Two massive World Cup Qualifying matches for Ireland this week: vs Georgia in Tbilisi on Saturday, followed by the top of the table clash with Serbia in Dublin on Tuesday. We absolutely must beat Georgia to set up a cracking match with Serbia at the Aviva. Both matches will be very, very difficult, though in eight matches we have never dropped points to Georgia. Goalkeepers: Darren Randolph (Middlesbrough), Rob Elliot (Newcastle United), Keiren Westwood (Sheffield Wednesday); Defenders: Cyrus Christie (Middlesbrough), Richard Keogh (Derby County), Shane Duffy (Brighton & Hove Albion), Ciaran Clark (Newcastle United), John O'Shea (Sunderland), Kevin Long, Stephen Ward (Burnley); Midfielders: Aiden McGeady (Sunderland), Glenn Whelan, Conor Hourihane (Aston Villa), Harry Arter (Bournemouth), David Meyler (Hull City), Robbie Brady (Burnley), Wes Hoolahan (Norwich City), James McClean (West Bromwich Albion), Daryl Horgan (Preston North End), Jonathan Hayes (Celtic), Callum O'Dowda (Bristol City); Forwards: Jonathan Walters (Burnley), Shane Long (Southampton), Daryl Murphy (Nottingham Forest).
On the face of it, a draw in Georgia is 2 dropped points, but it might be a good result, if, and only if, Georgia contrive to take points from Serbia and/or Wales. And a win over Serbia goes a long way to mitigating this draw.
A massively frustrating few days for Irish football. In the last twenty minutes last night, when the chips were down, we just didn't have the composure to create clear opportunities. The effort was commendable (unlike in Tbilisi on Saturday), but the quality wasn't there. I still think we have a fair chance of winning the last two matches and finishing second in the group, but in all likelihood (unless Cyprus beat Greece and/or Scotland beat Slovakia), ourselves or Wales will finish as the worst runner up.
Maybe not! . Stirring stuff in Cardiff, though from an aethestic point of view it was up there with the England game against Lithuania. Most certainly definitely not a game for the neutral. Ireland took 4 points from 9 in their last 3 games and still finished second and Serbia only scrambled over the line with a late goal at home to Georgia. This group kinda resembled the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. No arguing with qualifying, but 4 from 9 are hardly the ingredients of quality. Still, they’ll be hard enough to beat, but they’ll need to avoid Italy and Switzerland.