2014 WC qualifying draw – UEFA Group B and C’s key points

Group B:

- Like Group A, there’s a repeat of a decisive Euro 2000 qualifying match-up in the form of Italy vs. Denmark. For two sides who hold no major cultural or historic rivalry or real geographical proximity, this is a more significant pairing than it might appear at first thanks to that Euro 2000 qualifying clash. The Danes are the last side to beat Italy on their home soil in a competitive game after coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in Naples in September 1999, helped by a goal each from the recently retired Jon Dahl Tomasson and (internationally) Martin Jørgensen and another from the current Denmark U-21 coach Morten Wieghorst. The March 1999 game in Copenhagen was also notable for a young (and also recently retired) Jesper Grønkjær on debut inadvertently assisting Italy’s opening goal inside the first minute after making a back pass to Peter Schmeichel from halfway without noticing that Filippo Inzaghi was in the way. The controversial Euro 2004 group stage exit of Italy at the hands of Denmark and Sweden’s “win-win” draw also adds spice to things.

- Whereas the added presence of Denmark, Czechia and Bulgaria would make this a very tough looking group not too long ago, all of Italy’s realistic challengers have been in fairly uninspiring form for some time now (even Denmark’s direct qualification for WC 2010 was achieved in rather backs-to-the-wall style with a fair amount of luck thrown in). Plenty of time for things to change of course but at this rate don’t be surprised to see Armenia to pick up a fair amount of points and cause plenty of frustration, as they have recently done for Russia and Slovakia in Euro 2012 qualifying.

Group C:

- Like Group B, a World Cup winner and a Scandinavian side form the top two but there’s nothing particularly interesting about it this time, although for Sweden it presents the chance to get the better of Germany in competitive action for the first time since the 1958 World Cup semi-final after losing out in WC 1966 qualifying, WC 1974, WC 1986 qualifying, Euro 1992 and WC 2006. There will be another meeting between neighbours Germany and Austria on top of the current Euro 2012 qualifiers that also involve Kazakhstan. Providing that Brian Kerr remains the manager of the Faroe Islands past the Euro 2012 qualifiers – in which the Faroese have already frustrated Northern Ireland – the Republic of Ireland have a possible meeting with their former coach (under whom they played the Faroe Islands in WC 2006 qualifying, winning 2-0 twice).

- For Austria the presence of the Faroe Islands is particularly significant and even troubling as they are amazingly still yet to win away to them after two attempts. Shortly after appearing at the 1990 World Cup, Austria were embarrassed with a 1-0 loss to the Faroese in their opening Euro 1992 qualifier (and the Faroe Islands’ first ever competitive game, held in Sweden due to their absence of suitable grass pitches at home) while much more recently they were held to a desperately frustrating 1-1 draw in Tórshavn in 2010 World Cup qualifying. Austria’s next trip to the Faroe Islands will thus be one of the more intriguing European qualifiers involving a side not realistically in the running for qualification.

- The Faroe Islands find themselves not seeded last for the first time since WC 2002 qualifiers but it hasn’t given them a bottom seed they’re likely to pick up six points against; Kazakhstan haven’t finished bottom in qualifying since their 2006 World Cup campaign. Considering the Faroese have continually finished last in qualifying since the 2002 qualifiers, it’s one of the many seedings in Europe that should call into question the method of using the FIFA World Rankings to decide seedings rather than UEFA’s national team coefficient (which are based solely on recent qualifying and major tournament results and are still used for European Championship qualifying).

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