I saw one combination being highlight on Sky sports News where if Wales and Ireland drew 1-1 and (I think it was) Ukraine and Croatia drew 0-0 then it could come down to which team had the fewer yellow cards.
I saw one combination being highlight on Sky sports News where if Wales and Ireland drew 1-1 and (I think it was) Ukraine and Croatia drew 0-0 then it could come down to which team had the fewer yellow cards.
Close though it's the other way round re the draw scores. If Wales and Ireland draw 0-0 and Ukraine and Croatia draw 1-1 ( or any other combination of just the one higher goal draw in the Ukraine vs Croatia game ) then Wales and Croatia will both be 2nd and have the same record as each other and be behind Slovakia on goal difference. A win in each of these matches leaves the winners into the play-offs and Slovakia as the almost certain bottom 2nd place team *
Going into tonight in the matches that count for the 2nd place order :
Wales: 11 points, goals for 7, goals against 5
Croatia: 11 points, goals for 6, goals against 4
Tiebreakers are :
1. Points
2. Goal difference
3. Highest number of goals scored
4. Fair play points
5. Drawing of lots
* there is a theoretical savior for all in Group H but it does involve Bosnia beating Estonia away and err Greece not beating Gibralter at home. Then Bosnia would be 2nd with just 11 points for the 2nd place league. Good luck anyone waiting on that one coming up!
The most surprising situation of all is Holland (probably) missing out on the World Cup, but if they are producing strikers like this, it is hardly surprising.
Croatia 2-0 up, Ireland 1-0 up and Slovakia almost certainly doomed as we stand. I just really hope that Wales and Ireland don't slit each others' throats and that one of them reaches the play-off.
Wales 0 Ireland 1. Ireland into the play-offs. Serbia win their group and qualify. Ukraine 0 Croatia 2. Croatia into the play-offs. Iceland win their group and qualify. Beware, England !
Slovakia in deep do do.
Feel free Ireland to toast Scotland for mucking up Slovakia and then mucking up themselves !
-- Edited by indiana on Monday 9th of October 2017 08:58:38 PM
So after last night 23 of the 32 finalists are now known. 3 more group winners from Africa and 6 play-off winners will complete the finalists.
Europe :
The known finalists are hosts Russia along with the group winners A to I, namely France, Portugal, Germany, Serbia, Poland, England, Spain, Belgium and Iceland.
The play-off contenders are Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Greece and the Republic of Ireland ( that is their order on points and goal difference though there seems to be some confusion as to whether the seeds will be the first four from that order or the top four in next week's FIFA rankings ). Switzerland won their first 9 group matches and lost the 10th and final one 2-0 in Portugal.
South America :
The finalists from 1st to 4th are Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia. The 5th place side Peru face a play-off vs New Zealand ( A Messi hat trick got Argentina through after they lost a first minute goal in Ecuador. Chile ( and Sanchez ) are ultimately the most notable country to miss out ).
North & Central America :
The finalists from 1st to 3rd in the final group are Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. 4th place side Honduras face a play-off vs Australia ( Panama qualify for the first time. USA miss out completely after managing to lose to bottom side Trinidad & Tobago. The hosts will be devastated ).
Asia :
The finalists are the 4 teams who came 1st and 2nd in the two final groups, namely Iran, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The play-off between the two 3rds was won by Australia who face a final play-off vs Honduras.
Africa :
The 2 finalists so far are the Group B and E winners, namely Nigeria and Egypt.
The remaining finalists will be determined next month from Group A ( Tunisia or DR Congo ), Group C ( Ivory Coast or Morocco) and Group D ( still all 4 are in contention, partly due to a dodgy referee and hence a match to be replayed, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde or South Africa ).
Oceania :
Their winners are New Zealand ( as usual after Australia relocated themselves in football terms ). They face a play-off vs Peru.
Croatia look nailed on after a 4-1 win over Greece in the first leg. Switzerland are probably favourites now against northern Ireland, Sweden beat Italy 1-0 but it is in the balance and the Republic did well to hold Denmark and have a fighting chance at home in the second leg.
Both inter continental play off first legs where goalless and so tight second legs look on the cards with Peru and Australia at home and probably the slight favourites now.
Englands young team played well v Germany last night, good to see the youngsters plying freely and rather that than the dreadful tedium of the qualifying campaign!
Italy are out 1-0 on aggregate to Sweden. Sweden join Switzerland, 1-0 agg. winners over Northern Ireland ( although many NI fans will for ever call that 0-0 ) and Croatia 4-1 agg. winners over Greece. So Sweden have effectively seen off Netherlands ( in their group ) and now Italy.
Three to go. The 9 play-off matches so far have seen 6 scoreless draws, two 1-0 wins and a 4-1. Apparently mostly very tense and teams doing what they have to do in a less than pretty manner.
So the final 3 qualifiers are Denmark ( 5-1 aggregate winners over the Republic of Ireland ), Australia ( 3-1 against Honduras ) and Peru ( 2-0 against New Zealand ).
A few goals, rather too many for Ireland's liking.
Lucky there are not any famous Belgian footballers that might torment England though I believe say De Bruyne, Hazard and Lukaku are not bad ( plus some proper defenders )
Anyway, given that's their last group game, England will err have already have taken care of the other two, maybe. There are better scenarios than needing a result against Belgium if they are clicking.
Best thing to me for them actually looks the cross-over in the L16 with Group H ( Poland, Colombia, Senegal, Japan ) so that's potentially pretty good. After that it looked great fun in MOTD's 'potential route to the final' whether win or be runners-up in their group. Be quite a good idea of course to be winners or runners-up in their group.