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.
Printable View
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