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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/26286413

A: Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic

B: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Andorra, Cyprus, Wales, Israel, Belgium

C: Spain, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine

D: Germany, Gibraltar, Georgia, Scotland, Poland, Republic of Ireland

E: England, San Marino, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Switzerland

F: Greece, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Finland, Romania, Hungary

G: Russia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Austria, Sweden

H: Italy, Malta, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Norway, Croatia

I: Portugal, Albania, Armenia, Serbia, Denmark

A reasonable draw for Scotland, I think wee Strachan will be delighted.
Roy Hodgson will be delighted with Englands draw...Wales will struggle i think. Northern Ireland will be pleased I think.

Reasonable draw for all the home nations, hopefully they all get through and set up some tasty matches in a meaningful tournament.

I still don't see the point of putting San Marino, Lichtenstein, Andorra etc. in the main draw - there's absolutely no competitive value in having teams who are only there to bump up the big team's goal difference. There should be a pre-qualifier for the 0-point nations so they have a chance of actually winning and experiencing competitive matches. Then maybe allow the top two from their league through to the main qualifiers where they would stand a better chance of actually scoring some points with some meaningful experience behind them.

I don't see England's group as easy as some of the experts do. Switzerland is a very strong team. I predicted them to reach the quarter finals in Brazil, while England may struggle to survive the group stage.

Going by the WC qualifier performance, I would see Switzerland as favorite for group E.

Slovenia is no cannon fodder, either. Estonia and Lithuania should be manageable, but Estonia managed to score a draw against The Netherlands in the WC qualifiers, and I don't see Lithuania much weaker. England will certainly leave both teams behind them, but both teams can score a draw against any team on a good day.

Zak wrote:I don't see England's group as easy as some of the experts do. Switzerland is a very strong team. I predicted them to reach the quarter finals in Brazil, while England may struggle to survive the group stage.

England have been one of the most consistent qualifiers in international football and very rarely don't go to a tournament, plus currently have some of the best young players in the world that seem to have escaped the attention of some over-confident sorts. Switzerland had the qualifying competition of their lives to reach the World Cup and will struggle in the proper tournament. Plus, the man who set up all that is good in Swiss football is the England manager, so they're not going to be an issue.

It's top two to go through plus the best of the third placed teams, so we could see some interesting qualifiers. Wales have a good chance in a group that should be dominated by Belgium. With Italy, Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Malta in there, Group H is a bit of a killer

It's not that I expect England to fail the qualification. I'm just saying that their group isn't as easy as some say it is.

Zak wrote:It's not that I expect England to fail the qualification. I'm just saying that their group isn't as easy as some say it is.

Besides, it's far more entertaining when they do qualify and then get obliterated in the group stages - you get to watch the commentators go from the ritual banging on about 1966 to the ritual wailing and gnashing of teeth in 90 minutes

Of course, if they survive the group stage and Germany give them a good stuffing instead...

D: Germany, Gibraltar,

That hopefully will give GIB a bit of variation in air traffic - unless everyone heading for Germany's away game is flying into AGP or XRY.
-HT

HT-ETNW wrote:

D: Germany, Gibraltar,

That hopefully will give GIB a bit of variation in air traffic - unless everyone heading for Germany's away game is flying into AGP or XRY.
-HT

Gibraltars home games will take place in Portugal due lack of stadium

gkirk wrote:

HT-ETNW wrote:

D: Germany, Gibraltar,

That hopefully will give GIB a bit of variation in air traffic - unless everyone heading for Germany's away game is flying into AGP or XRY.
-HT

Gibraltars home games will take place in Portugal due lack of stadium

Oh, thanks for the info.
Will it be the nice Algarve stadium in (or "north of") Faro ?
Should be the easiest one to reach by coach which is approved for international matches (the stadium, not the coach).
-HT