World Cup draw

[SuperDave]

What an ignorant thing to say. Not particularly just about us but just because the likes of Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro haven't been to World Cups doesn't mean that they don't have a long footballing tradition in their countries.

well hopefully italy go there and get raped first day out without realising how good cyprus can be.

germany drew there, lest we forget.

[teckno]

Any ideas when fixtures, dates and times will be announced!!!

[Superhoops]

incorrect. it's results against the bottom team in the group, not the bottom seeds.......

Are you sure? I am sure I read before it was the results against the teams in the sixth seeds pot.

Edit: No, you are right, it is in the official draw document here

[Lionel Ritchie]

Any ideas when fixtures, dates and times will be announced!!!

that could be january or february couldn't it?

[SuperDave]

that could be january or february couldn't it?

the teams have a deadline to organise it among themselves and if they don't meet it, fifa step in and randomise it. which could be difficult, cos i don't know if they'd respect the gaa situation regarding home games at croker in september.

[tricky_colour]

now, who flies to Bulgaria, Montenegro and Georgia?

The Luftwaffe used to

[Colbert Report]

Personally I don't see what the big deal is. If you can't beat Cyprus home and away then you don't really deserve to go to the World Cup, and yeah I know the Germans only managed a draw away. This is not that tough a group - sure we drew the top ranked team but there's nobody else in the group we should be losing to in Dublin. We'll be the bookies's favourite in all of our home matches bar Italy and in most of our away matches.

At least we didn't draw England as a second seed!

[Qwerty]

The group is fine, we had an 'easy' group and everyone was jumping up and down when we got Russia & Switzerland a few years ago and we did poorly, we're either good enough or we're not. We haven't been winning our home games never mind our most recent away form.

The problem is we will have to begin all over again with a new manager with new ideas etc wheras Italy & Bulgaria will be more settled. Hopefully a lot of the Italians will retire and there will be a change of manager there, not that they don't have lots of new talent coming through.

[TheBoss]

I expect Ireland to win all the Home games, we always do well at Home and should cause problems for the teams there. But I think we will struggle to get a few wins away from Home, hopefully, the young lads gained some experience in the previous away games.

[Qwerty]

I expect Ireland to win all the Home games, we always do well at Home and should cause problems for the teams there. But I think we will struggle to get a few wins away from Home, hopefully, the young lads gained some experience in the previous away games.

have you just woken up from a 5 year snooze?

[backstothewall]

Donadoni has just said that none of the teams in the group have much of a footballing tradition, according to him Bulgaria are the major threat

Gianluca Pagliuca
Franco Baresi
Alessandro Costacurta
Mauro Tassoti
Alberigo Evani
Paolo Maldini
Demetrio Albertini
Roberto Baggio
Dino Baggio
Roberto Donadoni
Giuseppe Signori

As one of these 11 men he should know different

[Noelys Guitar]

Gianluca Pagliuca
Franco Baresi
Alessandro Costacurta
Mauro Tassoti
Alberigo Evani
Paolo Maldini
Demetrio Albertini
Roberto Baggio
Dino Baggio
Roberto Donadoni
Giuseppe Signori

As one of these 11 men he should know different

I'm happy Donadoni came out and said that. Keep it up Roberto. I hope we are playing Italy November 08 at night in Croker. Freezing cold and ****ing rain. New manager sticks Donadoni's comments on dressing room door.

[onephillyhughes]

I expect Ireland to win all the Home games, we always do well at Home and should cause problems for the teams there. But I think we will struggle to get a few wins away from Home, hopefully, the young lads gained some experience in the previous away games.

Hows life back in 2001?

[kennedmc]

Is there a possibility that we are overrating Montengro - the population of the whole country is 6-700k so they can only produce so many players of a decent quality.......

All in all a decent draw. We have a 3 from 2 chance of occupying one of the two spots

[onephillyhughes]

Given how they've done in games they've played so far, they're bound to be tricky. New nation, I'm sure they'll play out of their skins.

[Poor Student]

When are the fixtures likely to come out?

[scousedub]

When are the fixtures likely to come out?

3rd week in January according to Delaney on RTE news

[danonion]

Montenegro will do anything to get one on Bulgaria. It will be huge for us if they can take points off them.

[Armando]

Not a bad draw, all those teams are well beatable with the right man in place (bar Italy who should top the group). We have a fantastic chance to qualify for South Africa I'm delighted. Glad we didn't get Group 9 I think only 1 comes out of that would that be right?

No.

Best 8 runners up go into play-off. Because there is a 5 team group results against the team that finishes bottom of each group won't count when determining the best 8 to make sure all runners up will have played the same number of games. obviously in the 5 team group all results of the runner up will count because there is no bottom team as such.

[Stuttgart88]

One of the quotes of the week (on JJ O'Toole's late U21 winner) now takes on extra meaning:

We can´t beat them Bulgarians often enough.