Republic of Ireland v Austria - Sunday 11th June 2017 - World Cup 2018 Qualifier

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

So a question for the eggheads: Have we ever done the double over a higher rated team in the group? Before the blitzkrieg in Austria last year, our last major win away from home against a higher rated group rival was Scotland in 1987. I think we drew with Scotland in that group at home. So have we ever ? DeLorean ? tetsujin1979 ? Time to make history?

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We beat Lithuania 2-1 away in 1997 when they were ranked 42nd and we were 55th. The home leg was a 0-0 draw a month earlier
A year later we beat Croatia 2-0, but lost the away leg 1-0
We beat Yugoslavia 2-1 in September 1999, but had already lost the away leg 1-0
In September 2001 (lots of September wins!) we beat the Netherlands 1-0 but had drawn the away game 2-2
Finally, in March 2007 we beat Slovakia 1-0, but drew the away game 2-2
so, based on FIFA rankings , we've never done the double over a higher ranked side in qualification

FWIW, Austria are currently ranked 35th, we're 26th - http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranki...men/index.html

From the 23-man squad of the European Championships, only ten (!) Players are present in Dublin for Austria.

The keeper situation is bad by Austria alright. That keeper that is actually capped has 2 club games for Eintracht Frankfurt in last 2 seasons.

Thought the striker situation was bad by them too with the most caps by the striker Burgstaller being 10, with no goals.

Turns out the man shot the lights out in first half of season in second division in Germany. Went up to first division with Schalke and got 9 in second half. Will surely be raring to go.

4 defenders and 4 midfielders with double digit caps. Would have to assume they might start unless one of with the lads with less is a bolter.

If Randolph starts you have to imagine a factor is that Austria might not put him under enough pressure to force a mistake and baring with him through a tough time might be positive long term too.

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

I've only checked the World Cup Qualification campaigns but we did the double over Denmark in the qualifiers for the 1958 tournament. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_F...80%93_Group_1)

Whether we were ranked higher than them, or whether there were rankings at the time at all, I don't know!

Edit- nothing of relevance in the Euro qualifiers.

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Rankings started in 1994 as far as I know.

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

yes, was nil-nil on a dreadful Lansdowne pitch

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At the back of my mind I had a boring draw ok but I can remember nothing about it to be honest.

So time to make history on Sunday ? A double over a group rival: dare we dream ? Probably not but as usual much is about tempo and getting stuck in to them early on and have them dreaming about the beaches and getting up early and putting the towels on the sun beds rather than enduring being roughed up by late tackles by McClean.

Austria were seeded second in the draw, and we we were fourth. I'm pretty sure that if we win, it'll be the first time we have beaten a higher seed home and away

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

So time to make history on Sunday ? A double over a group rival: dare we dream ?

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In terms of what turned out to be a group rival, we did do the double over a high flying Armenian side under Trap en route to Poland. We were only one point ahead of them going into that final group game in Dublin. We would have been well ahead of them in the rankings/seeding though.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Rankings started in 1994 as far as I know.

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92/93 no? I thought we achieved our highest placing in August 93.

In answer to the question on doing the double -any instances in which we've done so in living memory has involved lower seeded sides. Sure we could nearly name them -Malta, Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Turkey, Albania, Liectenstein, San Marino, Andorra, Gibraltar, Estonia, Faroes, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and ....that's the lot unless I've missed someone.

Sunday represents our best chance to add a notable scalp to that list for some time. Probably the last time we'd a really good chance, all else being equal, to do this was in the Euro 96 qualifiers when we were more than good enough to beat both Northern Ireland and Austria home and away and spectacularily failed to do so picking up just 4 of the handiest 12 points on offer in international football that year.

Armenia and Macedonia! :p

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Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

Probably the last time we'd a really good chance, all else being equal, to do this was in the Euro 96 qualifiers when we were more than good enough to beat both Northern Ireland and Austria home and away and spectacularily failed to do so picking up just 4 of the handiest 12 points on offer in international football that year.

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I'd add Slovakia under Stan to that. We beat them at home and had the game almost won away but for John O'Shea turning his arse to their late equaliser. They were no great shakes and weren't again when we drew with the twice under Trap - Robbie Keane unusually the main culprit, missing a penalty away and a sitter at home.

OwlsFan is spot on though, this would undoubtedly be our best double ever, which probably means it's not going to happen. :)

That attitude from the Irish team on Sunday will go a long way to securing the three points. An up and at em approach by all 11 players, 14 if necessary, while also focusing on ball retention, could have the visitors hoping for the final whistle in the first twenty minutes

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Originally Posted by mark12345

That attitude from the Irish team on Sunday will go a long way to securing the three points. An up and at em approach by all 11 players, 14 if necessary, while also focusing on ball retention, could have the visitors hoping for the final whistle in the first twenty minutes

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I think this is spot on. We are at home and they are beatable. Let's get the three points.

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Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

92/93 no? I thought we achieved our highest placing in August 93.

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Aye, the FIFA ranking system was formally introduced in August of 1993 after FIFA published a ranking list of its member associations in December of 1992 to provide a means of comparing the relative strengths of their teams. August 1993 - when we were positioned sixth in the world - was indeed our highest placing. I'm pretty sure that was also our original ranking position. Perhaps FIFA over-estimated us as it's been all downhill since then! :(

Balls.ie have a preview of the game here but I thought the following point effectively emphasised our special team spirit:

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Originally Posted by Gavin Cooney

Nobody lets anybody else down, and the unity and spirit of the Irish side are unignorable virtues: something clearly fostered at the Euros odyssey last year.

That is precisely what Austria are missing. As anecdotal evidence of what Ireland have over Austria: Kevin Long skipped his brother's wedding in the hope he would make his Ireland debut in a friendly game, while Austrian left-back Andres Ulmer is skipping the Ireland game to get married himself.

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Austrian journalist Fabian Zerche of Sportsnet.at gives his perspective on tomorrow's game: http://opeljersey.com/new-blog/2017/...-watch-austria

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Originally Posted by Fabian Zerche

Much of the spirit of the EURO qualification went missing in France and the bad form was somehow dragged into the Word Cup qualification. Austria seem to be in a quite bad cycle – physically and mentally. It all started with the bad spell at the Euros. After that the team captain Christian Fuchs retired from international football. Since then Ramazan Özcan and Markus Suttner did the same.

Additionally many important players are now injured. Like RB Leipzig’s Marcel Sabitzer who fell at home through a glass table. Or Schalke’s Alessandro Schöpf, both goalkeepers (Lukse and Almer) and Basel striker Marc Janko. The most important offensive player – Marko Arnautovic – is suspended as is Stefan Ilsanker. That’s a pity because the new 3-4-3 formation looked promising to me. I am not sure how the team will cope with all those key players missing.

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Will ireland have new jersey tomorrow???

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Originally Posted by Fixer82

Will ireland have new jersey tomorrow???

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Not as far as I know. The New Balance deal takes effect from August.

One more sleep.

Austria have three keepers in their squad and two of them are uncapped. Heinz Lindner, who has 10 caps, is expected to start tomorrow. He isn't actually first-choice goalkeeper at his club, Eintracht Frankfurt. As far as I can make out, he's only played twice for his club since joining them in 2015.

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Originally Posted by Fixer82

Will ireland have new jersey tomorrow???

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No, it was the Mexico game that was in New Jersey, this one is in Dublin.