the official ireland euro 2012 qualifying campaign

[steve sanders]

it seems proc tall lad ho chi feen's thread about this was lost in the recent server crashes.

two and a half weeks to go now 'til our campaign starts with a traditional 'potential banana skin' in the armenian capital yerevan. things on the club front are mixed - given not getting his game, keane not starting the opening fixture. hard to know how mcgeady will do in moscow.

in terms of qualifying, there are 9 groups. group winners plus the best second placed team qualify automatically. the remaining second place teams will playoff against each other on a seeded basis, that seeding working off the uefa national team co-efficient.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient#National_team_coefficient

 

[CORKBHOY]

Can't see Ireland winning this group. Russia are surely favourites. Perhaps second is a possibility but Slovakia will be fancying their chances for that spot at least.

Russia
Slovakia
Republic of Ireland
FYR Macedonia
Armenia
Andorra

 

[Musical Paper Boy]

It's not a bad group and Ireland need to be expecting of themselves to finish second at a minimum.

 

[steve sanders]

Can't see Ireland winning this group. Russia are surely favourites. Perhaps second is a possibility but Slovakia will be fancying their chances for that spot at least.

Russia
Slovakia
Republic of Ireland
FYR Macedonia
Armenia
Andorra

i think it will be fairly tight between the top 3. it would be brilliant if we could come out on top, but that's probably asking too much - i think we'll draw too many games. all the games are of course important but two crucial ones early on in the campaign in october - home to russia on the 8th and away to slovakia on the 12th.

 

[STEVIEG]

Russia are over hyped bottlers anything less than a group win and i'll be very dissapointed

 

[shez1987]

It is a winneable group and no excuses really for not finishing in the top two positions. Despite their progress to the last 16, wasn't overly impressed by Slovakia at the World Cup and now could be a good time to take on Russia under new management.

Macedonia will fancy their chances of picking up a result against one of Ireland, Slovakia and Russia at home so we need to make sure we lay some ghosts to rest in Skopje and pick up the three points.

Interesting that games will be played on Tuesdays and Fridays.

 

[CORKBHOY]

Russia are over hyped bottlers

And what are Ireland?

 

[STEVIEG]

And what are Ireland?

Under hyped good team who push above our weight

 

[exileonpatrickstreet]

Russia are over hyped bottlers ...

yes, but at least they can muster 11 actual footballers for their team

 

[STEVIEG]

Technically good but not mentally good

At least we went out of the World Cup with a decent performance these guys bottled it big time as they nearly always do throughout football history for a nation of their abilities they are massive underachievers

Most decent teams will beat them and since Ireland play as a team we have a good chance