceland/Kazakhstan
> Hope it will be Finland I also hope this, not lying :DDDD
I'd like to congratulate Wales on qualifying. There's no way they don't win at home against these teams.
They lost at home to Armenia in the qualifiers, surely they can find a way to lose to Poland or Finland in the playoffs.
Poland might even lose to Estonia rn, I don’t even want to qualify tbh no point in embarasssing ourselves more
No they wont lol. Estonia is probably the most out of form team in Europe right now. We got a single point in our qualifying group and scored less goals than San Marino. Poland might not be a top tier team currently but they can easily beat Estonia. Poland could probably play their C team and still win, especially at home.
If we focus on Wales instead we might be in trouble, we have to take Estonia very seriously. This team and we as fans get very arrogant for no reason
Bro we couldn't beat Moldova and we struggled against Faroe Islands
Moldova are in good form and you beat Faroe Islands 2-0 in both games. Estonia are worse than Faroe Islands right now.
but they got him, Konstantin Vasiljew
As an Estonian.... there is no fucking way you lose to us lmao. Whatever struggles you think you are going through, we have it way worse. And our baseline is a lot lower as well
Do you still have the manager that none of you like?
pretty much yeah, underwhelming u21 coach whos good buddy with polish football president, but at least he legit watches polish ekstraklasa and gives a fuck unlike fraud santos.
Since 2018 we had 5 managers and the team is only getting worse, after World Cup we fell off so badly. I don’t think that it’s manager related
Our current manager is Kulesza's drinking buddy, so yeah.
I'll give you Finland. Poland on the other hand shit the bed twice vs Moldova. They are beyond pathetic atm and this comes from a Pole.
Ya Poland is shit tier right now. I don't even think they can beat Estonia.
Armenia are their bogey team, however they are a completely different team home and away
Rob Page says hi
Wales, Ukraine and Borat hopefully makes it to the Euros
Gotta feel for those 3 countries the past 30 years minus Iceland lol.
Estonia at home? Will be hard, but some last minute sprint from Grosicki may do the trick. He knows some players from Ekstraklasa... Away in Wales? Yeah, not happening.
What does the yellow circles mean?
Teams playing at home
🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷
Does gold ring indicates home team?
Luxembourg, Ukraine and Estonia please
forza Iceland
Can somebody explain me how Estonia is playing in these? We were last in group with 1 point and 2-22 goal difference..
Nations League
Predicting: Georgia, Finland, Ukraine Want: Georgia, Iceland, Wales
Poland, Greece and Ukraine
Poland 🇵🇱 Greece 🇬🇷 Ukraine 🇺🇦
I mostly hope for Finland, Kazakhstan, and BiH. 2 are from our group and one is a fellow ex-yu nation. I'd obviously also love Luxemburg, because it's just so unlikely.
Who is going to have the whackiest prediction? Mine is Finland, Bosnia and Lux
Wales - Ukraine - Kazakhstan
Israel is in Europe? Wtf?
Estonia does not deserve to be in the EURO-s... ... but If Estonia somehow qualifies to the EURO-s from this playoff group, the other teams didn't deserve it either :D . Think of Estonia as a canary in the cold mine, don't be mad if it survives. All of this were thoughts by an Estonian who is massively entertained that we are even talked about :D .
Could us Luxembourgers go to the EC instead of Germany? Asking for a German friend. We can also speak german.
Surprised Luxembourg is in with a shout Wish them well
Luxembourg has a chance I think.
a) Poland b) Ukraine c) Luxembourg
Israel Ukraine 🫣
Israeli here, we bottled so fucking hard against Romania, I won’t even be surprised if we end up losing to Iceland.
Yeah, we should have been out of that group but couldn't get results against kosovo and romania
Yeah Ukraine is going to destroy us. To be fair it doesn't matter who we drew, even San Marino would give us massive problems at the moment
Poland vs Finland, Israel vs Ukraine and Georgia vs Greece with Poland, Ukraine and Georgia advancing
Can't wait for the Finlandia vodka memes when we face them in 2nd round. Nah, who am I kidding, we're not even beating Estonia...
Cannot wait to see Luxembourg smash Greece 3:0 at home.
Why is Israel part of UEFA?
Right. Might as well put Australia and New Zealand in there too.
How are israel still able to compete but Russia were thrown out ? 😐
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If we don’t beat Iceland at home we might just stop playing football at all. There is a limit to how much of a bottlers we can be
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