Robbie Keane for Tottenham Hotspur (v West Bromwich Albion), 27 March 2006

Good day, one and all. Yes, it's that time again.

Arsenal 2-0 Villa
Birmingham 0-2 Chelsea
Bolton 1-3 Man Utd
Everton 2-0 Sunderland
Fulham 2-2 Portsmouth
Newcastle 1-0 Spurs
West Brom 0-1 Liverpool
Man City 2-1 Middlesbrough
West Ham 2-1 Charlton
Blackburn 2-0 Wigan

and some random foreign wildcards

Fiorentina 0-0 Roma
Barcelona 4-2 Real Madrid
ADO Den Haag 3-1 Willem II

Didier Drogba for Chelsea (v Manchester City), 25 March 2006

....and this is the reason people are beginning to hate Peter Kenyon and Chelsea when he uses sentences like this:

"....This is a unique, ground-breaking relationship that not only demonstrates our commitment to the development of US soccer, but will also help Chelsea work towards its aim of becoming the most popular European club in the US, one of our key target markets...."

I know that my club is hardly blameless in this regard but since when did football become about "target markets"?

Joey Galloway for Tampa Bay Buccaneers (v New Orleans Saints), 1 January 2005

You may know that the capacity at Old Trafford is in the process of being increased by the addition of two upper corner quadrants at the stadium. What you may not know is the difficulty the once-great club is having in filling thse seats.



For example, I, along with thousands of other United fans are "league match ticket book" holders. This guarantees me admission to every Premiership match in a given season, plus home Cup matches should I want to (I pay for these on a match by match basis). And, that's it. Supporters with "season tickets" have additional benefits such as the opportunity for away tickets etc.

This close season, all existing League Match Ticket Book holders are being "upgraded" to Season Ticket status. Applications are also being taken for Season Tickets for the additional part of the ground.

For the Wigan game earlier in the season, you could have bought a match ticket on the day of the game. This is the first time I remember this happening for a Premiership game in the last six or seven years.

This is my favourite bit.

The club are trying to flog these grand executive box packages (see here). £205,625 per year for a box that holds 16 people including a host of benefits including Executive Box access, the opportunity of seeing the team train, priority booking etc.

Two hundred thousand pounds per year. Yes, that is two hundred thousand pounds.

However, if you were unsure about paying this amount, you do get half price access to the Museum.

HALF PRICE ACCESS TO THE MUSEUM? Last time I went it cost about a fiver. For a couple of hundred large ones a year, you'd have thought they just *might* have lobbed in a trip round the museum, eh?

Luis Boa Morte for Fulham (v Chelsea), 19 March 2006

Morning all.

I promise I will put something of interest up here in due course. As some of you may know, I am in the throes of moving house and so every waking hour seems to be spent bubble wrapping electrical kitchen items and crockery. I still have two Dutch football experiences to share with you at some point...

Meanwhile, the predictions for this week are:

Aston Villa 2-1 Fulham
Chelsea 2-0 Man City
Liverpool 2-1 Everton
Portsmouth 1-2 Arsenal
Sunderland 1-1 Blackburn
Wigan 1-2 West Ham
Charlton 1-2 Newcastle
Man Utd 3-0 Birmingham
Middlesbrough 2-2 Bolton
Spurs 2-0 West Brom

and seeing as eight points separates the bottom nine teams in the League I thought we'd go there for the wildcards....

Bury 1-1 Rochdale
Torquay 2-1 Stockport
Barnet 1-3 Darlington

Finally, just an update on the potential bonus points scoring for the "guess the FA Cup finalists":

Lord B - Chelsea and Liverpool
Flash - Spurs and Chelsea
El Tel - Man Utd and Chelsea
Swiss - Man Utd and Chelsea
Dom - Arsenal and Newcastle
Weenie - Chelsea and Man Utd
Charby - Chelsea and Arsenal
Mike - Spurs and Arsenal
Sarah - Chelsea and Man Utd

By my reckoning there is only me that can score maximum points here (subject to the semi final draw later of course...)

Robbie Fowler for Liverpool (v Fulham), 15 March 2006

Ok, predictions have been updated. Rufus Fan has now become Sarah (now she has got round to getting her own blog up and running....) It is close at the top!

Predictions this week:

Arsenal 3-0 Charlton
Birmingham 2-1 Tottenham
Blackburn 2-0 Middlesbrough
Bolton 2-1 Sunderland
Everton 2-1 Aston Villa
Man City 2-0 Wigan
West Brom 1-2 Man Utd
West Ham 1-1 Portsmouth
Fulham 0-3 Chelsea
Newcastle 1-1 Liverpool

and lets go for the FA Cup Quarter Finals as wildcards (the 90 minute result counts for these)

Man City 2-0 West Ham
Birmingham 1-2 Liverpool
Chelsea 3-1 Newcastle
Charlton 1-2 Middlesbrough

Jonny Wilkinson for England (vs Australia), 22nd November 2003

Last month it was announced that Real Madrid had toppled Manchester Utd to become the richest football club in the world. Real topped the table with earnings of £186.2m and United fell back to second place with a paltry £166.4m (Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal also featured in the top 10, with Newcastle, Spurs, Manchester City and Everton all making the top 20).

It should be noted that this list only reflects earnings, taking no account of outgoings (like the estimated £5m p.a. earned by the various Galacticos at Madrid). Yet somehow it still seems significant because for years and years, United have prided themselves on their commericial and financial clout. In addition to declining performances on the pitch, it seems that they are beginning to lose ground elsewhere too.

The fact that the Glazer takeover has plunged United into massive debt probably has a little to do with the financial decline, but it's almost impossible not to see the transfer of David Beckham as being significant. Peter Kenyon sold Beckham to Madrid in 2003 for a deal worth £24.5m. On the face of it, that sounded like a reasonable fee for a player a few people doubted was really on a par with Zidane and Ronaldo. Three years on, it looks more and more like Madrid got by far the better of the deal. For starters the deal itself was made up on an initial cash sum of only £5.25m, with the rest being tied up on installments (£12m over 4 years) and on payments triggered by performances in the Champions League (£875,000 every year the qualify, and £875,000 every time they make the quarter finals). On that basis alone, Manchester United will not have received the full £24.5m.

Worse still, the Real Madrid Director charged with the negotiation of the transfer, Jose Angel Sanchez, has revealed how he could not believe how little Peter Kenyon asked for Beckham when he was asked to name his price. Sanchez was apparently authorised by Madrid to pay double the £24m, and was astonished at how little the richest club in the world realised what an incredible commercial property they were giving away. Real put Beckham's commercial worth to them as something like 500m Euros - that's a 1,500% return on their investment. Not bad. (There's a good article on this here).

I wonder how Chelsea feel about this, having been so proud of their acquisition of Kenyon as their chief executive?

Football finances are crazy, as we all know, but I thought it might be interesting to have a quick and completely unscientific look at three England captains in different sports and have a look at their earning potential, together with photographs of them with their partners....

Jonny Wilkinson - England Rugby Union Captain (well, he would be if he wasn't injured all the time)



Salary: about £200,000 per year

Key sponsors: Lloyds-TSB, The Times, Lucozade, Adidas, Hackett

Total income: about £5m per year (probably as much as three times more than any other rugby player in the UK)

Andrew Flintoff - England Cricket Captain



Salary: £160,000 p.a. central contract, £60,000 bonus for winning the Ashes

Sponsors: Barclays Capital, Woodworm Cricket Equipment, The Sun, VW, Red Bull, Thwaites Brewery

Off-Pitch earning potential: estimated at between £1m - £1.5m per year

David Beckham - England Football Captain



Salary: £4.4m per year from Real Madrid (plus bonuses)

Sponsors: Adidas, Police Sunglasses, Castrol, TBC, Marks & Spencer, Tsubasa Systems, Meiji, Pepsi, Upper Deck....etc.etc

Total earnings: £17m p.a. including £12.5m from advertising contracts

----

I know it's a pointless comparison really, I just thought it was interesting how much more Beckham makes than the other two - even just on basic salary. I appreciate that football is the most popular sport in the world and that it generates far more income worldwide than the other two sports put together.... even so - that's a lot of money.

I suppose you can't blame any of them for cashing in whilst they can, and to be fair, all three have reputations as dedicated professionals.... but it must sometimes be hard not to be distracted by commercial opportunities outside of their day jobs. Beckham for one is often criticised for making trips to the USA / Far East when he would perhaps be better resting.

Let's hope he focuses totally on the football in the run up to Germany this summer, just as Freddie focused on the Ashes last summer, and as Jonny focused on the World Cup in 2003... which remains the last time he played for the national side.

Haris Mendunjanin for AZ Alkmaar (v NEC Nijmegen), 3 March 2006

And so, after a 2.30am start to get to Stansted, Sarah and I arrived in Eindhoven at breakfast time last Friday. After dropping the bags at the hotel, and some coffees, toasted sandwiches and a fiercely competitive game of Star Wars Episodes 1-3 Top Trumps (won by yours truly once I managed to prise Yoda out of my opponents hand by using Jar Jar Binks' height as the tactic), we headed to the nearby town of Nijmegen for the first of our three weekend matches.

I should point out here that Dutch railways are clean, reliable, efficient and reasonable. How is it that every other country's rail systems are fantastic and ours so bloody useless? Although (and this became a regular occurrence), once my head hit a train headrest, I nodded off....

Nijmegen itself was pretty horrid. Once we had got our bearings, we headed into the town centre past a selection of ugly 1960s buildings. I suspect that much of this old town was levelled in the Second World War and most of it looks like it was rebuilt our of concrete and pebble dash sometime around 1950.

The town centre was pretty horrible too - faceless ugly shopping streets and an H&M on every corner. So, after exploring the town (it took about fifteen minutes), we escaped the cold and went for a beer or two.

We then caught the bus out towards the stadium and then had to walk for about fifteen minutes from the bus stop over towards the De Goddert stadium. It was *freezing*. There was about four inches of snow and I was absolutely chilled to the bone. We arrived at the stadium and found the ticket office and spoke with a very nice chap called Pim who I had been e-mailing beforehand to source our tickets for us.

The stadium holds 12,500 and by the time the 8.30pm kick off time arrived, it was probably about two thirds full. Once interesting point that was immediately apparent (and was borne out over the course of the weekend) is that the away support in Holland is absolutely useless. Bearing in mind it's a fairly small country, and AZ are third in the league, they must have had no more than about 100 fans. These poor blighters were behind one of the goals in what can only be described as a cage - penned in on both sides and fenced in from the pitch.

The first half was a pretty drab affair. The hard pitch didn't help, and chances were few and far between. An amusing interlude occurred when I saw about the first ever goalkeeper "airshot from a backpass" that I have ever seen. I have seen plenty of keepers shank clearances into the back of the stand from a backpass but hardly ever them swinging and missing it completely so it goes out for a corner. So, thanks to Raymon van Emmerik for that.

Another strange fact about this game is that NEC have an English centre half called David Jones. The odd fact about this is that David Jones has never played football in the UK. He has made over 325 appearances in the Dutch league since 1992 for Vitesse Arnhem, Dordrecht 90, NEC Nijmegen and FC Twente but no-one outside Holland has probably ever heard of him.

The second half opened a little more brightly and two goals in three early second half minutes effectively sealed the result. A quick AZ counter attack saw Haris Medunjanin score with a smart turn and left foot shot from the edge of the penalty area. Almost straight from the restart, Medunjanin escaped down the left wing and although his cross eluded Steyn Huysegems, Danny Koevermans was there to finish smartly from close range.

Although NEC played some tidy football, other than a volley over the bar by Edgar Barreto when he should have done better they didn't pose AZ much of a threat, and a series of substitutions broke up the already dull game and AZ ran out comfortable 2-0 winners.

So, NEC woolly hat perched on my freezing head, we walked for ages, waited ages for a bus and escaped Nijmegen. Next stop, Eindhoven...

Pascal Chimbonda for Manchester United (v Wigan Athletic), 6 March 2006

Sorry there's not been much here of late. I do have match reports and snaps of the whole Dutch footie odyssey thing but work and The Feeling has taken over recently and so I will bore you with NEC Nijmegen stats in due course....

Meanwhile, the predictions for this week are:

Birmingham 2-1 West Brom
Blackburn 3-1 Aston Villa
Bolton 1-1 West Ham
Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham
Everton 1-0 Fulham
Portsmouth 1-0 Man City
Sunderland 1-1 Wigan
Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool
Charlton 2-1 Middlesbrough
Man Utd 3-1 Newcastle

and some random alliterative Coca-Cola wildcards:

Luton 1-2 Leicester
Bournemouth 2-0 Bradford
Brentford 2-0 Barnsley

Peter Crouch for England (vs Uruguay), 1st March 2006

Hello results pickers. Here are this week's fixtures for the CUAS predictions league:

Villa 1-1 Portsmouth
Fulham 1-2 Arsenal
Liverpool 2-0 Charlton
Boro 2-0 Birmingham
Newcastle 2-1 Bolton
WBA 0-2 Chelsea
West Ham 1-1 Everton
Man City 2-0 Sunderland
Spurs 1-1 Blackburn
Wigan 1-2 Man Utd

....and this week's Lord B weekend away inspired wildcards:

NEC 0-1 AZ
PSV 3-1 Heerenveen
Ajax 3-1 Sparta Rotterdam

Not 'alf.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink for PSV Eindhoven (v AZ Alkmaar), 26 February 2006

So, then, I am off for a bit of a random weekend.

A few weeks ago I decided I needed a bit of a break, and picked this weekend as the most likely. I searched the low cost airlines for cheap flights and then, having found an odd destination, looked online to see if the weekend I was planning matched a home fixture of this city's local football team. It did. So I booked the flights and some tickets for the game.

A couple of weeks ago it dawned on me that the league fixtures in this country are spread across the whole weekend, rather than all being played on Saturday afternoon. So, with a train timetable online and a fixture list, I emailed two further clubs who both came back to me with tickets for their respective games as well.

So, on Friday night I am going to the De Goffert Stadion in Nijmegen:

for NEC Nijmegen v AZ Alkmaar.

On Saturday I will be at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven:

for PSV v Heerenveen.

and on Sunday I will be at the Amsterdam ArenA:

for Ajax v Sparta Rotterdam.

A veritable cornucopia of random Dutch football. I shall be accompanied by my good friend Rufus Fan (who is now Sarah here for those interested) and am looking forward to a slightly unusual football based long weekend in the Netherlands. Pics and reports on my return (especially from the "world famous" Ajax SoccerWorld Cafe (where we are having lunch))....

Wayne Rooney for Manchester Utd (v Wigan Athletic), 26 February 2006

Predictions updated. Er, I'll take the February prize (thanking you) and El Tel is our new overall leader, although there's only 25 points or so separating the top 5.

Still all to play for.... (unlike the major European top divisions this season...)

Andreas Johansson for Wigan Athletic (v Tottenham Hotspur), 19 February 2006

Predictions again....

Birmingham 2-0 Sunderland
Blackburn 1-2 Arsenal
Charlton 1-1 Villa
Chelsea 3-0 Portsmouth
Newcastle 2-0 Everton
Bolton 1-1 Fulham
Liverpool 1-0 Man City
West Brom 0-2 Middlesbrough

and a couple of Cup wildcards:

Gretna 2-1 St Mirren
Man Utd 2-1 Wigan Athletic

Ruud van Nistelrooy for Manchester United (v Blackburn Rovers), 25 January 2006

So, I have today turned down the opportunity to go to this weekends Carling Cup Final at the Milennium Stadium. I have my daughter this weekend and as I am not seeing her next weekend (more about that soon) I didn't want to spend all day Sunday in Cardiff.

And so, my brother and my mum are off to see the United v Wigan game instead. I have been to a Carling Cup Final - I was a corporate guest at the 2003 Final when United lost 2-0 to Liverpool so I am not that disappointed - but I'd have certainly gone had I not had the nipper.

So why the photo of Dermot Gallagher? I hear no-one cry. Alan Wiley is referring this seasons Final...!

Dermot and Alan are pals. Dermot was supposed to be going to Cardiff on Sunday to support his mate Alan. Dermot forgot to book the weekend off work and has been rota-d to ref the Liverpool game this weekend instead. He therefore had two tickets for the Final that he couldn't use. My brother works with a lady called Liz Gallagher who is Dermot's ex-wife. Apparently, Dermot and Liz are still on reasonable terms even though they are divorced and he offered her the tickets. She knew my brother was a United fan, and so she gave him first refusal on the tickets.

So, technically, I could have been in Dermot Gallagher's seat for the Cup Final.

Weird.

Peter Crouch for Liverpool (v Manchester United), 18 February 2006

I have to say that this one of the most horrendous things I have ever seen on a football pitch. Ruud van Nistelrooy walking over to see if he was OK and reeling in horror as he saw the damage to Alan Smith's leg was quite, quite awful.

Get well soon, Smithy.

Richie Wellens for Oldham Athletic (v Nottingham Forest), 15 February 2006

Predictions are here.

So today, after a disappointing season, Gary Megson parted company with Nottingham Forest.

Not only did Megson fail to keep Forest in the Championship, defeat last night to Oldham Athletic leaves the double European Champions four points off the drop zone to League Two.

Megson came to Forest with a reputation for ugly but effective football having achieved some success on a limited budget with his previous club West Brom. He was also apparently the best paid manager outside the Premiership. But, 17 wins in 59 games after spending £1.2million (a small fortune for a third division side) was simply not good enough, especially when the expectation was that Forest would bounce straight back into the Championship.

With absolutely no disrespect to these clubs, look who is ahead of Forest in the table. Colchester. Brentford. Doncaster Rovers. Chesterfield.

So, Nigel Doughty is looking for his fourth manager in three years. Will he turn to his friend Glenn Hoddle, himself under pressure after a disappointing season with Wolves? Paul Hart for the rest of the season? Would Nigel Clough want the job? Claudio Ranieri? Martin O'Neill? Paul Merson? Gazza? Who would you choose?

Luis Garcia for Liverpool (v Arsenal), 14 February 2006

Hello folks. FA Cup predictions time again...

Bolton 1-2 West Ham
Charlton 2-1 Brentford
Liverpool 1-0 Man Utd
Newcastle 2-0 Southampton
Villa 2-1 Man City
Chelsea 2-0 Colchester
Preston 1-0 Middlesbrough
Stoke 0-2 Birmingham

and a couple of wildcards from the Championship:

Sheff Wed 0-2 Sheff Utd
Leicester 1-1 Leeds

Luke Young for Charlton (v Liverpool), 8 February 2006

Predictions again, my lovelies:

Arsenal 2-0 Bolton
Aston Villa 2-1 Newcastle
Everton 1-0 Blackburn
Fulham 2-1 West Borm
Middlesbrough 0-2 Chelsea
Portsmouth 1-2 Man Utd
Wigan 1-2 Liverpool
Man City 2-0 Charlton
Sunderland 1-2 Spurs
West Ham 2-1 Birmingham

and how about some Saintly wildcards?

St Johnstone 0-1 St Mirren
St Albans 1-0 Sutton United

Alan Shearer for Newcastle Utd (v Portsmouth), 4 February 2006

So, Graeme Souness has gone, and Newcastle United are, again, in search of another manager. All the signs point to ex Leicester and Celtic boss Martin O'Neill as the man charged with spending gazillions of pounds on show ponies and other assorted sh*t in a doomed attempt to actually bring a trophy to St James Park.

I don't like Graeme Souness and never quite understood why he got the job in the first place (other than for the reason that Fat Freddy thought he might be able to handle idiot divas Craig Bellamy and Lee Bowyer.) His signings were pretty poor and his dour humourless attitude (although my team's boss can hardly claim the high ground in that regard) never clicked with the Newcastle fans.

Alan Shearer has already says he doesnt want the job. He is a hero on Tyneside and for that reason alone needs to steer clear of taking the Newcastle managers job....forever. Is it the worst/most difficult job in the game? Whilst I like Newcastle United, it strikes me that the gap between the expectations of the fans and the reality of the team are wider than with any other team in the league. Although, perversely, the size of the ground and the financial backing should mean they ought to be competing at the top end of the league instead of scrabbling around in mid table with Fulham and Aston Villa.

Newcastle are not going to win the Premier League in the next decade. Fact. Their turnover of managers and comedy board should prohibit that alone. However, it must be galling for Newcastle fans, desperate for silverware, to watch the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Millwall, Southampton, Bolton, Leicester, Tottenham and particularly Middlesbrough get to major cup finals, and win trophies over the last ten years.

With a decent manager and some decent signings (come on, Toon fans - given a clean slate how many of your current first choice XI would you retain? Parker? Given? Owen?) they could start competing for Champions League football and certainly with a bit of luck could make it to Cup Finals and win a trophy. But it's such a thankless job that I can't see why you would put yourself through the heartache....

David Bentley for Blackburn Rovers (v Manchester Utd), 1 February 2006

Hello all. Predictions for January and for the season are up to date, and the big news is that Charby has been reeled in and is now only top on alphabetical order from the legend that is El Tel Venerables. Alex not far behind in third.

And congrats to Weenie, who just won January's league from Dom and Swiss.

This week:

Birmingham 1-1 Arsenal
Bolton 2-0 Wigan
Everton 1-1 Man City
Man Utd 2-1 Fulham
Middlesbrough 0-2 Aston Villa
Newcastle 1-0 Portsmouth
West Brom 0-1 Blackburn
West Ham 3-0 Sunderland
Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool
Tottenham 2-0 Charlton

and a couple of local derby wildcards:

Norwich 1-1 Ipswich
Northampton 2-0 Rushden and Diamonds

Angelos Charisteas for Greece (v Portugal), 4 July 2004

Predictions are here.


So, the draw for the qualifying for Euro 2008 took place today. The host nations qualify automatically (Switzerland and a very lucky Austria) and the top two from each group also qualify - there are no play-offs this time round. The draw in full:

Group A

Portugal, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Belgium, Finland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan

Not one for the faint hearted, with three away trips to former Russian republics for the likes of Portugal and Belgium. If Serbia continue with their World Cup qualifying form, they could cause some problems in this group. I also don't fancy Portugal much on a bumpy pitch in stormy Baku, so this could be more open than it looks.

Picks: Serbia and Portugal (just)

Group B

France, Italy, Ukraine, Scotland, Lithuania, Georgia, Faroe Islands

Well, this was Scotland's worst nightmare. They were facing an uphill struggle anyway, but their chances are pretty much dead and buried by landing not only France and Italy but also the Ukraine. Expect them to lose to Lithuania or the Faroes but beat France or Italy along the way. I like Ukraine - they are one of my each way bets for this summers World Cup but it is hard to look past the "big" two, even though I think France are increasingly vulnerable.

Picks: France and Italy

Group C

Greece, Turkey, Norway, Bosnia, Hungary, Moldova, Malta

Even though they won the last tournament, Greece seem oddly highly seeded and have shown no form since their unexpected triumph in Lisbon. It's an interesting group this as even the Moldovan's can give a decent side a game and Hungary have shown signs of improvement of late.

Picks: Turkey and Norway

Group D

Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Rep. Ireland, Wales, Cyprus, San Marino

Well, the "home" nations will feel that they have a chance in this group. The Czech's are invariably strong, but Germany's problems are well documented and Slovakia punched above their weight in reaching the World Cup qualifying play-offs. Cyprus and San Marino should cause no problems, and so this could prove to be one of the more open groups. Unfortunately, I think Welsh in-fighting and an increasingly weak looking Ireland squad will mean disappointment for both.

Picks : Czech Republic and Germany

Group E

England, Croatia, Russia, Israel, Macedonia, Estonia, Andorra

Well, could England have landed any more comfortable a group? No long away trips to ex Russian republics, no home nations and none of the big name second seeds. Croatia are a decent side but would expect to be beaten, and beyond that England (the best team in Europe currently?) should comfortably qualify. On paper you'd have to go for Croatia or Russia, but there is often a surprise qualifier. If their Premiership based players perform consistently, it could be the least European nation in the draw that makes it to Switzerland.

Picks: England and Israel

Group F

Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Liechtenstein

Again, an interesting group. The top four seeds will all fancy their chances here, with Sweden and Spain early favourites for the tournament itself, Denmark winners in 1992 and Latvia qualifying in 2004. I think Northern Ireland will struggle against all four of those sides, and I think it will be a fight between the Scandinavian nations for the second qualifying spot.

Picks: Sweden and Spain

Group G

Holland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Albania, Belarus, Luxembourg

Well, the second place here is anyones guess. I expect Holland to qualify comfortably, but then it is a good scrap for the other place. Romania and Bulgaria are solid sides if unlikely to trouble Europe's top teams, whilst little Slovenia have put together some decent sides over the last 10 years. Albania are one of the most improved nations in Europe also. I think this is another group where we might see a surprise qualifier.

Picks: Holland and Slovenia

Anyone fly low cost to Skopje?.....