Will We Do It?

[King Of Paisley]

Out of the current 9 3rd place teams.....Albania are top , followed by Hungary. ......Ireland are currently placed 6th out of the 9 places ....well off the pace.

3rd place automatic qualifier definitely won't be coming from our group

Thought as much.

Ach well, play offs are our only hope.

[Rossy]

A truly horrendous result last night on so many different levels.

Can we still do it ? Yes, but it'll take a couple of remarkable performances against Germany and Poland.

Will we ? Probably not. I suspect now a play-off is the best we can get.

[Pool Q]

Stayed well clear of this in the build-up. It had classic 'Scotland banana skin' written all over it. I've spent too much on travelling to too many games like it, especially in Eastern Europe, to see beyond another poor performance and bubble bursting result. Very disappointed all the same. Can't see us taking anything off the Germans, although, to be fair, worse Scotland teams have. We can beat Poland, doubt we will, but we certainly can. Strachan needs to get things sorted out by that game, and between now and then personally don't see any point in turning on him or any of the players just now. I don't think we'll qualify, but will continue hoping we do so. Plus ca change....

Edited September 5, 2015 by Pool Q

[Charlie Endell]

Thought as much.

Ach well, play offs are our only hope.

Even if by some miracle we scrape the play-offs we won't stand a chance. Last night was truly abysmal.

[King Of Paisley]

Even if by some miracle we scrape the play-offs we won't stand a chance. Last night was truly abysmal.

Thing is, Chas, that was our first truly awful performance of the campaign. We won't be as bad as that again.

[Mitre]

Blown it I'm afraid

Maximum of 4 points out of last 3 games

So infuriating

[COLT NY]

We're done for, I suspect.

Our results up until now had all been decent for qualification hopes but not great. Everything hinged on not f"ing it up against one of the worst teams in Europe (They really are. Look at their results over the last 5 years).

I still can't believe how flat the performance was in Tblisi. Where was the urgency? We needed to go hell for leather to get two goals in the second half, and ended up with no shots on goal and not even any bookings.. Lots of square passes though.

Anyway, with that attitude I can't see our team fighting hard enough in the difficult games to come to make it happen.

[Doric]

What it boils down is a win V Poland leaves Ireland needing to get a total of 3 points against Germany and Poland to get play off spot. Knowing our luck Ireland will win one of them if we do beat Poland. That is based on the fact we lose or draw against Germany. That 4 pts off ireland could turn out to be so crucial.

[Bzzzz]

Fact is we need 1 more point than Ireland out of the last 3 games to get a play off place. Hard but doable.

Always the eternal octopus but now I'm not so.

[Doric]

Fact is we need 1 more point than Ireland out of the last 3 games to get a play off place. Hard but doable.

Always the eternal octopus but now I'm not so.

Which boils down to a must win v Poland. However it would become much easier with a win v Germany LOL

[iainmac1]

Fact is we need 1 more point than Ireland out of the last 3 games to get a play off place. Hard but doable.

Always the eternal octopus but now I'm not so.

Not even that many. We only need to have the same amount of points as them as head to head is first decider and puts us above them.

[Bzzzz]

Not even that many. We only need to have the same amount of points as them as head to head is first decider and puts us above them.

Aye that's what I mean. One more point out of the last few games. Ireland have a harder task IMO, a playoff isn't out with the realms of reality...

[bossman4]

I still think we'll sneak a playoff, just. I'm not totally convinved Ireland will win tomorrow night, Georgia play the same away as they do at home as we seen at Ibrox. They may just sneak it though

Regardless of that result though I still think the Germany game is a bonus and anything we get is exaclty that. The next two games suit our style, as Friday clearly showed we need a plan b in the long term but thats for then, lets worry about the now.

Hopefully we sneak a playoff and by then snoddy will be back. Is it no coincidence our performances have dipped since he's been out?

[Banjaxed]

Aye that's what I mean. One more point out of the last few games. Ireland have a harder task IMO, a playoff isn't out with the realms of reality...

I can't agree with that. If we beat Georgia (which I think we will) and you guys lose to Germany. I can't see you guys beating Poland.

Incidentally, Scotland's result against Georgia, proves that both ourselves and you guys are bottlers when it comes to crunch.

This group is reminding me of how Ireland qualified for Euro 2012, not due to how good we were but good luck.

The implosion of Slovakia (Scotland in this case) back then. We lucked our way into a playoff and drew a terrible Estonia team. I won't complain. But it doesn't sit easy knowing how poorly we've performed in this group.

Edited September 6, 2015 by Banjaxed

[Saint4805]

I fear that Friday's result will prove to be the turning point. Beating Poland at home is a massive task and I suspect that we will get four points in our last three games. I personally think that Ireland have a better chance of coming through a play-off than we do. We lack physicality plus we got a stinker of a group due to our poor seeding. The other home nations have arguably easier groups but have taken care of business so fair play to them.

I think the best we can hope for is to go into the last game still in the hunt for a play-off spot and with Ireland in the hunt for second place as it means they'll probably have a go and could end up getting beat. For that to happen we probably need Georgia to get a draw in Dubin or for us to beat either Germany or Poland.

[1ANDYP]

Poland are no world beaters. Suppose they don't have to be. But let's not build them up too much. We won and drew over there in the last 2 years.

[iainmac1]

As long as germany beat Ireland then we could actually draw with Poland and still have a decent chance.

In the last set of games a Poland win at home to Ireland would see us 3rd. And Poland wouldn't have already qualified as an Ireland win in that situation would see Poland 3rd.

If we beat poland however a draw or Poland win against Ireland would see us 3rd. And it's hard to see Ireland winning in Warsaw.

Edited September 6, 2015 by iainmac1

[Saint4805]

Poland are no world beaters. Suppose they don't have to be. But let's not build them up too much. We won and drew over there in the last 2 years.

Not world beaters but a very decent team and remember that we beat them over there when the pressure wasn't on and when they were without Lewandowski and one or two others.

[kps022000]

I think that we will get a playoff place, drawn against the best ranked team and be the plucky underdogs going out after coming so close.

There has been a fair amount written on here over the last few days ranging from blaming the managers and players to our No vote last year.

I would have only taken Hutton, Mulgrew and Fletcher out of the starting line up as the team almost picked itself and most people agreed with the selection. I was also pretty happy with the first 25/30 mins of the game. We kept possession, did not look nervous with the ball and we were getting some success down the wings. But as the game went on it was pretty clear that that was all we had as a game plan. Both holding midfielders passed sideways, backwards and far too often to the opposition. Our front three midfielders had no creativity, no desire to beat a man and no movement. Fletcher was also poor at the one job he had to do, which was bring those guys into play. If you were to try and think where we went wrong, Fletcher, 4 goals in 22 games, never been a goal threat and our style of play does not suit a target man, also been in and out the Sunderland team. Anya, lightening quick but ineffective against a deep lying opposition, been in and out the Watford team. Naismith, not played this season and not had a good Scotland game for a while. Maloney, up until this campaign was not really even considered a first team player and was often criticised for going missing too often. Was poor and lacked any spark. If the play was due to go through him them he went AWOL. So yes our front four may have kept us going in the last few games by grinding out results however, we have been relying on Maloney just as much as Wales have been relying on Bale to paper over our own inefficiencies.

Brown has not started this season well at all and Morrison had his worst game in memory. Mulgrew is not a central defender, or a left back, or a good enough footballer. Hutton has not played enough in the last three years, let alone this season.

My conclusion would be that we are an average team that has average players and occasionally we are better than the sum of our parts. But that is only when we can play our type of football, counter attacking, as we are very limited with the ball at our feet. So I think we will do okay against Germany, but lose. We will beat Poland with a breakaway goal and slog our way to 4-0 against Gib.

[Pan]

Thank feck I never had to share a trench with you lot !

if you looked at the group from day 1, Poland away bonus point,Ireland away bonus point,Germany away robbed of 1 point,Georgia point dropped.

I have been following Scotland for long enough to have seen some horrendous results including France 5-0,Holland 6-0.Sweden 4-0,Belgium 3-0,feckin Wales 3-0 and 4-0 then again they are the 9th best team in the world !

Unfortunately that's football,Germany will be the next world champions to get turned over at Hampden

Alba gu brath.

[exile]

The last time we pulled off the kind of result we're looking for here, that I can think of is 1-0 against France.

That was off the back of a morale-boosting 6-0 against Faroes, and an away win in Lithuania. But it was early in the group, we faced France without having to feel we need to win the game - to just live with them would do.

This time we come off the back of a less than wholly convincing 6-1 (the -1 was painful) and a confidence-bashing reverse in Georgia. Now we need to get some sort of result with Germany. But I wonder if approached in similar way to that last France game, and not attempting a complete all-guns-blazing approach, then maybe we could nick something.

But for every Scot saying we *could* nick points off Germany, there will be Poles and Irish believing they can nick points off the others too.

[Anders]

What a fickle lot we football supporters are ...

No-one is arguing that it wasn't a truly awful performance on Friday

However its in the past and we can't let one bad game spoil the next game or the next three

Let's look at it another way, assume Gib is a gimme we probably need 3 points from two home games to get at least a play off place

There aren't too many of the so-called "big teams" come to Hampden and turn us over

I'm not saying we should be super confident but some of the doom and gloom is a wee bit over the top as it's not out the question that it will be down to getting three points against Poland at home to get at least a play off place and possibly second

Id probably have taken that at the start of the campaign

[Billy 2 Boots]

Despite the overall gloom, I think it will all come down to us beating Poland in October. If we win we will almost certainly grab 3rd place even if we lose to Germany.

Poland v Gibralter Poland 3 pts

ROI v Georgia ROI 3 pts

Scotland v Germany Germany 3 pts

Georgia v Gibralter Georgia 3 pts

ROI v Germany Germany 3 pts

Scotland v Poland Scotland 3pts

Germany v Georgia Germany 3 pts

Gib v Scotland Scotland 3 pts

Poland v ROI Poland 3 pts

Final Table

1.Germany 25pts

2.Poland 21pts

3.Scotland 17pts

4.Ireland 15pts

5.Georgia 9pts

6.Gib 0pts

Even if Ireland grab draws against Germany and Poland, our head to head would put us above them. Also by beating Poland we would have a better head to head results against the Poles, so if Ireland managed to beat Poland we would still beat Poland to 3rd place...............Bring on a packed house at Hampden on an October evening with all or nothing game!!!!!!!!

Edited September 6, 2015 by Billy 2 Boots

[Bzzzz]

Do or die v Poland.

[Caledonian Craig]

Just an observation on Poland that instills a modicum of hope for that match. They play an open game and whilst they score lots they also concede a few as well. So there is glimpses their defence is susceptible.