England Fixture List for 2009

The only matches left for England to play that we might lose are against Croatia (once) and Ukraine (twice). I don’t underestimate Belarus, but I’d like to believe we’d beat them again.
If we lose all three, which I’m hopeful won’t happen, then we’ll have 21 points, and it’s generally a given teams need at least 24 points (I think) to have a certainty to qualify. Which means we need to win at least two of those three games.

Personally I hope we beat Ukraine, but I think we might draw with them one of the two times, and hopefully beat them the other time. I think Croatia will beat us but a draw would be just fine, and hopefully not unachievable considering our great form.

Of course that said we could lose to Ukraine, it’s not that impossible. But overall I predict we finish qualification with…

Maximum: 25 points with a loss to Croatia and a draw to Ukraine
Minimum: 22 points, with a loss to Croatia and Ukraine, and maybe an embarrassing slip up at home to Belarus, or maybe just a heroic performance by them.

You’d expect Croatia to win all their other matches, so it will be tight. Even being ahead at this stage is no guarantee we’ll finish first.