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Discussion starter · #21 ·
How the **** are Romania and Wales ranked so high?

If you took our games against them people would think we were some kind of world beaters.

Anyway not positive about this campaign even now. Not until Tole is gone.
Romania and Wales have been on a recent tear since 2014 and FIFA's ranking procedure rewards teams with consistent results with weighting so that more recent results / form matters more than old results.

more info here:

http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/procedure/men.html
 
It's always been a ridiculously flawed system...
 
I only hope that next campaign Serbia qualifies for Russia 2018, some times I wish that dragan stockjovic, nimisa mihailovic, nikola zigic, and mateja kezman were younger to take this Serbian team to its past and future glories I think they will qualify Serbia at the start of next qualifiers of caourse if they were younger to play for Serbia sorry I for got dejan Stankovic :p .
 
I agree that's nuts for Wales & Romania being in Pot 1. Croatia may not have won a group since 2008 however we have only missed one tournament in the past 10 years, and that campaign started a few months after Eduardo's leg was broken (we would've been a force at Euro 2008 had he been in the squad at full health, hell we beat up on Germany in the group stage and were 1 minute away from the Semi Finals before we let in equalizer even without Eduardo). So Croatia's relative consistency helped our rankings and we are often in Pot 1


I think the UEFA coefficient points system is better, and the elo rankings too. And FIFA's system is going to treat the upcoming & inugural 2018-19 UEFA Nations League matches as Friendlies rather than Tournament games (Friendlies are worth less points)!
Italy seems to be the nation that's been most shafted. They haven't lost a qualifier since 2006 and consistently win groups yet they're in pot 2. I guess hiding away from strong opponents in friendlies pays off :m

When you say one of the best strikers in the world, I usually think top-5, max top-10 players. Top-25 is like in any sport, quite different. It's like comparing Djokovic to #25 in the world or vice-versa and you see what I mean. Either way, that's my outlook on things when one speaks of 'one of the best players in said position' - I realize it's different for people.

Either way, Mario Gomez has scored many goals throughout his career but I don't think many would ever argue he was one of the best. Let's be honest, if Eduardo was ever so great, he'd be playing for Brazil and not Croatia. That doesn't mean to say he's a bum, but one of the best at one time, I strongly disagree.
Eduardo between 2006 and February 2008 was an excellent striker. He was a better player than Modric at the time, but his career was effectively over at 24. After his injury Eduardo wasn't even 50% the player he once was. He definitely would have gone onto greater heights, considering he had just established himself as a first team player at Arsenal pre injury.

The guy pretty much won 6 games for Croatia in a 12 game campaign for Euro 2008 through his ridiculously high conversion rate and scoring goals out of almost nothing. A striker like Eduardo was in that campaign is often the difference between success and failure.

He almost certainly would have been capped for Brazil (had he gone down that route) given their issues with strikers. Even a guy like Diego Tardelli, who plays in China, and was a laughable bust for Anzhi has 14 caps for Brazil :D
 
Someone sticky this thread.
 
2006 = Croatia should have advanced except Australia was allowed a Harry Kewell off-side goal to equalize us. Then again Josip Simunic received 3 yellow cards that match so we should've been down to ten men earlier in the match
Kewell was off side but to be fair, Zeljko Kalac gifted that goal to Niko Kovac too, and in general, seemed confused as to which team he wanted to win that game... absolutely shocking performance
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·
Kewell was off side but to be fair, Zeljko Kalac gifted that goal to Niko Kovac too, and in general, seemed confused as to which team he wanted to win that game... absolutely shocking performance
Can't say I blame him because it was like more than half that Aussie team were Hrvati!

they were our B team in that tournament lol
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
reminder the Qualifying Group draw is this Saturday, 11 AM EDT here in New York City so must be like 5PM for those of you in Hrvatska or Srbija

in USA it will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1
 
Wales! :yess:

What a group after all!

Wales
Austria
Serbia
Ireland
Moldova
Georgia

We can't say we're better than the rest right now, but we're not worse either. This group gives us a real chance with the proper coach and approach. :thumbsup:
 
GROUP A
Netherlands
France
Sweden
Bulgaria
Belarus
Luxembourg

GROUP B
Portugal
Switzerland
Hungary
Faroe Islands
Latvia
Andorra

GROUP C
Germany
Czech Republic
Northern Ireland
Norway
Azerbaijan
San Marino

GROUP D
Wales
Austria
Serbia
Republic of Ireland
Georgia
Moldova


GROUP E
Romania
Denmark
Poland
Montenegro
Armenia
Kazakhstan

GROUP F
England
Slovakia
Scotland
Slovenia
Lithuania
Malta

GROUP G
Spain
Italy
Albania
Israel
Macedonia
Liechtensten

GROUP H
Belgium
BiH
Greece
Estonia
Cyprus

GROUP I
Croatia
Iceland
Ukraine
Turkey
Finland
 
It's a very good group for Serbia. Austria are clear favourites in my eyes at this moment in time but these things can change over time. Serbia were favourites back when the draw was made and we had qualified for the World Cup more or less back when we drew Croatia and Belgium so it tells you a little bit of how these things work. Wales is good at the moment but and Ireland will be a tough team to beat for us in our current form. Long journey to Georgia who're good enough to cause upsets while Moldova is generally terrible side, just like us these qualifiers.
 
Come on Piksi, majstore, no better time than now! :pray:

We've finished above Wales and Austria in recent qualifying groups, beating both twice during the campaign. We also have a history with Ireland and a decent record. The other two sides are new to us, but on paper we should be favourites in both. Not that that's ever meant much. :D
 
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