I think it's complete BS that one of the 2nd place teams misses out on a play-off spot. All that work and stress, and in the end you might go out on away goals to a team you've never even played, and who might have had a less competitive group than you. It's an unnecessary layer of cruelty at the end of a long and painful campaign. It just doesn't feel fair. It feels like a cheap trick. A bureaucratic solution, not a sporting one, to get around the inconvenience of an uneven numbers of groups. Nah, that stinks.
Ahem, not that Ireland need to worry about any of that. Total bag of shyte tonight as they were dumped out in Austria. Still, an extraordinary night in Vienna in one respect: I have never in my life seen an international match in which 1 player stood so far apart from the other 21 on the pitch as I saw tonight.
It was incredible. 21 players who couldn't pass, couldn't shoot, couldn't tackle, couldn't stay composed, couldn't do dingdong...and then the 22nd player who did all those things and more - he also scored the goal only on 84. I'm referring to David Alaba. And get this: he was playing at No. 10. He's of course a left back at Bayern, but tonight, he was in the pocket (in fact, he was all over the pitch). Incredible. I understand you want your best players in dangerous positions, but it seems embarrassing to me that you have so little creativity that you put a defender in there. Which is not to say he couldn't do it - he was absolutely fantastic in an appalling game. Just it's a bit weird. Anyway, hats off to the guy.