You couldn't make it up, but it provides a huge fillip to the Scotland players and the Tartan Army to get into Group B. The Wales fans and management will be thinking the same way. I think our full Scotland line up will be stronger than what Wales will provide against us - the "new kid on the block" hopefully appearing finally over the horizon with a decent group of maturing young players backed up by a good few top players. However, there's work to do before the play-off final takes place. ONE STEP AT A TIME - A SEMI-FINAL CHALLENGE TO NEGOTIATE OR NOT???? Bizarrely, we still don't really know when the final will be played either - June or September??? An absolute disgrace IMO!!
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
Group B: England, Iran, USA, Wales/Scotland/Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, UAE/Australia/Peru, Denmark, Tunisia
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica/New Zealand, Germany, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea
Re the draw itself, some "tasty" group games to be played out in the 1st phase of this tourney. IMO Germany the one to watch with great interest this time around. The Netherlands a definite "dark horse" with a strengthened defence this time. France never a country to dismiss either, but Denmark in the the same group D is a rapidly improving international side that could well advance quite far as well.
Re playing in Qatar itself, still some real moral dilemmas that can't be ignored by lotsa sporting people re the high cost in lives to provide this World Cup tournament plus their human rights violations. As usual, sports/footie exceptionalism prevails amid a lotta "talking a good game" while competing anyway!
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
Group B: England, Iran, USA, Wales/Scotland/Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, UAE/Australia/Peru, Denmark, Tunisia
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica/New Zealand, Germany, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea
Re the draw itself, some "tasty" group games to be played out in the 1st phase of this tourney. IMO Germany the one to watch with great interest this time around. The Netherlands a definite "dark horse" with a strengthened defence this time. France never a country to dismiss either, but Denmark in the the same group D is a rapidly improving international side that could well advance quite far as well.
Re playing in Qatar itself, still some real moral dilemmas that can't be ignored by lotsa sporting people re the high cost in lives to provide this World Cup tournament plus their human rights violations. As usual, sports/footie exceptionalism prevails amid a lotta "talking a good game" while competing anyway!
