GROUPS: GROUP A: 1. Qatar 2. Ecuador 3. Senegal 4. Netherlands GROUP B: 1. England 2. Iran 3. USA 4. European PO GROUP C: 1. Argentina 2. Saudia Arabia 3. Mexico 4. Poland GROUP D: 1. France 2. ICP 1 3. Denmark 4. Tunisia GROUP E: 1. Spain 2. ICP2 3. Germany 4. Japan GROUP F: 1. Belgium 2. Canada 3. Morocco 4 Croatia GROUP G: 1. Brazil 2. Serbia 3. Switzerland 4. Cameroon GROUP H: 1. Portugal 2. Ghana 3. Uruguay 4. South Korea Thoughts? Personally I'm not thrilled with Mexico's group but could be worse. England could have a really tough time.
Easily smash group. Fans get complacent. Lose to rubbish but well organised lower opposition in first KO stage.
The hype will be about a potential battle of Britain so no doubt Ukraine will win that play-off! No excuses to get to the last 8 but who knows after that. Last 2 groups look most competitive.
We got Brazil and Switzerland again ffs. And Cameroon is one of the best teams from pot 4. It will be very tough for us. Quality wise, I think you got an easy group and you should top it. USA is very poor, Iran is nothing special as well and the play off winner should be easy enough for you as well. Good luck mates, I think you should reach last 8 at least.
2nd round might be: England v Senegal Netherlands v Wales/Scotland/Ukraine Argentina v Denmark France v Mexico/Poland Spain v Croatia Belgium v Germany Brazil v Uruguay Portugal v Switzerland/Serbia Some good ties there actually. Shame the weather might play a big part?
Very pleased to have drawn the USA as there were some far more difficult second seeds, but Wales I reckon could be the most difficult out of everyone in the fourth pot, still pretty happy though, England and Wales to go through in my book
Would mid-season not suit England more? I reckon England's downfall historically was arriving at a summer tournament off the back of a long draining Prem season
I see the Mirror have basically called it an easy group like the Sun did in 2010… Hopefully won’t get it so wrong !
Apparently Senegal v Netherlands is the first game of the tournament. England v Iran at 1pm. England v USA at 7pm England v European play off winners at 7pm too. https://mobile.twitter.com/BRGoals/status/1510037483161112578
Good group. Only memory I have of us playing USA was conceding a shockingly bad equalizer which somehow squeezed under Rob Green in 2010. I expect us to get through that group, never thought we would make the final last international tournament, but England are like Watford... can be very good or very bad on the day.
They are all easy groups now, given that just about every country in world qualifies for the full Competition these days.
How much did you pay for the rights to use one of those images to "It's What He Would Have Wanted (Cayman Islands) LLP"?
You are all thinking of the USA as complete pushovers but they arent. They are nowhere near as good as England but if they get a proper manager instead of the donkey they have right now then they are a decent team, with a lot of quality in players like Pulisic or Pepi. No matter who makes it out of the Play-off you will have a tough match. Scotland/Wales will look to overshadow you and Ukraine will fight with everything. Iran is probably the easier game but even then they are a pretty solid side and topped their quali group. You are probably going to make it through on first place, but calling it an easy group is not that accurate.
The number of qualifiers hasn’t changed since France 1998, seven tournaments ago. But yes, 32 out of 211 is clearly “nearly every country”.
“Nearly every country” wasn’t serious as you well know . Thought numbers had increased but guess I was thinking of the Euros ?
That’s it ! TBH I’ve lost a lot of interest in international football. Couldn’t tell you who was in our qualifying group.
With groups of 3 teams so you might get an Austria v West Germany saga from 1982.. Or a load of pointless group games .
Pushovers, no, Wales (or indeed Scotland) is probably the hardest possible bottom seed we could have got considering the rivalry, and Ukraine did get to the quarters of the Euros, but while USA are no joke, they're not as good as Germany or the Netherlands clearly