World champions set to put on dominant display

THE World Cup final followed by a re-run of the World Cup final. How on earth do Germany trump that stellar double?

Of course, by playing the Scots. It’s a natural progression of opponents, isn’t it – France, Brazil, Argentina, Argentina and finally, best of all, Scotland.

“They are just the type of opponent who give us trouble,” says patronising German boss Jogi Low, conveniently overlooking the fact that these countries haven’t actually met in the last 11 years and that one of them is world champions, the other Scotland.

At least Gordon Strachan understands what’s what by saying this group is a battle for second spot between the Scots, Ireland, Poland and Georgia, though given Scotland’s record against some countries who are actually worse than them, he might be a wee bit premature in ruling out Gibraltar.

Personally, I can’t give Strachan’s lads a sniff in Dortmund and I don’t fancy Northern Ireland much in Hungary, either. And I’ve got to be honest, I’m looking at 12-5 that Georgia beat Ireland and thinking there’s got to be worse bets around.

I’ll do under 1.5 goals instead. Georgia’s four home games in World Cup qualifying produced the grand total of three goals – including a 0-0 against France, I hasten to add – and given that Uefa have now decreed that every country with the possible exception of San Marino and the Isle of Wight can qualify for Euro 2016 (yes, even Wales live in hope), I expect Georgia to be even more competitive than ever as they’ve actually got half a chance of making the finals.