Another 1-1. The national scoreline.
Two more of those and a win in Georgia would probably do for us though.
Brazilenesqxe shot from Whelan . With a bit more experience the boy has a chance !
Another 1-1. The national scoreline.
Two more of those and a win in Georgia would probably do for us though.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Decent performance I thought.
We're a pretty limited team but we're good at limiting the other team too. Switzerland looked better in midfield for a lot of it I thought, but that didn't translate into too many real chances for them - lots of pressure, but some great defending, last-ditch defending at times.
Once they scored I thought that was it, but the spirit in the camp kept them going to get an equaliser.
I thought Stevens had a very poor game, fortunately not exploited. I don't expect McClean and Whelan to turn into players they are not, but for what they are they did good this evening.
The groups is very even, all the games between the big sides have been 1-1, our problem will be we do notOriginally Posted by Eirambler
score enough goal against the smaller sides.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVzUVEanNjU
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVzUVEanNjU" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">
Whelan about 9:16
He did well to keep it down really, a lot of those end up in row Z.
Strange days to find myself defending Glen Whelan, but I thought his performance tonight was one of his better ones. Not a great player to be sure, but he did distribute the ball well at times
Can't see us getting even a point away to the Swiss.
Swiss game is only 3 days after Georgia game so we will really be struggling for legs. No way whelan plays both so I would expect mick to keep him for Switzerland be great if McCarthy was back for Georgia. Steven's will be fresh for Switzerland doherty hopefully fit to come in left full in Georgia. Would have my doubts mcgoldrick will have the engine for 2 away games in 3 days.
Be great to have Brady and long get some minutes we will need everyone we can to get a win in Georgia and a draw in Switzerland
That might not matter.
Decent result tonight, but a classic typical Irish performance.
Go one goal behind, equalise and finish strong. Everyone comes away looking at the positives only for it to cost us the next time out.
I thought we looked way more assured when we switched to 3-5-2. Would love for this to be our system going forward. It seems to suit our current squad best and would mean we could bring in Doherty and Egan who are doing well at club level!
On a side note, can anyone confirm what’s actually needed to secure a play off? Is third place enough based on Nations League variables with other qualifying!
Top 2 teams go through, that’s 20 teams taken care of. Independent of this, 16 teams go into playoffs for 4 spots in league “A” “B” “C” “D” for final 4 spots based purely on that Nations League thing
If Wales and Denmark qualify, we enter the “league B” playoffs where we play a semi final against another “league B” team, then whoever wins final, again another league B team gets to go to Euros.
If Denmark or wales don’t qualify through their qualifying group then we will be relying on “league A” not having all their 4 spots taken, and us being high enough ranked in league B, in order to enter the league A playoffs, a tougher proposition. We are ranked 23, the second last team in league B, so would need luck this way.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA...ying_play-offs
https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleag...d=2502798.html a nice simple video
I wouldn’t expect our current Ireland team to beat two teams our “same” level to qualify through playoffs, if it was one game you’d never know
Last edited by tommy_c12000; 06/09/2019 at 5:59 PM.
Agree with that. Lost the ball a couple of times, but more often just kept it nice and tidy, and had a part in the goal.
Hendrick had a decent game too, especially in the first half.
McCarthy for O'Neill starting to make a difference now; some decent passages of play, and a rousing finale, although it's still obvious that we've a very weak squad. Was surprised at how poor the Swiss were at times - starting with an awful conceding a corner from their own tip inside the first 15 seconds, and also including some of the most wayward shooting I've seen in a while - but as osarusan said above, this seems to be an effect we have on teams at times.
Could you see us getting a point in Denmark (ranked 13th)? We did.
Denmark drew in Switzerland
Ireland drew in Denmark
Switzerland drew in Ireland.
Anyone have a feeling of deja vu?
Denmark took the lead on 76 mins we equalised on 85 mins.
Switzerland took the lead on 74 mins we equalised on 85 mins.
Shades of 2006 all over again...
I had a feeling we would, but that's only because it was an end of season affair. If we were to play them in Copenhagen next week I would say no. And there is every chance the Danes will beat us at the Aviva when they come here.
A point in Basel (I think we play there) will be fantastic. And of course we must do the business in Tiblisi
I had a feeling we would, but that's only because it was an end of season affair. If we were to play them in Copenhagen next week I would say no. And there is every chance the Danes will beat us at the Aviva when they come here.
A point in Basel (I think we play there) will be fantastic. And of course we must do the business in Tiblisi
It is the final games amongst the "big 3" that matter.
First is Denmark V Switzerland, if there is a result there we can draw our way to qualifying with the winner of that fixture.
A result there would be best for us as we do not fair well v the "minnows", and we would not have to beat any of the decent
sides.
However the team that lost would would be going all out to beat us, which they might well do.
But it's a lot of ifs and buts, we will just have to do our best, we have Georgia next and must not slip up there.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1169710888019996672
McClean did well to win the ball back
Last edited by tricky_colour; 06/09/2019 at 12:06 AM.
Be Georgia... no, not beat Georgia... be Georgia - it doesn't matter where Georgia finish in the group - they have already confirmed a play-off spot by topping their League D group, and will be well positioned to qualify for Euro 2020 as they will be taking on Kosovo, Belarus and North Macedonia (the country formerly known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).
For us, if we don't qualify through this group, whether we finish behind Georgia or lose all our remaining games doesn't actually matter either, as long as fifteen teams from Leagues A and B qualify through these main play-offs (sixteen, if one of those teams is Northern Ireland, who were the only League B team ranked below us), as that would leave us as the eighth-ranked team from Leagues A and B and would be enough to put us into the play-offs.
As regards the game, I came home from work and went to RTE's site with my hand half-covering my eyes in apprehension, and was relieved to see the result. I was particularly happy to see that McGoldrick got the goal - I know he's wanted to be part of the team for many years (even before he knew he was eligible) and didn't get many opportunities under O'Neill, with O'Neill having Keane, Walters, Long and Murphy to choose from. So after two MOTM performances and significant involvement in three of our five goals before tonight, it's terrific to see him get an important goal on the board in what is likely either his last or second-last campaign.
I also want to note how good a result this was by showing how much of a makeshift team we are right now: of the fourteen who played tonight, seven had fewer than a dozen caps before the opening whistle. James McClean's ten goals were one short of the total for everybody else. Five of our players play in The Championship, one in League One and one in the SPL (non-Old Firm), while three of our EPL players have only been there a month and Stevens' recent four appearances were his only ones apart from seven in 2012/13. By contrast, Switzerland's 14 was made up of eight playing in the Bundesliga, three in the Premier League, two in Serie A and one for Benfica.
So I guess we can't expect a repeat of the swashbuckling victories of Mick's last full campaign and we're still a long way from feeling qualification in our grasp. But we're still on track and it's possible that Georgia will be deciding factor over their next two games at home to Denmark and us. Given that challenge and the makeshift nature of our squad, if I was Mick I'd play pretty much the same team against Bulgaria, with some time for Cullen and Egan, a bit more for Hogan and Browne and maybe some minutes for Travers and Curtis.
Last edited by samhaydenjr; 06/09/2019 at 1:22 AM.
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