Other games (2025/26)

[toon25]

1 hour ago, BlueStar said:

Always good to watch late goals with native commentary

 

 

 

 Szob on the sob.

 

Bin dipper cunt

[Yorkie]

Below, the top 12 European teams in the FIFA rankings at the time this qualifying campaign first kicked off. The ✅s represent group winners or soon-to-be group winners.

 

Spain ✅

France ✅

England ✅

Netherlands ✅

Portugal ✅

Belgium ✅

Italy 

Germany ✅

Croatia ✅

Switzerland ✅

Denmark ✅

Austria ✅

 

With the expanded tournaments it really is time we found a way to exempt a certain few countries from enduring the qualification trudge, whether that's through rankings or previous tournament performance or whatever. If it was club football, the suggestion would be abhorrent, but I really do think it's different here, and the calendar is creaking so much that we have to find concessions somewhere. I mean what a waste of time that England group was. 

[Displayname]

17 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Below, the top 12 European teams in the FIFA rankings at the time this qualifying campaign first kicked off. The ✅s represent group winners or soon-to-be group winners.

 

Spain ✅

France ✅

England ✅

Netherlands ✅

Portugal ✅

Belgium ✅

Italy 

Germany ✅

Croatia ✅

Switzerland ✅

Denmark ✅

Austria ✅

 

With the expanded tournaments it really is time we found a way to exempt a certain few countries from enduring the qualification trudge, whether that's through rankings or previous tournament performance or whatever. If it was club football, the suggestion would be abhorrent, but I really do think it's different here, and the calendar is creaking so much that we have to find concessions somewhere. I mean what a waste of time that England group was. 

You kinda need to play games together to build a squad that functions anyways.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

Being Nigerian is just a life of embarrassment upon embarrassment with little reprieve. Joke of country in reality, now a joke in sport. 

 

Félicitations au Congo, bien mérité. They will be better with Wissa back.

 

 

35 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Below, the top 12 European teams in the FIFA rankings at the time this qualifying campaign first kicked off. The ✅s represent group winners or soon-to-be group winners.

 

Spain ✅

France ✅

England ✅

Netherlands ✅

Portugal ✅

Belgium ✅

Italy 

Germany ✅

Croatia ✅

Switzerland ✅

Denmark ✅

Austria ✅

 

With the expanded tournaments it really is time we found a way to exempt a certain few countries from enduring the qualification trudge, whether that's through rankings or previous tournament performance or whatever. If it was club football, the suggestion would be abhorrent, but I really do think it's different here, and the calendar is creaking so much that we have to find concessions somewhere. I mean what a waste of time that England group was. 

 

Exempting teams from qualifying would be massively unfair and is unworkable, imo. Just follow the lead of CONCACAF and AFC, who are both lopsided with many nations, and make the weak teams play an additional round of qualifying.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2025 by Segun Oluwaniyi

[Erikse]

45 minutes ago, Conjo said:

Going to get 1 point in the WC after every single player shrivels like a wet cheese puff, and our manager starts with a conservative 6-4-0 formation to be on the safe side when it actually matters. It's the Norway way.

 

But fun as long as it lasts.

 

I'm a bit more positive than this. But yes, some players in there will struggle with the pressure (CMs, defenders and goalie), and I'm also worried Solbakken will set us up to be too defensive against strong opponents. Italy just aren't that good atm.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2025 by Erikse

[Astroblack]

Nigerian starting lineup was a team full of heavyweights. How’d they fuck that up? Monumental. 
 

just looked up Congo’s lineup, not the mugs I thought they were. 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2025 by Astroblack

[Fak]

How's Wilfried Ndidi only 28 and not in his 30s?

[TRC]

14 minutes ago, Fak said:

How's Wilfried Ndidi only 28 and not in his 30s?

Holy shit.

 

I thought he was past it the first time Leicester went down but he would have been like 25/26.

[Mike]

Sweden shit and Szob made a cunt of himself and misses the world cup?

 

[Mike]

9 hours ago, Yorkie said:

That's amazing for Ireland. Good for them, two spectacular results. Pleased for our Irish contingent in here. 

 

Cheers Yorkie.

[Joe1984]

2 hours ago, TRC said:

Holy shit.

 

I thought he was past it the first time Leicester went down but he would have been like 25/26.

And his surname sounds like something a Jawa would say...

[Yorkie]

6 hours ago, Segun Oluwaniyi said:

7 hours ago, Yorkie said:

 

With the expanded tournaments it really is time we found a way to exempt a certain few countries from enduring the qualification trudge, whether that's through rankings or previous tournament performance or whatever. If it was club football, the suggestion would be abhorrent, but I really do think it's different here, and the calendar is creaking so much that we have to find concessions somewhere. I mean what a waste of time that England group was. 

 

Exempting teams from qualifying would be massively unfair and is unworkable, imo. Just follow the lead of CONCACAF and AFC, who are both lopsided with many nations, and make the weak teams play an additional round of qualifying.

 

I suppose there'd still be some merit-based qualification, only it wouldn't be achieved via 6-8 essentially dead rubber contests. Especially if it increases to 64 teams. 

[MagPar]

I hope and think Norway could go fairly deep as they have so many goals threats. 

[LFEE]

18 hours ago, Yorkie said:

Below, the top 12 European teams in the FIFA rankings at the time this qualifying campaign first kicked off. The ✅s represent group winners or soon-to-be group winners.

 

Spain ✅

France ✅

England ✅

Netherlands ✅

Portugal ✅

Belgium ✅

Italy 

Germany ✅

Croatia ✅

Switzerland ✅

Denmark ✅

Austria ✅

 

With the expanded tournaments it really is time we found a way to exempt a certain few countries from enduring the qualification trudge, whether that's through rankings or previous tournament performance or whatever. If it was club football, the suggestion would be abhorrent, but I really do think it's different here, and the calendar is creaking so much that we have to find concessions somewhere. I mean what a waste of time that England group was. 

Less qualifying groups making them all stronger and therefore more jeopardy in a format where you will play half the group at home and half away. 
 

Feels like the majority of the England qualifiers in my lifetime have been more of a waste of time as the years have passed.

 

The fact Sweden have a chance of qualifying despite being bottom of their group with a point is laughable.

[Kaizero]

1 hour ago, MagPar said:

I hope and think Norway could go fairly deep as they have so many goals threats. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRIpSR3jJZ8/

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2025 by Kaizero

[Kaizero]

43 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Less qualifying groups making them all stronger and therefore more jeopardy in a format where you will play half the group at home and half away. 
 

Feels like the majority of the England qualifiers in my lifetime have been more of a waste of time as the years have passed.

 

The fact Sweden have a chance of qualifying despite being bottom of their group with a point is laughable.

 

Saw a tiktok (I know, I know ) yesterday that quite effectively showcased that the European WC Qualifiers were actually the hardest  WC Qualifiers of the lot with only the African WC Qualifiers getting anywhere close. It was argued that the only thing that made them appear "pointless" was the fact the biggest nations in Europe "always" waltzed through them without trouble and that for those, very few, nations – then yes, the qualifiers might feel "pointless" as they're so stacked with quality and history that without a system where more than two of the "big" nations in Europe could get drawn in the same group it'd require a massive fuck up by a "big" nation for them to miss out.

 

However, Italy's missed out on two straight WC's and could potentially miss out on a third. Netherlands missed out as recently as the 2018 WC as well as in 2002. There's more as well but those are te ones off the top of my head, think France missed out on one of the ones in the 90s as well.

 

All that said about the "big" nations, the real proof for the UEFA WC Qualifiers being extremely competitive reveals itself when you look at the history of qualification for the teams that aren't one of the "big" UEFA nations. Norway, for instance, have ended up inches away from qualifying for every World Cup since the WC in France '98, only managing to do so this time around due to having the most golden of all golden generations in the history of the nation representing them on the pitch. By the time WC 2034 comes around, I'd imagine Norway will have returned to normalcy as the golden generation starts hanging up their boots, making the qualifiers feel like hell on earth for Norwegians again.

[The College Dropout]

I do think bigger groups and only 1 leg would make the games more fun and competitive even if the results are the same.  
 

Home and away is more fair mine.  The CL format works because the coefficient is accurate to each team pretty much. 

[Flip]

36 minutes ago, Kaizero said:

 

Saw a tiktok (I know, I know ) yesterday that quite effectively showcased that the European WC Qualifiers were actually the hardest  WC Qualifiers of the lot with only the African WC Qualifiers getting anywhere close. It was argued that the only thing that made them appear "pointless" was the fact the biggest nations in Europe "always" waltzed through them without trouble and that for those, very few, nations – then yes, the qualifiers might feel "pointless" as they're so stacked with quality and history that without a system where more than two of the "big" nations in Europe could get drawn in the same group it'd require a massive fuck up by a "big" nation for them to miss out.

 

However, Italy's missed out on two straight WC's and could potentially miss out on a third. Netherlands missed out as recently as the 2018 WC as well as in 2002. There's more as well but those are te ones off the top of my head, think France missed out on one of the ones in the 90s as well.

 

All that said about the "big" nations, the real proof for the UEFA WC Qualifiers being extremely competitive reveals itself when you look at the history of qualification for the teams that aren't one of the "big" UEFA nations. Norway, for instance, have ended up inches away from qualifying for every World Cup since the WC in France '98, only managing to do so this time around due to having the most golden of all golden generations in the history of the nation representing them on the pitch. By the time WC 2034 comes around, I'd imagine Norway will have returned to normalcy as the golden generation starts hanging up their boots, making the qualifiers feel like hell on earth for Norwegians again.

If you can barely beat Moldova and you are getting pummelled at home to Norway, then you shouldn’t have a chance at playing the World Cup. The mere fact Italy are probably going to make it anyways suggests the opposite to being the ”hardest” qualifier.

[Yorkie]

It just feels like some sensible decisions made within the modern context are long overdue - particularly (maybe exclusively) from UEFA and CONMEBOL. It's farcical that - for instance - Brazil and Argentina need to play 18 matches to confirm themselves as one of six from ten. It's an absolute inevitability and just feels like low hanging fruit when searching for realistic opportunities to trim the calendar. 

 

When it expands to 64 teams (which I'm entirely in favour of at this point, details notwithstanding) it's going to be even more of a farce. 

 

The principle of securing qualification based on previous tournament performance is already established by virtue of the winners being guaranteed. Can we not expand that further? The 8/10/12 best-performing UEFA nations should earn the right to avoid the pointless trudge of a full-blown qualification campaign.

 

No bye to a play-off either, because a one-off tie (where anything can happen) presents a much reduced chance of qualification, compared to a campaign where you build up points and can afford a couple of slip-ups. You're just in, simple as that, and there's eight 'competitive' fixtures removed from Harry Kane's calendar in an instant.

 

I get that this compares almost to the coefficiency and league performance drawbridge shit from club football, but if you're having a 64 team World Cup, Christ, let's just be realistic about it. These teams are gonna be there whatever happens, might as well save some legs in the mean time.

[duo]

Scored again  seriously we need to give the man some service 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2025 by duo

[Fak]

Northern Ireland kit is quite nice. The thicker three stripes on the sleeves are smart. 

[Weznufc]

Just now, Fak said:

Northern Ireland kit is quite nice. The thicker three stripes on the sleeves are smart. 

Think all teams will probably get that design next year. 

[black_n_white]

4 minutes ago, Weznufc said:

Think all teams will probably get that design next year. 

Welsh top has this also, looks cool.

[Weznufc]

6 minutes ago, black_n_white said:

Welsh top has this also, looks cool.

Most Adidas teams do, so like I said I'll imagine we'll get something like it for our kits 

[Bimpy474]

Appalling penalty decision with VAR interference given in the Netherlands game.  How professional refs think that was a penalty is mental.