Barcelona have no answers

Barcelona face an uphill struggle to qualify for the quarter finals of the Champions League after losing 2-0 to AC Milan in the first leg at the San Siro last night.

What went wrong?

Barcelona had a lot of possession, but lacked a cutting edge. Sounds a crazy thing to say when they've got a player who has just broken the record for the number of goals scored by an individual in a calendar year, but Lionel Messi was very quiet last night.

You have to give credit to the disciplined defence maintained by the Italian club. Apart from the fact that Italian teams have been doing just that for years, they must have learnt from the way Chelsea went about winning the trophy last season. Again last night, Barcelona had no answers.

It may not be what we want to see, but endless possession with very few shots (Barcelona last night) may not be what we want either!

Having watched Bayern Munich put Arsenal to the sword on Tuesday night, it may sound odd to say, "Come on the Germans!"

Liverpool play on to score as Dzeko lies on the ground - YES! PLAY ON!

I have nothing against Manchester City. In fact, I quite admire the way they have become challengers and winners of the Premier League title.

However, I was quite delighted when Daniel Sturridge scored a goal against City for Liverpool yesterday. The circumstances were that a challenge on Edin Dzeko on the halfway line left the City striker on the ground - and he decided to stay there. The Manchester City fans - not their players, I must emphasise - howled for Liverpool to kick the ball out of play, but they didn't and went on to put the ball out of play in the best possible way - into City's net. (Sturridge, in deference, presumably to his old club, City, did not celebrate.)

AT LAST, someone has scored while a player lies on the ground. There is NO RULE that commands a team to put the ball out of play when a player is lying on the ground. The REFEREE can stop the game if he perceives an injury to be serious. This, quite obviously, was not serious, and I don't believe Dzeko received any treatment after the goal was scored.

HOORAY! Let's stop this nonsense of kicking the ball out of play for players lying on  the ground, and get on with the game.

FA Cup still has magic

The magic of the FA Cup lives on!

Although clubs in the Premier League prefer to finish in the top four of the league than to make progress in the FA Cup, the spirit of the world's oldest football competition lives on.

It lives on in Luton Town, who became the first non-leaguers to knock out a Premier League club, beating Norwich City 1-0.

It lives on at MK Dons of League One, who sprinted into a devastating 4-0 lead at Premier League, QPR, and ultimately ran out 4-2 winners.

It lives on at Boundary Park, where Oldham Athletic (League One) humbled Liverpool 3-2 in an amazing game.

It lives on at Brentford (League One), who, playing their rather more illustrious neighbours from five miles up the road, Chelsea, twice took the lead and eventually held the European Champions to a two-all draw and earned a replay at Stamford Bridge.

It lives on at Elland Road where Championship Leeds United knocked out fourth-placed Premier Leaguers Tottenham Hotspur.

And to a lesser degree, the spirit lives on at Aldershot Town (League Two) who ran Championship Middlesbrough close, before losing 2-1 to a late, late goal.

And Barnsley, Brighton and Macclesfield Town will all have their own FA Cup tales to tell this morning.

It was a stirring FA Cup weekend, and we should all look forward to Round 5 with relish.

Shameful ballboy incident is easily solved

Eden Hazard will probably have re-run the disgraceful incident with the ballboy through his mind many times as he struggled to get to sleep last night. What was he thinking - trying to kick the ball from under the ballboy who was lying on top of it?

Of course Hazard was trying to get the ball back so that play could restart, saving a few precious seconds in Chelsea's quest to overturn a 2-0 deficit and reach the Capital One League Cup Final. With a only a few minutes of the match left, a Chelsea triumph was looking less and less likely, so his gesture was futile, and led to him being sent off, with a suspension to follow. What other repercussions there might be we have yet to see.

What on earth was the ballboy doing, grabbing the ball as it went off for a goal kick to Swansea and then falling to the ground and lying on it to prevent the anxious Hazard from getting it? Sadly - and let's not for one moment try and deny this - he was aping the actions of professional footballers in trying to waste time for his beloved Swansea City, as they - ultimately successfully - tried to win their way into their first major Cup Final. I'm sure the ballboy won't be as ashamed as Hazard of his actions but they will no doubt bring him a certain notoriety and a few more twitter followers. Ten minutes of fame.

The reason for all these shameful actions is because the clock runs when the ball is out of play in football. The solution is easy and I have addressed it before in this blog (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5550910041293158157#editor/target=post;postID=8598919878957640325). Put a clock on the action; stop it when the ball's out of play.

Then Hazard could smile at the ballboy and trot back leisurely to wait for the goal kick.

And everyone's happy.

Pointless rules in place as technology is ignored

So, what happened to the rule about sock tape having to be the same colour as socks?

Preyed on by some referees in park football, forcing poor park footballers to remove tape keeping their shin pads in place in the early weeks of this season, it is apparently a rule which top referees such as Mike Dean now feel is unnecessary to enforce.

On Sunday afternoon, it was quite clear that at least Gareth Barry and David Silva of Manchester City had white tape (or at least a very strange whiter shade of blue) on their sky blue socks in their game against Arsenal. James Milner had a much darker blue tape.

But who cares? The rule is quite unnecessary. What is it for? In the same game, Arsenal's white socks had a thin blue and a thin red hoop around the middle.

Is the rule to differentiate the players of one team from another in some way?

The same question applies to the 'same colour undershorts' rule? What's it for - especially at park football level?

If it's to differentiate the players, then let's start with the shorts themselves. In the same Arsenal v Manchester City game on Sunday, both sets of players wore white shorts!

Fifa is quick to implement such pointless rules. In the meantime, as they filibuster about goal-line technology, goals continue to be allowed or disallowed incorrectly.

Get your priorities right, Fifa.

Manchester United face stern Champions League test

Real Madrid v Manchester United
AC Milan v Barcelona
Celtic v Juventus

There are some sumptuous ties in the next round of the Champions League.

Manchester United could hardly have a had a harder tie than the Madrid giants over two legs. The English league leaders will have to do it the hard way to get their place in the quarter final.

Barcelona, in scintillating form in the Spanish League, but now with the worries for their coach Tito Vilanova, will find it tough against AC Milan.

Celtic, fantastic achievers from the Scottish League and from a hard group, are rewarded with a tie against Italian league leaders Juventus (seven points clear).

Licking their wounds from an early Champions League exit and a World Club Cup defeat, Europa League qualifiers Chelsea took their frustrations out on Leeds United in the Capital One League Cup quarter-final last night. Their introduction to the Europa League will be a trip to Sparta Prague when the tournament resumes in 2013.

Chelsea's arrogance is staggering

Chelsea are getting irritating.

Their assertion that Mark Clattenberg had racially abused John Obi Mikel was ridiculous from the outset. I've said it before: NO referee - pretty much at any level - would be stupid enough to abuse at all - let alone racially abuse - a player. Perhaps players (and I don't just mean Chelsea's) should not judge other people by their own standards.

It was inevitable that the FA would throw out Chelsea's complaint with no evidence. There was no evidence, because it didn't happen. It is interesting that the FA have decided to charge Mikel himself for actions after the game. It will be interesting to see what comes of those.

Then Chelsea sacked Roberto Di Matteo: a man who last season, when standing in after Chelsea had sacked Andre Villas-Boas, won them the FA Cup and Champions League. Now, because they've lost a couple of games, the tantrums at the top start again. Good grief, if every club acted in this manner, then Sir Alex would still be Mr Alexander Ferguson, scratching a living with Partick Thistle until he retired in 1997. And Arsenal would still be playing at Highbury, having scored only 11 goals so far this season (but conceding only six).

But Chelsea expect instant success. Today, today, TODAY. Why?

Because of the money.

It's only because of the money. There's little history from the last century. Not until the money arrived.

These days, any club needs an almost bottomless pit of cash to be able to compete, so all the clubs have to look to rich overseas magnates to own their clubs. It's a sad trend.

Chelsea's arrogance is staggering as they throw their weight around, complaining about referees' decisions, trumped up accusations about what referees say, and sack managers like they're going out of fashion. And, having had their case against Mark Clattenberg thrown out, they have the audacity to refuse to apologise. Outrageous.

Now the man that all Chelsea fans hate, Rafa Benitez, is the interim manager until the end of the season. That's a laugh: the interim manager will be in charge for more games than the erstwhile permanent manager!

Manager after manager has come and gone. Hired by whom? Someone else? No, the man at the top - that's who.

Perhaps he should take a look at himself and sack himself.

That would be good for English football.

Peter Herbert does the cause no favours

I am distressed and disbelieving of Peter Herbert's stance on the Mark Clattenburg incident.

Mr Herbert is the chairman of the Society of Black Lawyers.

After the Metropolitan Police dropped the investigation into a complaint that Clattenburg used "inappropriate language" towards two Chelsea players, Mr Herbert is claiming that Chelsea and the Football Association have manufactured a "cover-up" for not referring alleged comments by referee Mark Clattenburg to the police. I guess, with such a referral, the Police would have continued with their investigation.

Mr Herbert said to BBC's FiveLive: "It sounds remarkably like the football industry wanted to have this issue swept under the carpet."

But I think Mr Herbert is reading it all wrong. The point is: THERE IS NOTHING TO INVESTIGATE.

Chelsea - let's be charitable - have made a huge mistake. Mark Clattenburg never made any racial comments, not said anything inappropriate. It was all a mistake.

What troubles me is that Mr Herbert seems determined to make something out of nothing. Why? I can't believe he is doing the cause of anti-racism any favours with his aggressive stance.

I do not for one second believe that Mark Clattenburg said anything the like of which he is suspected. I don't believe any referee at (almost) any level would. And to think he would do so in the light of recent eventsis beyond all right-minded thinking.

The inappropriateness in this case has been:
1. Chelsea making the complaint.
2. Anyone believeing it for a second.
3. Mr Herbert perpetuating the wrong.

Let's put it to rest.

Manchester United head the October rankings

On the rankings in the Football Ranking System Manchester United remained on top in October, followed by Chelsea and Manchester City.

Celtic are the highest Scottish team, falling one place to eighth. Dundee United are next Scottish team in 31st.

Rangers continue to fall and have slipped from 33rd to 56th. A good cup run might see them regain a few places.

Leading the Championship teams are Middlesbrough who rose 15 places to 15th.

Truro City are in last (202nd) place for the second month in a row.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:
Nottingham Forest, up from 38 to 27.
Blackpool, down from 18 to 28.
Hull City, up from 43 to 30.
Aberdeen, up from 44 to 34.
Crystal Palace, up from 50 to 37.
Oldham Athletic, up from 88 to 77.
Wycombe Wanderers, down from 96 to 106.
Forfar Athletic, down from 106 to 118.
Hereford United, downfrom 126 to 137.

Clubs should get their own house in order before complaining about officials

Distractions, distractions, smoke and mirrors.

Managers have for years sought to blame everyone else for their woes. Now whole clubs are at it.

Rarely do you get a manager admit that it was his fault or his team are just useless (as fans, we know that most of them are!). It's always somebody else's fault - nearly always the officials'.

Now Chelsea, as a club, are seekinbg to blame the officials for their defeat by Manchester United last weekend.

"It was never a sending-off."

"Hernandez was offside."

Referee Mark Clattenburg used "inappropriate language" to player(s) "containing a racial element".

I didn't hear Chelsea complaining when they were given two offside goals against Wigan Athletic last season or when a ghot "goal" turned the FA Cup semi-final in their favour against Tottenham Hotspur.

Managers and clubs only moan when they lose - have you noticed that? Of course you have.

They're not interested in fairness, only winning.

A referee using "inappropriate language"! He didn't swear, did he? Heaven forbid. Players swear at referees, assistant referees and fourth officials all the time. Well, that's all right, isn't it? No, actually, it's not. If referees are at fault at all, it's because they don't deal properly with players who break this law.

Law 12, sending-off offences (bullet 6):

• using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures.

Hmmm, watch how often that happens in a game. And see how many times it gets punished.

So, before players or clubs start accusing officials of inappropriate behaviour, I think they should get their own house in order.

As a final point: was John Obi Mikel's handling of Mark Clattenburg's arm (as often shown on Sky Sports News) in that game "appropriate"?

We all need to unite against racism

I have to say I am at a loss to understand why Rio Ferdinand, Jason Roberts and other players snubbed the wearing of the 'Kick It Out' T-shirt at the weekend.

What on earth was that meant to achieve?

If it was to get us all talking about the issue of racism in the game, then it has worked. But what else?

Rio's boss Sir Alex Ferguson was unhappy with the player for not uniting with his fellow Manchester United players in the wearing of the T-shirt.

Ex-England player John Barnes said: "If [Rio is] brave enough to go against Ferguson, then he's brave enough to say who he is unhappy with," said Barnes.

"I can't see that [the players] are unhappy with Kick It Out."

Perhaps Ferdinand thinks that Kick It Out should have done something about John Terry (who racially abused Ferdinand's brother Anton), but Kick It Out have no such powers.

Jason Roberts said that he would not wear a T-shirt before Reading's game with Liverpool because he felt that Kick It Out was not being "strong enough".

This seems ill-advised to me.

Talk of a separate Players' Union for black players also seems mis-guided.

We all need to unite against the scourge of racism in football. Break-away groups and protests against those trying to do the right thing are not the way to proceed.

Both Serbia and England to be charged

The scenes following the England Under-21 team's win over Serbia on Tuesday were disgraceful. As England's players naturally celebrated their late winner with some exubernace, there was nothing that could possibly excuse the Serbian players and support team from running over and trying to disrupt those celebrations.

It seems there was some racial abuse from the crowd, and it was little wonder that Danny Rose was so angered by everything that was happening round him that he kicked the ball into the crowd. That the referee booked him for that (second bookable, so Rose was sent off) was farcical given what was going on nearby, with Tom Lees being slapped around the head by Serbian players on at least two occasions.

I hear that UEFA is going to charge the Serbian FA with alleged racist chanting by fans and to charge both associations over the behaviour of players at the end of the game. Let's hope that UEFA also investigate and charge Serbia for the missiles that were thrown towards the England players as they celebrated their victory.

We will see what the results of those charges are.

The Serbian FA tried to deny accusations of racist chanting, no doubt fearing a worse fine than the ridiculous £16,000 fine it received for racist chanting by fans in 2007.

Serbia have a track record in this area. It needs to be stopped.

Manchester United top the rankings for September

On the rankings in the Football Ranking System Manchester United have regained top spot from Manchester City, who have slipped to fifth with indifferent form of late. Chelsea have jumped from fourth to second, only held back by draws with QPR and Juventus. Everton have kept up their early season form and are in third position.

Inevitably, Celtic head the Scottish challenge, falling one place to seventh. Hearts are next for the Scots in 27th.

Rangers continue to fall and have slipped from 19th to 33rd. from 8th to 19th.

Aston Villa have staged something of a recovery, rising from 29th to 19th and Championship risers Cardiff City jumped from 37th to 23rd.

Biggest fallers were Coventry City, who plummeted from 53rd to 72nd.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:
Leicester City, up from 34 to 24.
Dundee United, down from 18 to 32.
Brighton & Hove Albion, up from 47 to 31.
Kilmarnock, up from 46 to 35.
Wolverhamption Wanderers, up from 49 to 36.
Sheffield Wednesday, down from 31 to 47.
Ipswich Town, down from 40 to 55.
Portsmouth, down from 57 to 70.
Crawley Town, up from 84 to 74.
Morton, up from 91 to 80.
Leyton Orient, up from 92 to 82.
Hamilton Academical, down from 76 to 87.
Port Vale, up from 102 to 92.
Southend United, up from 105 to 95.
Wycombe Wanderers, down from 85 to 96.
Hartlepool United, down from 87 to 98.
Burton Albion, up from 113 to 99.
Aldershot Town, down from 96 to 108.
Oxford United, down from 99 to 113.
Dartford, up from 169 to 157.
Chester, up from 173 to 159.
Oxford City up from 179 to 168.

Ferdinand and Park, please let's move on

Given all that went the week before it almost defied belief that QPR's Anton Ferdinand and captain Ji Sung Park refused to shake the hand of Chelsea captain John Terry before Saturday's game.

What happened to the football brotherhood following the findings of the Enquiry into the Hillsborough disaster of 1989? It lasted less than a few days.

Ferdinand and Park refused to move on and betrayed the continuing grudge against the - pronounced innocent, let's not forget - Terry.

While one migh have some understanding and empathy with Ferdinand, Park's connection is tenuous at best (I guess it must be that he played with Ferdinand's brother Rio at Manchester United before moving to QPR).

QPR boss Mark Hughes mooted the idea of doing away with the pre-match handshake between the teams. But does he suggest the same for the captains - as it was his captain Park who refused to shake Terry's hand before kick-off. What next: do away with any references to sportsmanship altogether? (I guess that might actually be more honest in the game these days.)

Is there no room for forgiveness in these hard hearts? And forgiving an innocent man, remember.

Can we move on?

Early season shapes the football rankings

From the Football Ranking System we see that Manchester City have just about retained top spot from the very in-form early season pace-setters Chelsea. Indeed, a Chelsea win in the UEFA Super Cup tonight might see them take over on top.

The other early season form team Everton have risen from 6th to 4th.

It will be fascinating to see how far Rangers fall now that they are in Scottish League Division Three. Among such lowly opposition they will not score so many points unless they thrash everyone of them, and they're not doing that yet. In August Rangers have fallen  from 8th to 19th.

Conversely, Swansea City have gone the other way, rising from 18th to 9th, and Wigan Athletic have gone from 14th to 7th.

Ten-place plus movers elsewhere include:

• Sheffield Wednesday, up from 55 to 21.
• Leeds United, up from 49 to 36.
• Motherwell, down from 28 to 38.
• Yeovil Town, up from 80 to 69.
• Swindon Town, up from 87 to 71.
• Dundee, down from 62 to 73.
• Preston North End, up from 85 to 74.
• Crawley Town, up from 98 to 84.
• Chesterfield, down from 76 to 86.
• Bradford City, up from 107 to 97.
• Ayr United, down from 88 to 100.
• Southend United, down from 95 to 105.
• Dumbarton, down from 106 to 117.
• Brackley, new in at 157.
• Bradford Park Avenue, new in at 161.
• Woking, up from 177 to 166.
• Dartford, up from 178 to 168.
• Chester, new in at 173.
• Altrincham, down from 165 to 176.
• Oxford City, new in at 179.
• Billericay Town, new in at 184.
• Corby Town, down from 174 to 186.
• AFC Hornhcurch, new in at 190.
• Bromley, down from 189 to 199.

Football talks a good Olympian game; let's see it in deed

The Footballers versus Olympians debate has raged and has quietened down and will rear its head from time to time over the next season.

The problem with football is that it refuses to learn from other sports; it knows it is the Beautiful Game, but thinks that it is the pinnacle of beauty. But it isn't.

I am not going to go into all the things that football should learn from other sports in this post; they will be the subject of many other posts to come.

However, in the Footballers versus Olympians debate, one thing has struck me. The Olympians have never said a word. People in the media and many of us bloggers, tweeters, facebook posters have commented on their behalf: "Weren't they wonderful?", "Fantastic attitude", "Actually apologising to supporters", etc. But I can't recall seeing any quotes from any of the participiants themselves.

Yet those "in the [football] game" have felt the need to speak out: Richard Scudamore, Joey Barton, Gary Neville are a few that spring to mind. And, of course, they're mostly defending their sport. Well, what would we expect? Of course they would.

The problem lies in the very fact that they need to defend their sport, and the behaviour of players, managers and supporters. And they do need to. It's because football's reputation is so woeful by its deeds that it needs to defend itself in words. Prime example: Alan Pardew (a most unexpected culprit) demonstrates his attitude by his deeds (pushing an assistant referee), but then apologises in words afterwards.

There's always been the joke about the not-so-good manager or player, who "talks a good game".

How about those "in the game", cutting the talk, and improving the reputation of football in their actions? Come May next year, let's see if football no longer needs to defends its actions in words.

Weep for England

So we weep for England.

Once again we were beaten on penalties in a quarter-final. It is our lot.

But let us not disguise the fact that it would have been an absolute travesty of Chelsea-like proportions for England to have sneaked past Italy to the semi-finals. Italy totally dominated the whole of the second-half and extra-time, but just couldn't turn their dominance into a goal. England, however, barely got into Italy's half in that time.

Yet there is some pride in England's performance in the tournament. It does seem to show a new realism about England's limitations. We are simply not good enough to compete with the top nations in World football, of which most are in these European Championships. Top eight (i.e. quarter-finals) is the best we should realistically expect.

My worry is that the fact that Roy Hodgson has done pretty well with a weak and threadbare squad may blind people to the dearth of English talent and the trends that continue to sweep English players aside in our own Premier League.

With few English owners and English managers in the English Premier League, where is the concern for English players and the English national team? It isn't there.

We've got years of this international misery to come, and it will get worse.

As a final point: let's finally lay to rest this myth that there are any World-class English players. There are none.

All these officials - and they still get it wrong!

Well, good for England. They beat Ukraine and won the Group!

It wasn't entirely convincing, but not many teams are convincing all the way through a tournament. Quarter-final opponents Italy, for example, have been particularly adept over the years at sneaking through the group phase without, in some cases, even winning a game!

But England will have to get better to stand a chance of progressing in this tournament.

England have played Italy only twice before in tournament matches and, strangely enough, they have both been IN Italy. The first was in 1980 in the European Championship when they lost 1-0 in Turin. The second time was in the third and fourth place play-off match of Italia '90 when Italy won 2-1 in Bari.

Going back to the Ukraine v England match and it is astonishing that we still have to suffer from goals not being given when the ball is over the line. This time luck favoured England as John Terry's clearance was of a ball that had crossed the line. The fourth (fifth or sixth or seventh?) official was standing less than ten yards away, but failed to see the ball had crossed the line (or, at least, failed to signal it).

WHAT DO THESE OFFICIALS DO? No one at the BBC or ITV seem to know and surely they would have found out by now. And why do they patrol the goal line on the same side of the pitch as the assistant referee (linesman in old money)? Maybe the goal line official was told NOT to signal for goal line decisions (which would be madness), as that is the assistant referee's decision, but the latter's view would be obscured by the former! (At least it would have been if the assistant referee had been able to keep up with play - he was five yards short!)

In addition, this same assistant referee missed a blatant offisde in the build-up to the phantom "goal", which would have avoided all this goal line fiasco. (I note that a furious Oleg Blokhin didn't complain about that decision not being given.)

Come on, even without goal-line technology, surely the now huge number of officials can get key decisions right.

Nervous about England's chances

Am I alone in being a little nervous about England's chances this evening?

They 'only' need a draw against Ukraine to progress to the quarter-finals and everyone seems to think it'll be a bit of a breeze.

I don't.

• We are AWAY to Ukraine in what appears to be the hottest venue (at least it has been before).
• Ukraine MUST WIN to progress themselves.
• England drew unconvincingly with France.
• England did beat Sweden - but that wasn't convincing either.

No, I don't want to be a pessimist, but getting knocked out of the Euros is such a common occurrence for England, that I'm always amazed at the optimism that usually abounds. This time round - at least, before the tournament - no one gave England a chance - even in England!

But of course it only takes one win for England to become world-beaters in so many eyes. And "we've got Wayne Rooney back". He might just upset such a delicate balance, but let's hope not; let's hope he shines.

England are no world- (or even Euro-) beaters for me. They're not the weakest team in the tournament, but are they really one of the top eight (i.e. worth of a quarter-final spot)? No, Ukraine might be one of the best eight either, but they'll quietly fancy their chances.

Beware the cauldron-like atmosphere that is bound to greet England's players this evening. Have they got the right stuff to progress?

We shall see.

Table ordering system at Euro2012 is over-complicated

I'm delighted to say that Euro 2012 has so far risen above expectations. There have been some interesting and some exciting games, and very few have been boring. No nil-nil draw yet either! Excellent.

However, there are always one or two things to gripe about (of course!).

As we half-way through the final round of group matches, it has come to light the extraordinarily stupid way of determining the order of teams in the groups. The number of points is the key way to order the teams and, thankfully, that is still the main way (but, as we see the way order is determined after that, we cannot be sure that UEFA will always retain points as the key method!).

If teams are level on points we go through this ridiculous ordering system:

1. head-to-head results
2. if three countries are level, goal difference from games between them
3. if three countries are level, goals scored in games between them
4. goal difference from all group games
5. goals scored in all group games
6. UEFA coefficient rankings
7. fair play ratings from the finals
8. drawing of lots.

All this head-to-head nonsense unnecessarily complicates the picture and means that you can't look at a league table and no who will qualify - you have to know all the results too. What is wrong with goal differences, then goals scored? This is supposed to be a LEAGUE system; i.e. it is results over the whole league that should count. By pinning so much on  head-to-head results, they're turning the league into a knock-out.

In other words, ignore numbers 1, 2 and 3.

In this more sensible method, Group One's qualifiers would have been Czech Republic and Russia (rather than Greece).

But there's no hope. Why keep something simple if you can over-complicate it?