Next up on the road to France 2016 is Gibraltar at the Aviva (next Saturday) and Germany in Gelsenkirchen (Tuesday, October 14th). It's hard to see any other outcome than 3 points from the two matches, but Scotland ran Germany close - if we can get possession and get at their back four, they could be rattled. It's hard to know what to expect from Gibraltar, but they only have three professional footballers in their squad so at home I would fancy us to have few major problems. That said, we rarely rattle in 5-6-7 goals even against Europe's weakest teams, so a two or three goal victory seems like a more reasonable prediction. Final squad was announced yesterday. The bad news from an Irish perspective is that Coleman and McCarthy are almost certainly out for both matches, though some are suggesting one/both could be fit for Germany. Irish squad: David Forde, Shay Given; Keiren Westwood, Rob Elliot; Richard Keogh, Marc Wilson, Seamus Coleman, John O’Shea, Alex Pearce, Ciaran Clark, Stephen Ward; Hendrick, Whelan, Gibson, McGeady, Walters, Pilkington, McClean, Brady, Quinn, Meyler, Hoolahan; Robbie Keane, Shane Long, Daryl Murphy, Kevin Doyle, Anthony Stokes.
7-0. As expected. Now to hope the feel good carries through to Germany and Georgia can inflict some damage at home.
Poland's win v Germany really takes the gloss off our result. I'm actually quite deflated - it means we will either need 4 points from Poland (minimum) or get results from Germany. The group looks a lot more bleak than it did at full time yesterday...
This group is far from over. Germany will qualify ahead of all others and it's still round robin between Ireland, Scotland and Poland. Granted the Polish result puts them in the driver's seat, but I've a feeling there'll be a few more less than straightforward results yet. The away games in the mini-league for Ireland will go a long way to determining things. I think Georgia might have a say yet also. Early days.
Yep, definitely a draw in the Poland-Scotland match. A Polish win and an Irish loss tonight and they might be already out of reach. We would absolutely have to beat Scotland in November.
0-0 HT. Backs to the wall stuff, though - I can't see us holding out for another 45 minutes. We'll have to score.
Hmmm. Impressive comeback from your guys after the 0:1 against a tired 2nd string German team. Good luck for your next games. Btw: Pity there's so few traffic in the Ireland section lately.