Literally, how can you defend this?>Didn't win a single game in the group stage>Had to play the first round of the play-offs away, but because it was vs Ukraine, who can't host international matches, play at neutral ground>play the last round at home, despite being lower seeded because of the drawAnd the only reason they played the playoffs in the first place was because they finished top in their group in the Nations League. Sweden played in the 3rd division of the Nations League. The group consisted of Azerbaijan, Estona and Slovakia. So, if they were better, enough to being in the 2nd division (being top 32 of Europe), they wouldn't even had that second chance.It's like if England sent Lincoln City instead of Liverpool to the Champions League, because Lincoln City won the third division and Liverpool only finished 5th in the first divisionUsing the Nations League as a way to qualify to the World Cup must be the worst idea UEFA ever had
It is. The new format sucks and Nation's League is literally friendlies.I don't think i will watch our premiere at 4am on tuesday.
>>155005473Ya seethe?
Kosovo didn't win when it mattered.Italy didn't win when it mattered.Poland didn't win when it mattered.Denmark didn't win when it mattered.Sweden though? Sweden won when it mattered. That's why Sweden are in the World Cup and all those other teams got eliminated in the playoffs. All they had to do was beat shitters of equal quality to the shitters we faced. But they choked.Don't choke when it matters if you want to go.
>>155005473so they're the New England Patriots. pretty based.
If you think that's bad then look at the teams New Zealand had to beat to qualify
Who cares which NPCs make it or how they make it, the whole thing is centered around 4 or 5 teams and the rest are there to watch like cucks. I'd rather not qualify at all then be there to fill a space, Afcon > WC
>>155005473If you can't qualify with 25% of the entire fucking planet being eligible then you don't deserve to be there.And if you do, then you do.
They didn't have access to the Kulucevski-meister who would have single handedly won all those games for glorious Macedonia, I mean, Sweden
>>155011814Reminded me of this quote by Kulusevski>As long as I live, I will do everything I can so that Sweden, when we go out and play, will not be afraid of anyone. Brazil, France, whoever they are. That's why I'm on this planet. To give faith and love to my people.
>>155005473Very based.
>>155011949His most favourite thing to do is show up against big teams, it's one of the reasons Spurs always steal points from Man City
>>155012101Genuinely he was the heart of our team. It all collapsed as soon as he got injured. It's a shame he doesn't get to go to the World Cup.
>>155005473Ackshually Slovakia were also Germany's only competition for a direct spot in regular qualis. Sweden didn't have it easier than Germany, who even lost their first game v Slovakia. In fact Sweden had it much harder as they didn't get a direct spot. Instead the NL win only put them in the bottom pot of the POs. They beat a top seed and like in club comps top seed status carried over, they get to play at home against the pot 2/3 team. UEFA rules now state that top seeds, or whoever beats them, play both PO games at home.
>>155012247Not true at all. >The draw for the final hosts took place immediately afterwards, with finals A, B, C and D each having one of their semi-finalists selected as the host team.You can see that Bosnia (Pot 3) hosted Italy (Pot 1), Czech Republic (Pot 2) hosted Denmark (Pot 1), Kosovo (Pot 3) hosted Turkey (Pot 1)And here youtube.com/watch?v=QdVmeszTHi8 at 46:33 you can see the exact moment where it was drawn that the winner of UKR/SWE would host the winner of POL/ALBI don't know why would you go out of your way to correct someone when what you are saying is so easily disproven and freely available on the Internet>Slovakia were also Germany's only competition for a direct spot in regular qualisYou would have a point if Sweden didn't finished bottom of their group, with 0 wins
Imagine the shitstorm if they win the wc.
>>155005473The nations league is necessary to avoid teams like romania using frie dlies to cheat the ranking
>>155017697Happened once. Danemark in 92.
>>155017932You can't exploit the ranking by not playing anymore. In 2018 FIFA changed to Elo-system.
>>155017678>UEFA rules now state>nowItaly's crying led to UEFA fixing it. If a NL minnow can defeat a big ol top seed then fair enough the benefit of hosting the PO final should carry over. Italy's predicament isn't relevant for the PO path Sweden was in. If anything the winner of Ukraine/Sweden should have been automatically locked in as host for the PO final from the get-go, as is the case going forward. For Sweden it worked out and they didn't get screwed over, unlike poor lil Italy having to play the big bad Bosnians away.>if Sweden didn't finished bottom of their groupRegular qualis decide 12 direct spots and the bulk of the PO ones. Only 4 bottom pot PO spots for NL repechage. Sweden had to shit the bed in regular qualis or otherwise wouldn't have needed to win their NL group. They checked both boxes so deserved one of those 4 spots. Simple as.If Germany merit a spot by simply staying ahead of Slovakia then Sweden deserve to be there too for staying ahead of Slovakia in the NL and then going on to beat Ukraine and Poland in the POs.
>>155005473Agreed. Nothing against Sweden, but it is dumb. NL shouldn't play a role in World Cup qualifiers
>>155005473Lmfao that's wild
>>155005473I wish they had this easy path in 2014, what's even the point of hosting a world cup if there will be no swedish girls (and boys)
>>155005473very competitive draws you wouldn't understand
>>155005473Do you want another 3-0 paco?
>>155025850Is beating Jamaica and Trinidad harder than beating Poland and Ukraine?
>>155023329They didn't deserve that extra chance more than, say Hungary. They were in League A of the Nations League and in the Qualies drawn with Portugal and Ireland, they finished third, still shit but not worse than Sweden.But Sweden got rewarded by being bad and being in League C at the time.24 teams finish on the Top 2 positions of the qualifiers. If you didn't manage to be one of those teams, you have no place anywhere near the World Cup>>155028679Let's be real here, neither of us will advance enough rounds for there to be a chance to face each other.
>>155005473Damn, the European really have it hard to qualify
>>155005473at least they changed it, they didn't allot spots solely for the "best NL teams" that didn't qualify, they added all second placed teams of their respective groups to the pots, and only 4 places of the playoffs to NL teams.So yeah, congrats to Sweden for beating two teams that placed second in their groups.>>155011529Italy and Denmark didn't really lose, they were eliminated in a penalty shootout.
>>155034349yeah, that's a confederation where you can get grouped with a strong team, second place means nothing, and the repechage is a series of single leg ko matches.
>>155036426If you don't want to lose on pens then maybe don't go to a draw with random slav shit holes that don't have 1/10th of the resources or talent pool that you have.
>>155005473no body defends it, probably not even most swedes
