Road to South Africa - Group A

Hmm, Group Four. I've had a few days to take in the draw and the task Wales face. Let's take a look...

Germany - The best team in Europe at present? Possibly. So are there any positives to be taken out of being drawn against this nation again. Well for starters you'd probably have to accept the fact that any name pulled out of the top pot would have made most Welsh fans wince. People would argue and say 'better to get Greece or Croatia'. I think these people should take a look at the efficiency that these two nations showed in winning their Eur0 2008 qualifying groups. No I think the only plus we can take from it is, to quote John Toshack, "Better the devil you know". At least many of our players know what to expect to some extent and the draw in Frankfurt last month can only aid confidence. Yes I know the Germans started the game with their foot off the pedal but they really wanted it towards the end. Anyway with only group winners claiming automatic qualification the realists would say Germany are sure to claim top spot, leaving the other nations to fight it out for second place. This takes us on to...

Russia - I think many Welsh supporters thought of one thing when Russia were put in the same group as us. Revenge. For those who are unaware of the history, Russia beat Wales in one of the Euro 2004 play offs. After a decent first leg in Moscow we were mouth wateringly close to qualifying for the tournament but we blew it big style back at home with no excuses. I love the thought of playing them at the Millennium Stadium again and I'm sure several of the Welsh players will too. That said our squad is unrecognisable from the one that played four years ago. I imagine most of our team were still at school in 2003. Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate how hard it'll be to get anything from either game. England recently found this at their expense. However I think there's a strong possibility highly influential coach Guus Hiddink will leave his post after Euro 2008. He left the Dutch after France 98, he left the South Koreans after the 2002 World Cup and he left the Australians after Germany 2006. He hasn't signed an extension yet, so I expect the trend to continue. I'm not suggesting that Russia will fall apart without him and all the technically gifted Russian players will suddenly lose their ability but they're surely going to miss him. Yeah okay I'm clutching at straws...

Finland - Another nation who had a good Euro 2008 qualifying campaign narrowly missing out to Portugal and Poland in a difficult group. This was exceptional, especially for a nation with a worst tournament qualifying record than us. Finland's improvement has been attributed to coach Roy Hodgson, who left the role last week. This will be a loss for them and I doubt they'll be able to attract an equally high profile replacement. I've read that defensively the Finns are great but they can be quite ineffective in front of goal so perhaps we can expect two nil-nils against them.

Azerbaijan - Ahh we meet again Azeris! We've been drawn with them in our Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006 campaigns making me think some of the Welsh supporters should have bought a time share in Baku. They've improved since we first faced them in 2oo2 and they will not be a push over but if we drop points against Azerbaijan we wont stand a chance of finishing anywhere near second place. The 1-1 draw against them in the opening game of the World Cup 2006 qualifiers really knocked the stuffing out of us. Obviously need to avoid a repeat of this. Interestingly they beat Finland this year. They look good to take points from one of the above teams, preferably Russia.

Liechtenstein - The Group A whipping boys? I'm not convinced there's such a thing in world football anymore. The so called European minnows such as Malta are beginning to produce one or two decent players and getting the odd respectable result. San Marino weren't far from claiming a draw against us and were a lot closer to getting one against Ireland back in February. We soundly beat Liechtenstein 4-0 a year ago but it should be noted they've got some brilliant results since then. In the space of a few months they've beaten Latvia and taken four points from Iceland. However if we approach the games properly we should claim six points.

Summary - I'd be happy with a respectable third place in the group. I think every nation will take points off each other and as long as we win the games against Liechtenstein and Azerbaijan we take the pressure of ourselves. You know with a young squad it'll be another roller coaster campaign as you will unlikely see the consistency that experience brings. We'll hopefully see some new faces pop up during the games. The likes of Sam Vokes, Ched Evans, Simon Church and, if his heart is definitely in it for Wales, Joe Collison. Some nice away trips too, a bit boring for the regular travellers but cool for novices like me. I quite fancy Helsinki or perhaps Moscow.

Anyway onwards to Norway at the Racecourse!!!