Group in our own hands!

____________pl___w___d___l___f___a___pts
Switzerland___6___3___3___0__12___7___12
Ireland______6____3___1___2__13___9___10
Russia_______5___2___1___2___7___8____7
Albania______6____1___2__3___10__11___5
Georgia______5___1___1___3___3___8____4

06/09/03 Ireland -v- Russia
11/10/03 Switzerland -v- Ireland
(10/09/03 Russia -v- Switzerland)

in our own hands, russia should win the game in hand against georgia. were switzerland to draw/lose to russia away, a draw last day could do us (assuming that we beat russia at home...which we have to). well deserved win tonight.

yeah it was a great result! fair play 2 em'

If Switzerland draw/win in Russia then we need 2 wins to win the group.

If Switzerland lose in russia then a draw in Switzerland will do provided we beat Russia at home.

A 2-0 or 3-1 home win over Russia will guarantee a playoff spot. A single goal win and a defeat in Switzerland will leave us 3rd if Russia win their 2 home games.

If we draw with russia we'll probably need to beat Switzerland for the playoff spot.

Good Result and a Very Good performance.
I thought Colin Healy was exceptional last night.
I think it will be hard to drop him after the way he played.
It's amazing that he doesn't get his game for Celtic.

Also, what about Northern Irelands result last night.
A team with part-timers holding the 2nd ranked team in the world.
David Healy had a great chance to win it. And it would have been some goal as well.
The Spanish must dread the prospect of playing any Irish team.
The only bad thing form last night is the prospect of who we'll play in a qualifier if we come second in the group.
It's possible that England, Spain and Italy could all have to play in the qualifiers.

This is a bit off topic but.........

Did I see Eric in his City shirt on tv behind the goal when Gary Doherty scored last night and
Did I also see SOC... (Sean) whaving the 451 flag at the end of the Albania match?

Just wondering, thats all.

u mean this SOCcfc with the 1984 flag :)

nice one sean

Ya I was behind the goal last night with my City colours on alright, pity there wasn't many city fans there though, all the other clubs were fairly well represented bar bohs. Think there was 1 of them there!!!!

Looks like we may well have to settle for the play-off - realistically, Switzerland are in the driving seat at the moment. The North's 0-0 draw with Spain means that if Greece win their last two matches - away to Armenia and home to the North - Spain are in the play offs! There's some good enough draws in the play-offs as things stand, but that's not one of them!

teams that are currently second are:

Slovenia, Norway, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Spain, England, Croatia, Italy and ourselves.

Roll on iceland:D

Quote:

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Originally posted by tiktok
teams that are currently second are:

Slovenia, Norway, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Spain, England, Croatia, Italy and ourselves.

Roll on iceland:D

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If it ends like that Uefa will probably seed the draw as there as so many big sides in it. They'll probably do it based on past qualification for European championships so Ireland would get one of Holland, Spain, England, Italy or Croatia.

Quote:

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Originally posted by colster

Also, what about Northern Irelands result last night.
A team with part-timers holding the 2nd ranked team in the world.
David Healy had a great chance to win it. And it would have been some goal as well.
The Spanish must dread the prospect of playing any Irish team.

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Did you see any of the game?
Spain should have scored 10.
I've never seen so many clearances of the line, lucky saves, ball hitting players instead of going into the goal etc.
NI had one or two chances all right, but they were completely dominated by Spain. Still, the Spanish did not score, so a good point for NI.

Ya i had 8 results right on a bet just needed the Spanish win as well- a banker you would have thought.
Was gutted!
Think we'll automatically qualify and it will be about time too we've been through the playoffs enough times. Switzerland defence is no great shakes at the mo, so with a fit duff, keane, morrison, finnan, reid,healy, carr, o'shea we should have enough qulaity to win that 1.
The home game against Russia is crucial but in recent years we tend to get the results we need at home.
Yugoslavia, Iran, Croatia, Holland, Portugal.

Quote:

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
Looks like we may well have to settle for the play-off - realistically, Switzerland are in the driving seat at the moment.

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There's no reason we can't beat both Russia at home and Switzerland away. Switzerland weren't any great shakes when we played them here and couldn'r possibly play as badly as we did against them again (touch wood).

Got this feeling our best hope of making Portugal is beating the Swiss away which any decent side should. I know Swiss football is on the up at the moment what with Basel etc at club level but even so, better them than 2 legs against Spain, Italy or England.
I think we can do it away from home against Swiss. If we do Brian Kerr will be awarded with a life's supply of suasage rolls.

Quote:

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
Looks like we may well have to settle for the play-off - realistically, Switzerland are in the driving seat at the moment.

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Well, we have to play them so it is in our hands. We didn't really do enough to deserve this, but if we can pull it off it will be brilliant and i'd love Kerr to do it as it would take all the pressure off him.

i'm not sure there's that much pressure on Kerr to be honest @ndy, the country seems to love him (bar dunphy) as do the players.

i do think we can beat the swiss away, we can't play as badly as we did at home against them again.

Quote:

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Originally posted by tiktok
i'm not sure there's that much pressure on Kerr to be honest @ndy, the country seems to love him (bar dunphy) as do the players.

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Haven't seen any of the Kerr matches on RTÉ yet - does Dunphy have it in for Kerr as well?!:confused: What a muppet...

For anybody into their stats - we've finished second in every qualifying and finals group going back to Euro 88. When the draw for the World Cup qualifiers came out, I said we'd finish second mainly based on that fact and it worked out (despite some scepticism). So I suppose I'm going for us to finish second again on that basis now.

That said, especially seeing as I'll be in Basel, a win would go down rather well!:)

The match against Georgia has to give extra hope though - first time we've really performed under Kerr. If we can build on that, we'll have a much better chance.

Quote:

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Originally posted by pineapple stu
Haven't seen any of the Kerr matches on RTÉ yet - does Dunphy have it in for Kerr as well?!:confused: What a muppet...

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I think Dunphy just realised that Kerr was a political choice of sorts, and he has huge resentment for the fai. I haven't seen any of the games on RTE either, but i'd be surprised if he was deliberately anti kerr; is he?

As for pressure, were we not to qualify, the football following masses, as impatient as they are would start to yearn, and the press would fast begin to question Kerr's ability on the big stage.

I don't think Dunphy is anti-Kerr, but probably sees him as an FAI man, and thats anathema to the poisoned dwarf. On RTE he criticised Kerr over the tactics in the Albania game, but outside of that seems to want Kerr to do well.

I agree he has nothing against Kerr (who would seemto be a nice bloke) , Dunphy is a critic and gets payed well for it. If God or anyone else was manager of Ireland he would still find fault and give a negative critique win lose or draw.

He used to have a brain, must be suffering from wet brain by now.

Give up the drink Dunphy and don't be so negative.:p

in an unrelated subject the image popped into my head of 1994 when Stapelton was asked to predict the outcome of the Ireland v's Italy game...

"We're going to lose"...

... now he was a negative f**ker...

Mind, you probably would have agreed with him.

I for one like having Dunphy on the panel although I'm living in Scotland at the moment so I don't get to catch him that often, I was back the other week when the games were on, at least him and Giles comments are genuine (ish!) and not the drivel that Sky Sports dish out, when Charlton was on the other week they just didnt want to hear any negativity towards England.

Dunphys loudmouth blooper was hilarious at the Albania game, though that can partly be blamed on the amateurish RTE technical staff jumping back too early to the panel.