If we fail to beat Switzerland and England loose to Turkey, we could be lookin at Ireland vs England in the Playoff. Theres also Italy and maybe Scotland. I hope we just beat Russia and Switzerland and win the group!
If that happens, in a years time Christy Moore will be singing: "Until Robbie got the ball and put it in the net!"
There's also Spain, christ, alot of good teams look headed for the play offs, I hope we beat the Swiss.
What's your fellas picks for the matches? I say we beat Russia 2-0 and Switzerland by the same score....I also predict our toughest opponent will actually be Australia in our August Friendly! BTW, where was Clinton Morrison born?
A play off against England would be fantastic, although I wouldn't mind another shot at Turkey after already losing to them before in a play off.
ya but we need a team the we can beat. i dont want a hard game like Spain we just need to do the business and beat russia and the swiss if we do get in a playoff i want to play slovenia or israel
Aren't Estonia, one of the three minnows from the WC group, near a playoff spot in their group? If we lose to the Swiss that'd be a handy draw.
I wouldn't mind having another shot at Turkey, as I don't really see two draws as losing to them. Even though Aggregate is footie tradition, two draws proves nothing as to who;s better and I think they should just continue the second game until someone scores.......and on top of that, get rid of shootouts, because those are just luck!. Keep playing till golden goal occurs!, and allow more substitutes. Anyhow, now that I'm done being a politician, I wouldn't mind a playoff with Israel (who really shouldn't be in UEFA, because they are actually Asia by geographics). To quote my Lebanese friend Rami on the issue, "Come on Ireland! beat those Jews!". I'm not really racist or anything, just thought it sounded funny. .
Easier Play-Offspossible) Ireland v Slovenia or Israel Ireland v Latvia Ireland v Lithuania (unlikely) Moderate Play-Offspossible) Ireland v Denmark, Norway or Romania Ireland v Hungary or Sweden Ireland v Scotland or Iceland Ireland v Ukraine Ireland v Bulgaria, Croatia or Belgium Harder Play-Offspossible) Ireland v Czech Republic or Holland Ireland v Germany Ireland v Spain Ireland v England or Turkey Ireland v Wales or Italy
Ireland V Wales Wales would be tought opposition but the games would be fantastic and the athmosphere great. I would prefer to see both Ireland and Wales qualify and hopefully the Scots. There would be one hell of a Celtic Nations party then. I think Swedan would be as tough as anyone. We do not want Turkey. They are very good and it is difficult to play there with the fanatical support they have and the problems our fans will face going there. Games against Germany, Holland or Spain would have a terrific edge to them. I imagine none of them would be too cocky coming to Dublin. I'd prefer England over Turkey because of my above comments. But they are my least two favourites because of the hassle associated with playing either. I hope we win our group outright, however if we come second I hope we get a team where the focus will be entirely on the football and nothing else.
Turkey I want to play Turkey because we owe them for last time. I really thought we should have won that one. I can still see that Carsley penalty at Lansdowne!
we have 2 be realistic, if we play Turkey, we will loose. If we play Slovenia we will win. We want an easy draw. I hope turkey win and england loose in the playoffs. usa 94!
England have a difficult away game in Macedonia but I think the final game in Turkey will tell us who will win the group. Simply put, whoever wins that one will win the group.
If we win our games against Liechtenstein and Macedonia (as you say, that one will be tricky) then we'll only need a draw in Turkey. I'd be reasonably confident of getting that result. Ireland are definitely a team I'd like to avoid in the play-off - like Scotland, they always seem to raise their game against us and it would be a real test. However I'd like to think that over 2 games we could get a favourable result.
I wouldn't be so confident given competitive results in the fairly recent history there Mobile . I don't see why we would be so sure of loseing to Turkey, sure away in Turkey is one of the toughest fixtures around but I'd be confident of doing them at home, they weren't the most convincing side against England, I think the atmosphere got to them, so we could definitely beat them in Lansedown imo. Spain and Italy are my main concerns, but if we beat the Swiss then we wont have to worry, and with a full team on form we should do that.
Agreed. In terms of getting a result, I'd much rather play Turkey than Italy, England, Holland or Spain.
Christ, imagine how much they'd love it up north if we lost to Spain in the playoffs, when it was their home draw with them that put them there in the first place, mind you, on the other hand, is Northern Ireland can get a result against them surley we can too.
I think Spains home defeat to Greece has contributed more to their current position than the draw with NI.
I'm not confident at all! Like I said, over 2 games I think we'd have more of a chance to give a good account of ourselves - but as you rightly point out, our recent record against you is miserable. Turkey are overrated. A good showing at the WC and suddenly they're supposed to be one of the major powers in world football.
To be fair, they'd love it more in the north if they managed to scrape a poxy goal against Azerbaijan that went in off someone's arse!
unfortunately azerbajan are not in their group.. Anyway aren't we all getting carried away here.. all ireland have done since kerr took over is beat georgia twice and albania once (just) now suddenly all we have to do is go to switzerland and beat them (even though we couldn't do that at lansdowne) of course it's assumed we beat Russia (who trashed us already in the group) we are facing two tough matches, tougher than any of the ones we have faced yet under Kerr. At this stage a play-Off place would be great. We would lose to England,Turkey,Holland,Spain,Italy and Sweden because they are better than us. it would also be very tough against any of the other play-off contenders.. However having said that if we do qualify I would say we will do well in the finals as we are a good side when we get together for a tournment final and kerr would have all the preparations right unlike the other Plonker who will be taking Sunderland down to the second division..
I would rather that England and ireland win their groups so that they could both be at the Euro and face off in the championship. Also, how fantastic would it be for the Welsh and the Scots to qualify as well? Truly the Celts would be taking over Portugal.