Here's a positive spin on the Gaffer's rare genius:
Having looked at the fixtures, Staunton figured he could afford to lose the first two away games and still qualify. Germany was a no-brainer but the "humiliating"

defeat in Cyprus is where his brilliant scheme really started to kick in. Losing so spectacularly increased the pace of the media backlash against Staunton and fueled the siege mentality - "us against the world" - that has been rightly praised in this thread.
Staunton has been masterful at handling the situation since that game - 3 wins out of the last 3 means he has matched his target points total at this stage but the truly clever thing was to have his players give only the bare minimum standard of performance required to beat the worst team in Europe home and away, and the 16th worst team in Europe (missing half their team) at home in front of 68,000 of their own supporters.
My prediction is that tonight will give the media sheep and clueless fans a glimmer of optimism - another narrow win but a marginally improved performance to take a slight bit of heat out of the criticism (as he did with the Czech game).
Then we're primed for Phase 2 - by now all other countries will view us as easy pickings. Staunton will take advantage of the element of surprise with a couple of comfortable away wins before destroying Germany in front of an adoring crowd in Croke Park that have finally understood what the whole campaign has been building towards. Last two games will be a stroll and will be used to try out members of the Ireland underage squads in preparation for future World Cups and Euro Championships...
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