I'll say a drubbing by BiH in the playoffs is the failure.
Need Scotland to get second place and then draw Portugal or someone for the biggest bet ever.
Scotland v Northern Ireland playoff, what could possibly go wrong.
I believe Georgia were competing in a dead rubber ten years ago and fielded a load of toddlers that still beat Scotland 2-0.
I'd assume nothing.
That England performance was a load of utter rot and we're getting fucked out of the group stages if we draw more than one competent team. And maybe even if we don;t.
Fair play to Ian Wright post-match there, for correctly calling us out on the absolute shower of shite that we are.
I wasn't around for Italia 90, but I've always had a suspicion we were absolute wank and fluked our way into the semis via an unbelievably kind draw. Christ knows what Germany were up to nearly fucking the semi.
Argentina in 2002 feels like the last one I came away from thinking they did a good job. Maybe Denmark in the second round.
Italia 90 sounds like a wobble. Squeaking past the Belgians and the Cameroonians. I think it's a very English mentality. Even in '66 we nearly shat it.
Venezuela's first choice goalie is a 5'11 19 year old called Wuilker Farińez. I reckon he'd be an upgrade if he signed for Liverpool or West Ham.
We were dreadful against Belgium, and not much better against Cameroon (and perhaps the less said about the group stage the better) but it's all relative. Euro '96 is remembered as some wave of alcohol fueled jock ruining abandon, but it was really far from it. We were poor against Roy fucking Hodgson's Switzerland and robbed Spain in what must be one of the biggest sporting injustices of all time, but we battered the Dutch and Gazza scored that goal, so all was forgiven, and forgotten. '98 was pretty poor, but there was hope (Owen) and injustice (Beckham), 2000 dreadful after the best opening 10 minutes of a tournment ever. 2002 was meh, although I suppose, along with the next Euros is the closest we've come to thinking "hmmm, maybe". But here I am, rambling on. You're probably right, there haven't been any halcyon days since it all went wrong in 1970.
I was two years old.
Everything post 2006 has been absolutely free of any kind of hope or positivity. I'm not sure what it is. Probably the last links to pre-92 football being broken and this being an entirely gravy train-formed generation.
I maintain that we could/would have won 2008 with a proper manager.
Didn't stop Andy Goram being two of our best ever goalkeepers.
Peru :cool:
Argentina are proper rank. Held at home to Peru and didn't really deserve to win at all. 16 goals in 17 games is all sorts of lol.
Wednesday looks fun:
https://i.imgur.com/NXRiLdu.png
Pesky South American defences forgetting to roll over and have their belly tickled by The Little Magician. Not cool, guys.
Hogan and Maguire made the finalised cutdown for tonight, though I'd be very surprised if either seen any action.
That group table is tight as fuck.
You have to assume Paraguay will make their way to 27, as will one of Peru/Colombia, which means Chile must get something in Brazil, and Argentina have to win or they're not going. How the fuck is their goalscoring record so bad with that personnel?
I can't imagine Ecuador won't allow the Argies to win, mind.
I dunno. Ecuador have a spot to play for. Peru making it would be awesome. There's so few teams in that continent I haven't seen before on a world stage.
Brazil will surely let Chile win.
5th place is no guarantee either, I can't see the Argie backline dealing with Chris Wood's hold-up play.
Jupp Heynckes is back at Bayern.
Woodburn on the bench seems like madness. He's the one player who could provide a bit of magic in place of Bale.
If there's a nation that's been mis-managed to a level worse than England in recent times it's Argentina.
Few surprises, might as well at this stage but it's very un-O'Neill.
Scott Hogan wasn't biding his time before declaring. Yeah of course.
Shane Long has 1 goal in 42 appearances? I think calling him average was being kind.
Is Semedo likely to be a regular for Barca?
Another former Benfica player :(
My FM legend :drool:
Won a Ballon from right back.
Iceland are going to win their group. Pretty incredible.
Finland, I fucking love you.
Scandimania.
That Finland result is amazing. As is Iceland getting three points away to Turkey.
I assume that Kosovo is unlikely to cause them any problems? I haven't seen them play before, but they seem rubbish from their results. Should be straightforward for Iceland to emerge out of a really tough group.
I feel like Italy should win their play-off, but I really hope they don't draw Croatia. Or Portugal, if they're in the pot (and I hope they are).
Croatia have properly shat the bed. Fair play to Iceland though, pretty sure they would be the smallest ever qualifiers by population.
I know they are. I put up a Trivia question on minimum populations to qualify for the World Cup a while back, and I can still remember it. They beat out T&T pretty easily, who are the current smallest.
It's baffling that they're such a small country, to be honest. They have a comparatively huge cultural footprint.
They do?
Cold countries are always surprisingly underpopulated, and, by and large the opposite applies to hot ones. Australia being the outlier in that regard.
Only because we put the buggers there.
Curious to hear more about Iceland's cultural footprint.
Also Magnus Magnusson and Okay Amigo.