European Championships 2016 Draw

[Giggles]

Happening shortly after 5pm this evening.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/34496764

Pot 1
Belgium
England
Germany
France
Portugal
Spain

Pot 2
Austria
Croatia
Italy
Russia
Switzerland
Ukraine

Pot 3
Czech Republic
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Sweden

Pot 4
Albania
Iceland
Northern Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Turkey
Wales

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't know if it's just because England haven't played them for a while, but Romania have slipped right off my radar. Do they have any even mid-range European level players? I can think of Pantilimon but not an outfield one.

I'm not sure how Austria have made pot 2 and Iceland/Wales 4.

[Vim]

Too bad for the pot 1 team that draws us.

[Max Power]

Romania quaified behind Northern Ireland scoring less than a goal a game. Probably the downside of an expanded Euros is trash like that seeping in.

Austria are gonna win this fucker.

[Giggles]

I don't know if it's just because England haven't played them for a while, but Romania have slipped right off my radar. Do they have any even mid-range European level players? I can think of Pantilimon but not an outfield one.

I'm not sure how Austria have made pot 2 and Iceland/Wales 4.

Haven't Austria made a couple of finals while the latter two have been perennially shit? I'm not sure how it works though.


Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey would be tidy.

[Gray Fox]

Potential for a group of England, Italy, Zlatan and Wales. England to go out without getting a point.

[Lee]

Romania quaified behind Northern Ireland scoring less than a goal a game. Probably the downside of an expanded Euros is trash like that seeping in.

Austria are gonna win this fucker.

Austria are a cracking side, good bet for a run into the last eight/four.

Looking at the pots I think England should be getting a top two spot regardless of the draw. I'd want to avoid Italy and Austria from pot two as I think either would win a group we're in. One of those plus Sweden/Poland and Turkey would be a bit awkward.

Ukraine, Hungary, Albania would be lovely.

[Serj]

We (Austria) are better than at any point in recent memory, but I still think we're going to choke in the group stages. We just lack the attacking players to consistently score - Janko and Harnik are a bit crap at this level. I wouldn't be surprised if all three group matches end with a draw.

I'd like to have teams in the group that we haven't played very often in the last couple of years. England/Portugal, Hungary and Iceland would do nicely. If it's Germany, Sweden and Ireland again I'll be furious.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I know Austria are good but they haven't actually done anything (which is how the ranking system is done) for decades, so I was surprised to see them in pot 2.

Pot 3 is actually a dull enough pot that it'll put one dull team in every group. I know Poland have two or three good players but come a tournament they'll bottle it as usual.

[Amigo]

We have never played England in a competitive game so I really hope we get them.

Sweden would be nice as well, due to the Lagerbäck connection. Maybe Croatia from pot two for some revenge.

[Serj]

I know Austria are good but they haven't actually done anything (which is how the ranking system is done) for decades, so I was surprised to see them in pot 2.

I don't really get our position either, compared with Sweden for instance. In 2014 they beat us to second spot by three points, and in 2012 they qualified directly from second in their group while we only got to fourth place in ours. I thought those two made up 60% of the seeding coefficients. :sorry:

[Lewis]

Potential for a group of England, Italy, Zlatan and Wales. England to go out without getting a point.

We're not going to lose to Wales in a tournament.

[Giggles]

England and Italy hopefully for us. Getting bummed anyway but they'd be fun.

[Manc]

England's key player. :harold:

In all seriousness it has to be big Joe.

[Amigo]

Do we really have to have an opening ceremony for a fucking group draw?

Just get on with it.

[Lee]

What time does the draw itself start?

[Jimmy Floyd]

What time does the draw itself start?
Have you not learned over the years that this is a question without an answer?

[Bernanke]

Infantino. :drool:

[Jimmy Floyd]

If he becomes FIFA president we are all in safe hands.

[Cord]

I do like Gianni, but Jerome Valcke's comedy accent and obvious shiftiness does make the endless explanation of the rules bearable in the FIFA ones.

[Lee]

I assumed they had a proper start time and set aside loads of time beforehand for all the shite.

Jimmy Floyd

[Foe]

England as B1 means I can watch them in lens on 16th June.

[Jimmy Floyd]

What is this shit Jonathan Pearce is chatting about Toulouse to Nice being a 'tricky travelling schedule' for a football team? They probably cycle further than that on some Tour de France stages.

[Yevrah]

:drool:

[Bernanke]

Nice.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Always dangerous against the Celtic plebs, they will be stupidly up for it.

[John Arne]

Wales' defence :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Iceland shitting on Ronaldo :drool:

[Bernanke]

Iceland is surely gonna beat Portugal. :drool:

[John Arne]

Romania or Slovakia would be nice here...

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Get Poland in B.

Lewandowski shitting on England will be fun.

[Amigo]

Sweden, please.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Frogs dancing round the maypole. Somebody put Poland in that Spanish group please.

Oh lol, our group could be world record awful if we get Ukraine/Switzerland.

[Byron]

I'm pretty sure we draw Slovakia/Slovenia in every single group we are involved in.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Well at least one 'home nation' will be getting dicked on by Lewandowski.

[Amigo]

Fuck yes.

This is a very good draw for us so far.

[Byron]

Spain, Turkey and Czech Republic sounds like a truly filthy group. Just add Hungary for maximum filth.

EDIT: Or not, didn't realise Hungary were in the same pot.

[Giggles]

Bollocks.

[Bernanke]

Group A is trash.

[Yevrah]

Wales is interesting, but Russia and Slovakia. :yawn:

[John Arne]

Russia'll do.

[Lee]

What a group that is. Roy's staying on for Russia '18, lads.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Ireland are fucked :drool:

[Giggles]

:face:

Shite. Nil points.

[Byron]

Ireland are fucked :D

EDITl 'How o/

[Lee]

Wales is interesting, but Russia and Slovakia. :yawn:

Slovakia is boring as we've played them a couple of times in qualifying relatively recently. Russia is quite interesting though; don't remember playing them since the Schteve era and I don't ever remember us playing them at a major tournament.

[Bernanke]

Ugh. Anything could happen in that group.

[Amigo]

Austria, Hungary, Portugal.

Not bad.

[Manc]

Portugal aren't progressing from that group.

[Jimmy Floyd]

We've got Slovakia in the World Cup qualifiers as well. Real danger we're not playing them often enough.

[Reg]

Nice to play Wales. Not sure we'll get through.

How many "best runners up" slots are there?

[Giggles]

Portugal aren't progressing from that group.

They're winning it at a stroll.

[Lee]

They're winning it at a stroll.

Austria will win that group unless Ronaldo can carry the rest of his team.

[Giggles]

Austria will win that group unless Ronaldo can carry the rest of his team.

There's few Austrians who would be head and shoulders above the rest of the Portuguese. The difference is that Portugal have a Ronaldo and Austria don't.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Nice to play Wales. Not sure we'll get through.

How many "best runners up" slots are there?

Four. Generally 4 points is more than enough. As ever I'll flag up the classic Guatemala situation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_FIFA_U-20_World_Cup#Group_D

[Boydy]

How does getting out of the groups work? Top two? That'd make 12. Are there some third place qualifiers for a round of 16? A playoff?

[Giggles]

How does getting out of the groups work? Top two? That'd make 12. Are there some third place qualifiers for a round of 16? A playoff?

Four best third place. Like the world cup used to work.

[-james-]

How does getting out of the groups work? Top two? That'd make 12. Are there some third place qualifiers for a round of 16? A playoff?

Yes, there's a week long mini-league before the knock-out games. 60 minute games, straight penalties if draws. Lisbon rules.

[Reg]

Ah, we'll get through. They really should leave it at 16 teams but heyho.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yes, there's a week long mini-league before the knock-out games. 60 minute games, straight penalties if draws. Lisbon rules.

During which the group winners go and play a couple of exhibition matches in the Middle East.

[Boydy]

Yes, there's a week long mini-league before the knock-out games. 60 minute games, straight penalties if draws. Lisbon rules.

Shut up.

[Manc]

They're winning it at a stroll.

Fancy a wager? :sherlock:

[Baz]

Can someone post the groups? Don't wanna go searching in fear of spoiling MOTD.

[Giggles]

RTE are fucking doing my head in with this northy shit. Michael O'Neill interview my hole, let BBC Ulster cover that.

[Giggles]

Fancy a wager? :sherlock:

I don't gamble. If I started I'd be homeless by the summer.

[Bernanke]

The group stage is pretty useless if it only knocks out 8/24 teams. :cab:

[Browning]

Can someone post the groups? Don't wanna go searching in fear of spoiling MOTD.

France, Romania, Albania, Switzerland
England, Russia, Wales, Slovakia
Germany, Ukraine, Poland, N.Ireland
Spain, Czech Rep, Turkey, Croatia
Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Sweden
Portugal, Iceland, Austria, Hungary

[Foe]

Wales vs Slovakia
Austria vs Hungary
England vs Wales
Spain vs Croatia
Last 16- Probably Italy/Croatia

Woof.

[Baz]

Northern Ireland can get through that, yeah?

[Spoonsky]

That's a quality draw for Iceland. Belgium's group should be interesting too.

[Amigo]

Our allocation for the game against Austria - played at Stade de France - should be somewhere around 16,000.

Our national stadium holds 10,000, for comparison.

[Giggles]

Our allocation for the game against Austria - played at Stade de France - should be somewhere around 16,000.

Our national stadium holds 10,000, for comparison.

As with all the tinpot footballing nations, you'll get a huge amount of hangers-on for the likes of this. We'll have plenty of the same cunts that wouldn't even know how to find Lansdowne Road.

[Lewis]

We'll piss that, and lol at Mahow. Has he ever seen Poland in an actual tournament before?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yarmolenko and Konoplyanka are better than just having a centre forward. Krainers for the win and hopefully a knockout game with Russia.

[Byron]

We'll piss that, and lol at Mahow. Has he ever seen Poland in an actual tournament before?

Probably not but he sure does like to support England losing, the traitor.

I'm just surprised he's not supporting Ukraine.

[Serj]

I'd like to have teams in the group that we haven't played very often in the last couple of years. England/Portugal, Hungary and Iceland would do nicely. If it's Germany, Sweden and Ireland again I'll be furious.

:cool:

[Mellberg]

What's Scotland's group like?

Oh lol.

[Foe]

A friend of mine has Belgium vs Ireland and Italy vs Ireland tickets.

He's quite pissed off that Ireland got that playoff place.

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35085893

I reckon we should give him the job for life, like Stalin.

[Mellberg]

Four. Generally 4 points is more than enough. As ever I'll flag up the classic Guatemala situation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_FIFA_U-20_World_Cup#Group_D

England getting out the group stage without scoring a goal is better. Then proceeding to get knocked out 1-0.

[Foe]

Anyone got any plans to go to this?

I've just booked my flights to / from France. I'm going from 18th June - 1st July (despite Scotland not qualifying :moop: )

Hopefully catching 5 games whilst I'm there:
Bordeaux 21st June: Spain vs Croatia
Lille 22nd June: Italy v Ireland
Lille 26th: Someone vs Someone else.
Paris 27th: Winner of group vs runner up (probably Italy/Belgium vs Croatia/Turkey)
Marseille 30th: QF

Quite excited now, even though I've booked nothing outside of flights.

I've also got these tickets which I'm either going to shunt back / swap or sell on.

11th June Bordeaux: Wales vs Slovakia
14th June Bordeaux: Austria vs Hungary
16th June Lens: England vs Wales.

Any of you lads planning a jaunt across the channel?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Bordeaux to Lille in that time will be entertaining.

If the number of people I've heard claim they're going to the Euros actually go, I'll have the country to myself in June.

[niko_cee]

I'm going to both semis.

How the fuck did you get so many tickets Foe?

[Foe]

I'm going to both semis.

How the fuck did you get so many tickets Foe?

Me and two friends applies for a fucking load of tickets, assuming we would get none.

I got 5 games, my friend got 5 games and my other friend 3.

There's only one overlapping game too. We've got 4 tickets to each game too. :cool: If we were Austria, Ireland or Wales fans we'd be sorted. Unfortunately, we're not.

Both semis is :drool: though, how'd you wangle that?

[Foe]

Bordeaux to Lille in that time will be entertaining.

If the number of people I've heard claim they're going to the Euros actually go, I'll have the country to myself in June.

It's a 9pm game on the 22nd, so effectively got all morning to get there via plane or train. It's not pleasant, but it's comfortable.

[niko_cee]

Same strategy, applied for a fuckton of tickets with 4 other people, all we came up with was 2 sets of 4 for the semis, which was unexpected (and fairly brilliant). Was supposed to be going for the first week, but am now there for 6 days from July 10th. Amsterdam (fuck knows), Lille, Paris, Lyon, Marseille or something like that.

[Foe]

Same strategy, applied for a fuckton of tickets with 4 other people, all we came up with was 2 sets of 4 for the semis, which was unexpected (and fairly brilliant). Was supposed to be going for the first week, but am now there for 6 days from July 10th. Amsterdam (fuck knows), Lille, Paris, Lyon, Marseille or something like that.

I think we got incredibly lucky. Maybe because we applied really close to the deadline and the system was borked. The England v Wales tickets I got are bitter sweet. On the plus side they're desirable tickets I'll have no bother shifting them on (£££) but on the downside if it was a non England 1st seed game I'd have probably gone. Would've been cool if it was Germany or Portugal.