You know, on the
one hand while the extension of the European Championships means that it is now
slightly easier to qualify, this also means that the qualification tournament
does not look like an easy sell. There
are no Group’s of Death which makes Eurpoe’s big teams breath a sigh of relief
at their tricky at best draws.
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| Pressley & Bobic tussle in the Germany V Scotland Euro 2004 qualifier |
Not being one of
Europe’s big teams, the fate handed out to Scotland could have pitched us into
several nightmare scenarios. None of
that has happened, but the draw is an interesting one none the less as we have
found ourselves in Group D alongside Germany, Republic of Ireland, Poland,
Georgia and Gibraltar.
In this new
format for qualification, the fixtures will not be subject to negotiations
anymore, they will be calculated by computer with dates and times allocated. So a few short hours after the draw, it was
announced that Scotland’s opening tie would be in Germany on 7 September.
The German’s
record in this competition does not need repeating. Scotland did give a decent account of
themselves though during qualifying for Euro 2004, drawing 1-1 at Hampden
before losing 2-1 in Dortmund. Prior to that Scotland’s last competitive
meeting came in the finals of the 1992 tournament, Germany winning 2-0 in
Norkopping, while one of the iconic images of Gordon Strachan’s playing career
came when he scored against West Germany in the 1986 World Cup.
Following the
Germany game is a double header in October.
The only Saturday tie of the campaign at home will be against
Georgia. In the near miss of qualifying
for Euro 2008, it was the away tie with Georgia (rather than the games against
Italy, France and Ukraine) that eventually saw us miss out - that 2-0 loss saw
us needing to beat Italy at home.
Georgia were also a handful in the Hampden tie with us needing a last
minute winner from Craig Beattie (to win that game 2-1, below). That game is followed up with an away trip to
Poland. While our nearest and dearest
seem to be always drawn with Poland, we have not played them in a competitive
tie since qualifying for the 1966 World Cup, when Poland became the first
overseas team to win a World Cup qualifying tie at Hampden.
Finishing off
2014’s fixtures will be a wee Friday night date on November 14 with the
Republic of Ireland. Both sides have
only met competitively during qualifying for the European Championships of
1988, a 0-0 draw in Dublin was followed up with a 1-0 win for Ireland at
Hampden, Jack Charlton’s first competitive win as Ireland manager. There is added spice to these ties with the
recent appointment of Strachan’s predecessor at Celtic, Martin O’Neil as
Ireland’s manager. His assistant will be
one time Strachan signing for Celtic, one Roy Keane. Finishing off the first half of the campaign
will be a Sunday afternoon meeting with Gibraltar next March. In the return fixtures, the key matches will
be the ties in Ireland (13 June), Georgia (4 September) and the two home ties
against Germany (7 September) and Poland (8 October).
If Scotland’s
group is interesting, the other British teams have less interesting draw’s. Wales have been drawn for the second
tournament in a row with Belgium but will also face Bosnia, Israel, Cyprus and
Andorra. Our nearest and dearest England
has once again been given a group where qualification appears to be
straightforward. Twenty years on from
taking Switzerland to the World Cup and European Championships, Roy Hodgson’s
England will face Switzerland. The other
sides England will face during their qualifying round will be Slovenia,
Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino.
Northern Ireland have been drawn with the last winners of the European
Championships not called Spain, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland & the
Faroe Islands.
Of the other
groups, Spain begin their quest for a hat trick of European Championships with
a home tie against Macedonia, with their group also comprising Ukraine,
Slovakia, Belarus & Luxembourg. The
runners up two years ago Italy travel to Norway first, with Croatia, Bulgaria,
Azerbaijan & Malta completing that group, while semi finalists Portugal
find themselves in the five man group which will see the odd team out playing
France in friendlies. Portugal start
with a home tie against Albania, with Denmark, Serbia and Armenia making up the
group.
Scotland’s group
is an interesting group though. It’s
neither the group of death for 2008 or the on the surface relatively easy group
of four years ago. We can finish third
in this group, however at a push, I think there is the possibility that we can
finish behind Germany in second and in the second automatic slot.
