Denmark V Republic of Ireland - Sat, 11 November 2017 World Cup 2018 Play Off 1st Leg

[tetsujin1979]

Spinning the discussion from the play off thread into a match thread

[nigel-harps1954]

Tuesday 14th in Dublin. Saturday 11th in Copenhagen.

Republic of Ireland set to take on Denmark

The Republic of Ireland will enter into a two-legged Play-Off with Denmark in a bid to secure a place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia next summer.

Martin O'Neill's team will be away in the first leg, which will be played on Saturday, November 11, and home for the second leg, which will be played on Tuesday, November 14 in Aviva Stadium.
After finishing as runners-up in Group D, Ireland were unseeded going into the Draw in Zurich. They could have been paired with either Croatia, Denmark, Italy or Switzerland.
Ireland have come up against Denmark 13 times overall - winning five, drawing five, losing three - with their last meeting coming in a 4-0 friendly win in 2007.
O'Neill, who successfully guided Ireland to EURO 2016 after overcoming Bosnia & Herzegovina in a two-legged play-off, is excited to begin preparations for the two games.
"We're delighted to have been drawn away from home first, so we will try to get some sort of advantage or certainly negate Denmark's advantages before we get to Dublin," said O'Neill.
"We have two games in quick succession and the turnover will be very quick, so let's go for it."
Public sale of tickets for the home leg will begin at 11:00am on Friday, October 20, with prices starting at €30 for adults and €20 for kids - excluding booking fees.
The home leg is included in the 2017/18 FAI Season Ticket package. However, if Season Ticket holders would like to purchase extra tickets then they can avail of an exclusive pre-sale period - which is also open to Club Ireland members and Jack Charlton Lounge patrons - that starts at 11:00am on Wednesday, October 18.
Applications for the away leg can be submitted via the Away Ticketing System on Thursday, October 19 - http://away.fai.ie

[nigel-harps1954]

Flights to Copenhagen just shot up by €200 in the past fifteen minutes..

[Park_Lane]

Anyone know anything about the Danish forwards? dont really know any of the squad apart from Bentner who is Pony and Erickson who is a great little player. They have a lad at RD Leipzip who seems to be doing well?? Apart from that pretty similar to us, Championship players plus a few from the lower teams in Germany/Spain

[DeLorean]

Anyone know anything about the Danish forwards? dont really know any of the squad apart from Bentner who is Pony and Erickson who is a great little player. They have a lad at RD Leipzip who seems to be doing well?? Apart from that pretty similar to us, Championship players plus a few from the lower teams in Germany/Spain

Little piece about Denmark here that mentions their striking options - https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...yoff-1.3259311

Hareide has used three strikers in these recent games with two big men, Andreas Cornelius of Atalanta and Feyenoord’s Nicolai Jorgense becoming key players for the coach along with the much smaller Pione Sisto. Others have played their part with Thomas Delaney getting three goals in Armenia but Christian Eriksen is by far the most important of all with the Tottenham midfielder picking up many of the loose balls from the play in front of him and scoring a lot of important goals.

[nigel-harps1954]

Anyone know anything about the Danish forwards? dont really know any of the squad apart from Bentner who is Pony and Erickson who is a great little player. They have a lad at RD Leipzip who seems to be doing well?? Apart from that pretty similar to us, Championship players plus a few from the lower teams in Germany/Spain

Kasper Schmeichel, arguably one of the top goalkeepers in the Premier League.

Simon Kjaer is a top centre half. He's certainly better than anything we have, but he's not exactly getting many games at Sevilla at the minute.

Their midfield is where they're most dangerous. A midfield four of Kvist, Delaney, Schone and Eriksen is absolutely miles better than our midfield.

They have a squad backed up by Championship players, but the majority of their squad are at relatively big European teams. There's a heap of league titles within their squad at different countries.

[DeLorean]

Current squad - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmar...#Current_squad

[backstothewall]

They look very similar to us on paper. This really is a good chance of getting to Russia

[tetsujin1979]

well, would you look at what Saturday, 11th November 2017 is the 30th anniversary of

[Straightstory]

O'Neill and Keane will feel they can grind out two 0-0 all draws to get it to penalties. We definitely have a chance.

[CraftyToePoke]

O'Neill and Keane will feel they can grind out two 0-0 all draws to get it to penalties. We definitely have a chance.

Who would our five kickers be ?

[geysir]

Our honed ability to murder football should be a leveler.

[backstothewall]

Who would our five kickers be ?

Randolph could be on there. He strikes the ball very well

[BonnieShels]

Penalties? Get lost.

[Olé Olé]

Kasper Schmeichel, arguably one of the top goalkeepers in the Premier League.

Simon Kjaer is a top centre half. He's certainly better than anything we have, but he's not exactly getting many games at Sevilla at the minute.

Their midfield is where they're most dangerous. A midfield four of Kvist, Delaney, Schone and Eriksen is absolutely miles better than our midfield.

They have a squad backed up by Championship players, but the majority of their squad are at relatively big European teams. There's a heap of league titles within their squad at different countries.

Are you over-rating them there? How do "relatively big European teams" compare to the PL sides that many of our players are with? I'm not saying I know that much about them but the PL is a very, very strong league.

In their last game against Romania, their side featured the following clubs: Leicester, Brentford, Chelsea, Sevilla, Betis, Werder Bremen, Copenhagen, Celta Vigo, Spurs, RB Leipzig, Rosenborg. It's hardly a who's who of European heavyweights on an overall scale, is it (Copenhagen and Roseborg's domestic dominane being my point there)? Obviously, Eriksen and Schmeichel are fine players. Delaney has a good reputation and Poulsen played fairly frequently at high-flying Leipzig last season. But Christiansen and Kjaer will be rusty and their other 2 full-backs aren't exactly household names at household clubs.

Look, I'm not trying to completely disparage Denmark but I'd hate for us to fall into a trap of thinking they're worldbeaters. Whilst they beat Poland 4-0 at home, Romania drew twice with them during qualification and actually would have nicked it on away goals, were it taking the same format as our play-offs. (0-0, 1-1).

[DeLorean]

Who would our five kickers be ?

Depending on who's on the pitch at the end, of course, but we have a decent enough selection of players who we'll have seen taking and scoring penalties at some stage or other.

McGeady
Brady
McClean
Hoolahan
Hourihane
Meyler
Walters
Murphy
Maguire
Long

I've something in my head about Glenn Whelan maybe taking a couple also, and Arter ballooned one against Southampton last season. Not sure about Scott Hogan but you'd think he'd be okay maybe.

[nigel-harps1954]

Are you over-rating them there? How do "relatively big European teams" compare to the PL sides that many of our players are with? I'm not saying I know that much about them but the PL is a very, very strong league.

In their last game against Romania, their side featured the following clubs: Leicester, Brentford, Chelsea, Sevilla, Betis, Werder Bremen, Copenhagen, Celta Vigo, Spurs, RB Leipzig, Rosenborg. It's hardly a who's who of European heavyweights on an overall scale, is it (Copenhagen and Roseborg's domestic dominane being my point there)? Obviously, Eriksen and Schmeichel are fine players. Delaney has a good reputation and Poulsen played fairly frequently at high-flying Leipzig last season. But Christiansen and Kjaer will be rusty and their other 2 full-backs aren't exactly household names at household clubs.

Look, I'm not trying to completely disparage Denmark but I'd hate for us to fall into a trap of thinking they're worldbeaters. Whilst they beat Poland 4-0 at home, Romania drew twice with them during qualification and actually would have nicked it on away goals, were it taking the same format as our play-offs. (0-0, 1-1).

Well, in the last two years alone, Leicester, Chelsea, Sevilla, Copenhagen, Spurs and RB Leipzig have been in Champions League Group stage action. That's the pinnacle of European football.

In the same period of time, Rosenborg, Copenhagen (again) and Celta Vigo were in Europa League group stage action.

That leaves only Brentford, Real Betis and Werder Bremen out of group stage action in Europe.

How many of our team against Wales played Champions League group stage at any point in their careers for a start, never mind their current clubs? More players played for Dundalk in European group stage than they have for their current sides.

I'd class big European sides as those who perform in the highest level of European football.

[geysir]

Are you over-rating them there? How do "relatively big European teams" compare to the PL sides that many of our players are with? I'm not saying I know that much about them but the PL is a very, very strong league.

In their last game against Romania, their side featured the following clubs: Leicester, Brentford, Chelsea, Sevilla, Betis, Werder Bremen, Copenhagen, Celta Vigo, Spurs, RB Leipzig, Rosenborg. It's hardly a who's who of European heavyweights on an overall scale, is it (Copenhagen and Roseborg's domestic dominane being my point there)? Obviously, Eriksen and Schmeichel are fine players. Delaney has a good reputation and Poulsen played fairly frequently at high-flying Leipzig last season. But Christiansen and Kjaer will be rusty and their other 2 full-backs aren't exactly household names at household clubs.

Look, I'm not trying to completely disparage Denmark but I'd hate for us to fall into a trap of thinking they're worldbeaters. Whilst they beat Poland 4-0 at home, Romania drew twice with them during qualification and actually would have nicked it on away goals, were it taking the same format as our play-offs. (0-0, 1-1).

Delaney is a serial diver.

[tricky_colour]

Randolph could be on there. He strikes the ball very well

Yes but he is aiming at a bigger target, ie the whole pitch, granted he rarely misses, but taking penalties is a different matter.

[tricky_colour]

Little piece about Denmark here that mentions their striking options - https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...yoff-1.3259311

Hareide has used three strikers in these recent games with two big men, Andreas Cornelius of Atalanta and Feyenoord’s Nicolai Jorgense becoming key players for the coach along with the much smaller Pione Sisto. Others have played their part with Thomas Delaney getting three goals in Armenia but Christian Eriksen is by far the most important of all with the Tottenham midfielder picking up many of the loose balls from the play in front of him and scoring a lot of important goals.

He was never eligible for Ireland apparently.