Euro 2016 Qualifying

Scotland losing narrowly to the world champions tonight although we could have nicked a point, promising start but we'll need to try and avoid being typical Scotland and drawing/losing against the Georgia's and Gibraltar's of the group.

ROI with a 2-1 win over Georgia and Poland rattling Gibraltar 7-0 in the other Group D games.

A defeat was always the likely outcome so anything more would've been seen as a positive result. It's good getting this game out of the way now so we can focus on all the other games as we have a genuine chance of getting points in the remaining fixtures.

Haven't seen the first Germany goal but the second goal was just too soft to give away. You can't leave a target man like Muller by his own in the box.

Not one to question the actions of the referee but some of his decisions were 'pish' shall we say.

I'm so underwhelmed by the Scotland team I forgot this was on. Decent result against the world champions, not getting humped, but we usually perform well against the big teams, it's the others we let ourselves down against.

Really can't get myself up for another Scotland so close let down again, but no doubt we'll do the usual, drop points against the "easier teams" and miss qualifying by a whisker.

I think Germany were a bit complacent and there for the taking last night. It's a shame our defence is so wank or we might have ground out a point. We have to be looking into centre-halts eligible for Scotland, whether foreign or in the 21s.

I remember Peter Houston appearing on Sportsound a while back saying that when he was involved with the national team, they would scour loads of leagues in the hope of finding a domineering, commanding centre half - it really is a problem position. I've always liked Danny Wilson but he jeopardised his chances by moving to Lievrpool when he wasn't ready, and I think needs to be playing top opposition every week in order to improve again. Reynolds at Aberdeen is another I like, and if we're talking younger guys then someone like Souttar at Dundee Utd could be worth a look as well.

I thought we were magnificent in the second half the other night, showed some really good composure with the ball, created real gilt edged chances and obviously scored one of the best Scotland goals in a long time. Germany were there for the taking, no doubt about it (their defending themselves was atrocious at times), but to come away with an odd goal defeat and plenty positives is pretty decent I think. Other teams in our wee mini league could go there and get their arse handed to them. Georgia especially, as they are absolutely terrible.

I feel we've got more than enough in our squad to win that mini league of us/Ireland/Poland/Georgia.

Agree that centre back is a problem for us, doesn't help that a young 6ft 4 lad down at Fulham has just chose Australia over us (despite playing for our U19s).

EdinburghLivi wrote:I think Germany were a bit complacent and there for the taking last night. It's a shame our defence is so wank or we might have ground out a point. We have to be looking into centre-halts eligible for Scotland, whether foreign or in the 21s.

While I agree that we look dodgy at the back, it was an appalling touch by McArthur that put the ball in front of our goal, causing panic & allowing Mueller to pounce on the scrap. We showed enough going forward to suggest that the new German defence is going to take some time to settle. Naisy too up good positions but left his early season finishing at Everton & McArthur had an excellent opportunity to make up for his error only to pass it back to Neuer.

Good cause for optimism & if we show the same application against the rest of the group we are in with a shout....as LF suggests though that is a big "IF".

Decent win today. Should have been more than 1-0.
Rep of Ire replicate Poland's thrashing of Gibraltar & in a week where Spain where shocked by Slovakia, Poland achieved a first ever win over Germany & inflict their 1st defeat in qualifiers in 7 years. If we can get something in Poland (which could be a much harder task than we originally thought) then the group is wide open.

Germany seem to be suffering from a world cup winners hangover, they aren't looking anything like the world cup team, even Neuer had a mare for the first goal, he was never reaching that in a million years so dunno WTF he was doing coming out for it, leaving the goal open when he got beaten to the ball by about 3 feet.

They'll step up their game at some point though and still qualify.

Not getting my hopes up for Scotland qualifying, just don't see it.

I don't think we should be paying too much attention to the Poland v Germany score, even though it wasn't an ideal result for us. It's like us playing England, the Poles upped their game for a rivalry, and if Germany didn't hand debuts to shite and had taken their chances they could have got something.

Poland are something like 70th in the world ranking, and we've already beaten them this year. I'm not saying we should be expecting to beat them comfortably, but we shouldn't be expecting to get gubbed either.

LiviLion wrote:I don't think we should be paying too much attention to the Poland v Germany score, even though it wasn't an ideal result for us. It's like us playing England, the Poles upped their game for a rivalry, and if Germany didn't hand debuts to shite and had taken their chances they could have got something.

Poland are something like 70th in the world ranking, and we've already beaten them this year. I'm not saying we should be expecting to beat them comfortably, but we shouldn't be expecting to get gubbed either.

Their Dortmund trio didn't play in that friendly earlier in the year, and are miles better than anything we have. I'd imagine they'll take 2nd place by a 3/4 points, they're a good side.

Our main focus has to be Southern Ireland - an international side I cannot fucking stand. Looking forward to giving McGheady and McCharthy absolute pelters at Celtic Park of all places. As long as we don't do anything stupid 3rd place is ours, IMO.

Lexi Collector wrote:Their Dortmund trio didn't play in that friendly earlier in the year, and are miles better than anything we have. I'd imagine they'll take 2nd place by a 3/4 points, they're a good side.

I agree that they are a good side, and I'm not expecting us to take 6 points off them. But a few players, as good as they are, don't make a team, and if we play as well as we know we can and take our chances (something we were bad at on Saturday) I don't see why we can't take something.

I still think Germany will win the group, and 2nd/3rd is between us, Poland and ROI. But knowing Scotland we'll balls it all up with a draw against fucking Gibraltar or something.

Scotland fuck up so many times I'm just not going to get drawn into believing we'll qualify. I'm going into Bertie mindset for this campaign and expecting fuckall from them, so anything else will be a pleasant surprise.

We can take something from tomorrow, no question, but let's not kid ourselves on here. Poland beating Germany has put the sabre tooth tiger in amongst the doos. It means we'll no doubt have to beat the Germans at home, and take 6 points from either ROI or Poland. That's if we're looking to finish second anyway.

LiviLion wrote:I don't think we should be paying too much attention to the Poland v Germany score, even though it wasn't an ideal result for us. It's like us playing England, the Poles upped their game for a rivalry, and if Germany didn't hand debuts to shite and had taken their chances they could have got something.

Poland are something like 70th in the world ranking, and we've already beaten them this year. I'm not saying we should be expecting to beat them comfortably, but we shouldn't be expecting to get gubbed either.

Except that we used to be able to beat England on a fairly regular basis; indeed we had more wins in the fixture than they did until towards the end of it being an annual occurrence. Poland on the other hand had never beaten Germany until the weekend.

If the Poles are that far down the world rankings then it only goes to prove what a farce they are.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Except that we used to be able to beat England on a fairly regular basis; indeed we had more wins in the fixture than they did until towards the end of it being an annual occurrence. Poland on the other hand had never beaten Germany until the weekend.

If the Poles are that far down the world rankings then it only goes to prove what a farce they are.

Which would give Poland more of a reason to really go for it. Germany were all over them on Saturday and should really have taken their chances (29 shots to Poland's 5).

Again, I'm not saying we should win. But we shouldn't be going into the game thinking it's already lost.

Hoping Poland may get carried way with the result against Germany and get a bit cocky which may be to our advantage.

2-2 good result, we were lucky to get a draw there, Poland were ripping us apart at times when it was 2-2.

Bit of a shame we decided to sit back in the last 20 minutes instead of going for it, let Poland in and they had the momentum for the rest of the game. Poland didn't look like anything special until the last 15 minutes when every pass they made seemed to slice our defence wide open.

A point's better than nothing though, think we'll beat Poland at Hampden. Bring on Southern Ireland.

LiviLion wrote:Bit of a shame we decided to sit back in the last 20 minutes instead of going for it, let Poland in and they had the momentum for the rest of the game. Poland didn't look like anything special until the last 15 minutes when every pass they made seemed to slice our defence wide open.

A point's better than nothing though, think we'll beat Poland at Hampden. Bring on Southern Ireland.

Yep when we went 2-1 up we decided to sit in and try to see out the game. Poland could easily have had 3 goals after they equalised. We were a bit fortunate to get the draw.

Liviforever wrote:Yep when we went 2-1 up we decided to sit in and try to see out the game. Poland could easily have had 3 goals after they equalised. We were a bit fortunate to get the draw.

I've still no idea how their lad missed an open goal. Quite a few heart in mouth moments, not fun being a Scotland supporter.

Also, anyone see everything that went on in the Serbia v Albania game?

Fantastic result

Going to be bouncing at the ROI game, still not going to get my hopes up, but if we win our next two games i'll prob no be able to help myself.

Poland looked like a good side, but I think we've got the beating of them at home to be honest. If we beat Southern Ireland at home, we'll be in a great position. Effectively, if you're to qualify you'll have to beat Georgia home and away - and the bin dippers already have. I fear that's where we'll slip up.

Also, don't think it was a good idea arranging a friendly like England so close to such an important game like Ireland.