[Football] England vs Bulgaria

Brighton Lines said:

May go some way to explaining it.... 2010-2018 in qualifying.

Montenegro x 2
Switzerland x 2
Wales
Bulgaria
Ukraine
Poland
Moldova
San Marino x 2
Slovenia x 2
Estonia
Lithuania x 2
Slovakia
Scotland
Malta

Some of the big nations must be wondering who is sleeping with who

You'd have expected a Group of Death by now.

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Wozza said:

England have it soooo easy in that group.

Stark contrast to the level of intensity in Germany v Holland...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAK6N_z_nQ4

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Brighton Lines said:

May go some way to explaining it.... 2010-2018 in qualifying.

Montenegro x 2
Switzerland x 2
Wales
Bulgaria
Ukraine
Poland
Moldova
San Marino x 2
Slovenia x 2
Estonia
Lithuania x 2
Slovakia
Scotland
Malta

Some of the big nations must be wondering who is sleeping with who

You'd have expected a Group of Death by now.

Click to expand...

Green Cross Code Man said:

If he had come through our ranks he wouldn't be worth more than £5 million.

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Wozza said:

If you want a dodgy pen decision from the weekend, I present...

https://youtu.be/UB2KKzgP3eI?t=193

(Skip to 3:15)

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Brighton Lines said:

May go some way to explaining it.... 2010-2018 in qualifying.

Montenegro x 2
Switzerland x 2
Wales
Bulgaria
Ukraine
Poland
Moldova
San Marino x 2
Slovenia x 2
Estonia
Lithuania x 2
Slovakia
Scotland
Malta

Some of the big nations must be wondering who is sleeping with who

You'd have expected a Group of Death by now.

Click to expand...

edna krabappel said:

But that's the nature of seeding, isn't it? The reason England generally face weaker qualifying opponents is because they tend to win all their qualifiers, and reach the finals, and so become top seeds. Then they're even less likely to face strong opponents, and so the cycle perpetuates.

The only time that really changes is where you've had a traditionally strong nation who've had a bad run and have dropped down the rankings by failing to qualify one year, resulting in them becoming second seeds rather than in the first pool. That's why there is a group with both Germany and the Netherlands in this time round.

Conversely, Scotland habitually bemoan the fact they always seem to get drawn against good teams, convincing themselves they're terribly unlucky as a result. This is not, of course, very bad luck at all, but the result of being a very bad football team for a good couple of decades now.

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