Play off dates are November 14th and 18th.
Ireland Rugby team are playing Australia in Croke Park on the 15th....supposing this won't be a problem. Seats, goalposts and lines would have to be removed overnight.
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Play off dates are November 14th and 18th.
Ireland Rugby team are playing Australia in Croke Park on the 15th....supposing this won't be a problem. Seats, goalposts and lines would have to be removed overnight.
No prob with seats they will be left in. They will be there for the rugby. Goalposts and lines are easily changed.
Draw is monday, not friday.... also, home v away will be decided with the draw...Quote:
Originally Posted by razorb
Flights:
Paris: Ryanair or Aer Lingus direct from Dublin (Ryanair currently markedly cheaper, round 50 euro return)
Athens: Easyjet (Gatwick / Luton) or BA via London (over 100 GBP with easyjet, 145 with ba, neither include flights to London)
Lisbon: Just Aer Lingus I think, about 125 euro
Moscow: About 200 GBP London - Moscow return with BA, again no flights to london in that price, bmi also fly london - moscow.... all in all, very difficult
Do we know the Portugal match will be in Lisbon though?Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Personally the only one id want to avoid is Russia. Horrendous place to go and hope to get a result. their home record is amazing and it will be a much more hostile crowd than in Lisbon. Paris or Athens. I think the most important thing for us is to pray we play away first. Whatever team we get, if we play away first, id fancy us
Good point.... they have played qualifiers in Porto, Braga, Lisbon (x2) and Guimaraes this Wednesday (when Irishman Alan Kelly will be refereeing).... makes me think Porto is the most likely, as Lisbon will have hosted two games and Porto only one.... hmmm..... Ryanair fly to Porto from loads of UK destinations but not anywhere in Ireland, and easyjet fly from gatwick starting november 2nd (good for us).... ryanair flights v stansted are very cheap (like 30 GBP return)Quote:
Originally Posted by noddy102
Porto is only around 3 hours by train from Lisbon, so even if it was in the Dragao, logistically that wouldnt be too bad if flying into Lisbon.
Rossiya Air fly to Russia via UK and SAS (Swedish/Norwegians) also fly via the North Cape...
Could we get a mod to do a poll on this, as to who we would most want to face? Maybe do it after the Swiss / Greece issue is resolved on Wednesday.
What is your gut feeling on who we will draw? I have a feeling it will be Greece (if they finish second). I can't ever remember us playing them which is strange?
Does that mean we won't be getting Greece?
We played them before in a friendly.
Probably most of us have that memory parked away in a dark place.
0-0 draw under Givens when Glen Crowe played.
1-0 (or 2-1) home defeat under Mick around 2000 I think. We lost back to back home friendlies to Greece and Scotland. I think it was prior to the WC02 campaign but not really sure.
Was that a Givens as manager match? 0-0. Did you watch the Russia game yesterday? And if you did what did you think of them. I just have this gut feeling it will be Greece or it miight be that half eaten Doner.Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Yeh we played Greece in April 2000, lost 1-0 I think. Gary Doherty and Alan Mahon made their debuts that night if I remember correctlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Thats the gameQuote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
The stream I had for the Russian game was no good but the Ukrainian game more than compensated.
That last minute goal for the Italians has disturbed the connections to my gut felings.
If you look at english League Playoofs one thing you tend to find is that teams who are in form at the end of the season do best. It's often the team that was written off but just makes it into the playoff that are best. On that basis Id worry about Portugal who will have had to fight their way thropugh. Both russia and france have been guaranteed at least a plyoff for a while now. On that basis I'd have Portugal as my fourth choice. Only really attractive one would be Greece
Worst for travelling would be Russia, for numerous reasons. Greece would be a bit better, but still a long journey. Compared with France which is down the road, or Portugal which wouldn't be too bad.
Worst for football would be France. Everyone else I would fancy us to get a result out of.
Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Holland.
What do these 6 teams have in common? Of the 53 teams in European qualifying, they're the only ones who've remained unbeaten. Of course, we're the only unbeaten side that won't qualify automatically. Go figure! This ought to give us a fair amount of confidence though, and we're probably the pot 2 team the seeded teams will hope to avoid.
Cavan fan makes a great point. Portugal were on the verge of missing the playoffs, but they scored in the 87th minute to draw away to Denmark 1-1, then won 1-0 away to Hungary, and just beat Hungary 3-0 at home. That streak has left them just 1 point ahead of Sweden and 3 points ahead of Hungary. They've resurrected their campaign, and no doubt are a playoff team to be weary of.
Ronaldo out for a month so he could be a major doubt for the play-offs.
good point. Then again, Greece have just won 5-2!Quote:
Originally Posted by cavan_fan
When we qualified for Japan/Korea in 02 we went the whole campaign unbeaten! The last time we qualified. Might be an omen. Hears hoping. What i'd do to face iran again though!!
There will be no easy game in this obiviously, but over 2 legs we are capable of beating those sides imo .
Preference would go Greece, Portugal, France, Russia.
The only team I don't would hold out no hope at all against is Russia. Any of the other 3 I give us a fighting chance against.
That said, even if we do get Russia, history tells us that one Whelan volley from 35 yards could change everything :D
If it has to be Russia how hard will it be to get a visa to get into the country?? If i remember correctly did the mancs & chelski fans not have loads of trouble with this. Does anyone know more about this??
Most of that was to do with a fall-out between the Brits and Russia over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. I would assume for us it will be tricky, but nowhere near as hard as it was for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by philliyk
Congratulations on reaching the play offs.Quote:
Originally Posted by backtowalsall
If you do draw Russia, the currently high volume of visa applicatons may be a problem at short notice. More below:
http://www.foreignaffairs.gov.ie/home/index.aspx?id=437
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-...ian-federation
I've gone through the hassle of getting a Visa for Russia. Believe me it's an absolute nightmare. The Embassay opens for 3 hours a day and the queue's do be forming from early. If you're not there at 9am you won't make it to the top of the queue by 12. They are so slow it's unbelievable.
You'll have to get a letter of invitation too from the hotel you're staying at. It's got to the stage that when I have to get a Visa I go down at 7am to be first in the queue.
If Ireland get Russia and more then a couple of hundred are going the Embassay won't be able to cope with the demand, especially with the short time frame involved, add into that all the thicks that'll just turn up at the Embassay expecting to just get a Visa.
If you don't have the forms filled in correctly, your letter of invitation, your proof of travel etc, they won't entertain you.
Seems more than bit ridiculous for a visa to be an issue to travel anywhere for the European Qualifying stages. I realise that they arent a european member but surely if they are competing in european competition UEFA should make it a condition of their entry that fans have easy access for games
Visa is a pain to get for moscow, I remember champions league final, there was many issues, if we do get russia you would really need to get on the ball ie visa straight away. Portugal as cavan fan said will be tough, another night in the stade de france would be electric i think and i woulsnt fear them either after all the turbalence in their camp. all in all whether it will be athens or moscow or where ever it is , its going to be tough but i think out of them all id take france..!
wont be an issure, what will happen i guess is that your match ticket will act as a visa. that is how they did it for the european cup final i believe.
They did, but they were expecting 50 or 60 thousand applications in the UK. Only when they realised how many were going to that game from Ireland did they lift the restrictions here.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilMcD
I reckon more Irish people went to the CL final then will be going to a play off should Ireland get Russia.
It would make sense to lift the restrictions though.
The worst thing about Russia would be the weather. If it wasn't in Moscow in November, I wouldn't mind. I mean, if we had two games against Russia on neutral territory, I believe we would stand a chance. It's just the Russian winter that worries me..... average daily low of -4 degrees, with a high of 0. And those are only averages!
The climate in Greece, Portugal and France at this time of the year is largely similar to ours, Athens slightly warmer (like September here) and Lisbon slightly wetter (more akin to Galway than Dublin).... though frankly no real difference in any of them.... and that is one of the key reasons I don't want Russia, cos they would freeze us out.
I've been there a few times and the visa is a pain in the arse, as is the OVIR registration (if you stay somewhere more than 72hrs you need to sign in at the local council - some hotels do this for you). It's a bit easier the last few times as my Russian is a bit better.Quote:
Originally Posted by philliyk
Also if you live abroad it can be difficult getting a visa on your domestic passport. By that I mean say you live in Frankfurt, London or NYC and want to travel on your Irish passport you are supposed to get the visa at the embassy in Dublin. Trying to get it at the embassy in London is, I can tell you from experience, hit and miss. If people hold dual nationality it will be easier to apply with the passport of the country you reside in.
To get a visa you need an invitation letter (usually a half decent hotel can provide this) and an itinerary of towns you are staying in. Put every place you might want to visit on this, eg. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Volgograd... etc) as you wont get any hassle for missing out places on list, but might (unlikey but possible) get grief if you turn up somewhere like Ufa when your list just says Moscow.
If we do draw the Russians, I'll post more stuff on here about Moscow, and stuff to see and do, basic phrases and if people post the name of hotels etc I'll transcribe the cyrillic text so you can show it to a taxi driver or someone working on the metro and they can point you in the right direction.
**** any of them. I mean really. At this point, **** them.
We are Irish and we go right?
so u will be there right??Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
it's saying on soccernet Ronaldo is out for 3-4 weeks, meaning he'd probably be out for the first leg of the play offs.
Yeah, it was a friendly after Mick had left and before Kerr was appointed. Doherty and Crowe were up front. Richie Partridge was on the bench. Dire game of football. Richard Dunne was given MOTM for playing at left full.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
i dont want portugal most of all. guarantee ya we wont bloody draw greece.
That's a gas post. Germany played the best football I've seen in the qualifiers by any team in the first half in Moscow. They have a real gem in Ozil, the kind of player they've been missing for years, i.e. a genuinely creative attacking midfielder. And still Russia could have got something, and definitely should have had a penalty at the end. Actually, overall that was one of the best games I've seen in a while.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
As for never looking like scoring, they had a hatful of chances, especially in the second half, but they had a 1-on-1 in the first half too.