Alex99
Rehab's Pete Doherty
- Joined
- May 30, 2009
- Messages
- 17,099
it was a really strong group, the strength of which has bizarrely been ignored by many.
England, and Croatia and the Czech Republic are all top teams.
can’t comment on Scotland’s actual play, and perhaps that can be improved - but it would have been quite a big shock for Scotland to qualify from that group.
It wasn't a strong group though. England are good, Croatia decent but clearly in decline, and Czech Republic very much of a similar level to Scotland. I'd argue that Hungary's group was the only strong group in the tournament.
They're not a perfect metric, but Fifa rankings are decent measure of the general strength of a team (3 of 6 groups finished in rank order and the other 3 only saw teams finish above a single higher ranked team), and Scotland's group doesn't appear among the strongest in any measure:
Average Group Ranking:
- Group F (France, Portugal, Germany, Hungary) = 14
- Group A (Italy, Wales, Switzerland, Turkey) = 16.5
- Group E (Spain, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia) = 20.25
- Group D (England, Croatia, Czech Republic, Scotland) = 25.5
- Group B (Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Finland) = 25.75
- Group C (Netherlands, Austria, Ukraine, North Macedonia) = 31.25
Average Group Ranking (Top 3 ranked teams):
- Group F = 6.33
- Group A = 12.33
- Group E = 15
- Group B = 16.33
- Group D = 19.33
- Group C = 21
Additionally, Scotland were the only team lowest ranked in their group to face another team ranked within 10 places:
Ranking Difference (Lowest Ranked to Next Closest)
- Group D = 4
- Group A = 12
- Group E = 15
- Group B = 16
- Group F = 25
- Group C = 38
When you look at Hungary (ranked 37th) having a proper go, leading both Germany (twice) and France in their matches, and Scotland just basically giving it "just happy to be here" and going out with a whimper, it's not hard to see why people might have expected more from Scotland, especially when you consider 3rd place could well have got them through to the knockouts.