Euro 2016 draw on Sunday

keeponhurling

Is Gibraltar a country?
Cos if it isn't , why is it in the draw ?

Aside even from the fact that they cannot host international matches

The Mulk

Lennonist wrote: »

Ryanair

Some trip alright, the September fixture would be nice

Lapin

losthorizon wrote: »

I dont think Gib are allowed to play their home games at their stadium so have to go abroad instead to play home games.

This is a photo of their stadium I took last summer.

Attachment not found.

They play their home games in the Algarve.

Which is just as well as Gibraltar itself is a kip of a place.

Mr.Nice Guy

Surprises me to hear people dismissing Poland. They have had a good record against us in recent years and unlike Ireland boast players in the Champions League. They will also have plenty of support when they play us in Dublin.

Rockman wrote:

Just say for ..(for the laugh) we end up with


That would be 17 points which IMO is a realistic goal.
If Germany (like a lot of people expect) steam roll all the other teams and Scotland and Poland take points of each other .
OK looks like Poland at home and Georgia away will /could be the keg games and if we can pick up extra points in these would be a massive bonus .

Would /should (17 points) that be enough to get out of this group ?

Can't see us getting anything from the games with Germany. If we can put up a respectable showing this time then it will be a moral victory of sorts.

I would see it as 17 points too like so:

vs Germany (two losses, hopefully not heavy ones)

vs Poland (draw at home and a loss away)

vs Scotland (home win, away draw)

vs Georgia (2 wins)

vs Gibraltar (2 wins)

I think we will need Scotland and Poland to drop points and I feel that the team who deals with Georgia and Gibraltar best will likely sneak it.

markesmith

I automatically thought Poland would finish second in our group. Good forward line, they've been on the rise recently...

Banjaxed82

Our level of pessimism before a ball is even kicked is only matched by our level of optimism when we haven't a hope.

It's a tough group. The type of group in recent years we managed to fcuk up through our own negative play and inflating other teams ability way beyond what they actually were. I see no reason why we shouldn't get 2nd.

The_Kew_Tour

Fudge You wrote: »

Completely disagree. Switzerland are a good side. We would be doing well to get a point in two games against them.

We would not have played Switzerland!!!

Kirby

Fudge You wrote: »

Completely disagree. Switzerland are a good side. We would be doing well to get a point in two games against them.

If we were in group E, Switzerland wouldn't be. So how we would fare against them is a moot point.

We would walk groups B, E and F. Top 2 in any of those groups would've been easy. Instead, the draw screwed us and we have to sing for our supper. It's tough, but doable.

losthorizon

keeponhurling wrote: »

Is Gibraltar a country?
Cos if it isn't , why is it in the draw ?

Aside even from the fact that they cannot host international matches

Neither is England for Example. Or the Faroes. Or others

They can host international matched but not qualifying games

luckyboy

Scotland have been much-improved under Gordon Strachan, so I think we've been unlucky to draw them ...

Lapin

keeponhurling wrote: »

Is Gibraltar a country?

Is Northern Ireland a country?

Fudge You

Kirby wrote: »

If we were in group E, Switzerland wouldn't be. So how we would fare against them is a moot point.

We would walk groups B, E and F. Top 2 in any of those groups would've been easy. Instead, the draw screwed us and we have to sing for our supper. It's tough, but doable.

Yeah, sorry, Im with ya now. Didnt cop, we're second seeds like them. Whoops!!!!

luckyboy

I hope we don't end up playing Gibraltar away as our first game. That will be an historic game for them that they could really raise their performance for. IIRC, the Faroes beat Austria 1-0 in their first-ever official game, the first of the qualifiers for Euro 92 ...

Bowlardo

is the top 3 that qualify?

Lennonist

Lapin wrote: »

Is Northern Ireland a country?

Scotland might be by the time we play them.

The_Kew_Tour

Lennonist wrote: »

Scotland might be by the time we play them.

If they have balls!!

Omackeral

luckyboy wrote: »

I hope we don't end up playing Gibraltar away as our first game. That will be an historic game for them that they could really raise their performance for. IIRC, the Faroes beat Austria 1-0 in their first-ever official game, the first of the qualifiers for Euro 92 ...

It'll be like playing a suntanned Tolka Rovers

thelad95

How bad are georgia? Could they be a side who ourselves, scotland or Poland drop points to away from home?

I expect Australia's 31-0 record could be beaten by Germany against Gibraltar, despite the efforts of Danny Higginbotham.

keeponhurling

Lapin wrote: »

Is Northern Ireland a country?

No it's not.
I thought that was just a legacy thing though, similar to England, Wales etc.
Didn't think they were still actively adding non-countries

I'm hoping county Clare get a team together before I'm too old, might get an international cap.

England at Wembley, or Italy at the San Siro would be nice

keeponhurling

thelad95 wrote: »

despite the efforts of Danny Higginbotham.

Think he's retired.

I'd love to see Ireland beating Gibraltar 10-0 home and away, with Robbie Keane scoring about 8 in each game, all tap-ins, and doing the cartwheel celebration every time.

The haters would go mad

Omackeral

luckyboy wrote: »

I hope we don't end up playing Gibraltar away as our first game. That will be an historic game for them that they could really raise their performance for. IIRC, the Faroes beat Austria 1-0 in their first-ever official game, the first of the qualifiers for Euro 92 ...

So is it fair to say you're fearing a rocky start for whoever plays Gibraltar?


I'll get me coat

keeponhurling

Omackeral wrote: »

So is it fair to say you're fearing a rocky start for whoever plays Gibraltar?


I'll get me coat

Damn strait !

luckyboy

keeponhurling wrote: »

Think he's retired.

I'd love to see Ireland beating Gibraltar 10-0 home and away, with Robbie Keane scoring about 8 in each game, all tap-ins, and doing the cartwheel celebration every time.

The haters would go mad

Good point. The Gibraltar home game, in particular, could be a great opportunity for our strikers to fill their boots. If Robbie is still on the scene, he could push his goals up past the 70-mark in this campaign ...

Agueroooo

Omackeral wrote: »

So is it fair to say you're fearing a rocky start for whoever plays Gibraltar?


I'll get me coat

Ferguson heard Scotland are playinh rock of Gibraltar.

He's gonna want his cut.


I'll get my coat

Collie D

losthorizon wrote: »

I dont think Gib are allowed to play their home games at their stadium so have to go abroad instead to play home games.

This is a photo of their stadium I took last summer.

Attachment not found.

Is that a runway in the background?

naughtb4 wrote: »

Was in faro last game

Their qualifiers will be played there. No chance of getting to that trip without bringing the wives and girlfriends along. Although, on the other hand at least it guarantees all the lads can come.

Handy trip for travelling bar Georgia. For qualifying it could have been better (Groups B, E and F would have been great) but definitely could have been worse. A looks a nightmare. Think overall it's a decent group that we stand a chance in and great for travelling.

Looking forward to fixtures being announced and have debit card at the ready for booking a couple of early flights. 4pm I think they're due out

MaroonAndGreen

Gibralter - 6 points
Georgia - 6 points
Scotland - 4 points
Poland - 4 points
Germany - 0 points

Thats enough to put us through, the key is that we have to win 4/5 of the home games and scrap for 7-8 points then away from home.

losthorizon

luckyboy wrote: »

Good point. The Gibraltar home game, in particular, could be a great opportunity for our strikers to fill their boots. If Robbie is still on the scene, he could push his goals up past the 70-mark in this campaign ...

Gibraltar played their first match last November since joining UEFA against Slovakia and drew 0-0

Bowlardo

I think we have enough in that team to get through in second

Team Subs
Ford
Coleman St ledger Dunne O'Shea Wilson/Ward
McGeady McCarthy Ireland McClean Whealn/Holohan
Long Keane Doyle/Stokes

monkey9

Terrible draw. We'll struggle to get out of that group. Can see us finishing fourth. We really REALLY need to win our home games.

major bill

Collie D wrote: »

Is that a runway in the background?



Their qualifiers will be played there. No chance of getting to that trip without bringing the wives and girlfriends along. Although, on the other hand at least it guarantees all the lads can come.

Handy trip for travelling bar Georgia. For qualifying it could have been better (Groups B, E and F would have been great) but definitely could have been worse. A looks a nightmare. Think overall it's a decent group that we stand a chance in and great for travelling.

Looking forward to fixtures being announced and have debit card at the ready for booking a couple of early flights. 4pm I think they're due out

If talk already is to be believed, we are looking at 30/40,000 Irish going

Utopia Parkway

Probably a tougher draw than many expected in that we don't have the battle just one other side for 2nd. We will have to battle two others. Ireland, Poland and Scotland will all fancy their chances of getting 2nd. Poles haven't been great recently but do have some very good players. Scots seem to be improving a lot under Strachan and they will be well up for it going up against MON, McGeady and McCarthy. Germans will obviously walk top spot.

Johner

BMJD wrote: »

I'm confident we can avoid defeat away to both Scotland and Poland, should beat at least one of them at home. It'd take a draw at home to the Germans as well. The rest if them are on plate for us. I'm confident we will qualify.

Scotland and Poland will be two very tough away games for us. And we don't have a hope of getting a point at home to Germany.

BNMC

monkey9 wrote: »

Terrible draw. We'll struggle to get out of that group. Can see us finishing fourth. We really REALLY need to win our home games.

Hardly a terrible draw. Group A is terrible.

While we are no world beaters ourselves, Scotland and Poland are both beatable at home and I'd expect 4 points from the two away games.

thelad95

losthorizon wrote: »

Gibraltar played their first match last November since joining UEFA against Slovakia and drew 0-0

For god's sake, that was a miracle result. Gibraltar has a slightly larger population than County Leitrim and are a team full of amateurs. They don't even have a single stadium reaching Uefa's lowest possible criteria for hosting a competitive international game. That game against Slovakia was a lot of the players first time playing on grass (apparently). Even if they don't turn out to be complete cannon fodder, we will beat them comfortably.

The suggestion they will be in anyway competitive is completely laughable.

Lennonist

Johner wrote: »

Scotland and Poland will be two very tough away games for us. And we don't have a hope of getting a point at home to Germany.

We'll beat Germany in Dublin this time around.

Paully D

The group is fine. Germany will obviously win it, but there's absolutely no excuse not to be finishing second, or at the very least getting a playoff spot in third.

Some cracking away trips for the fans apart from Georgia to.

major bill

When it was drawn first I thought ''****e'' but now after reviewing it I think we have very decent chance.

We won't expect anything from Germany so lets assume they will win the group.

Gibraltar should be 5nil x 2, We struggled against Georgia at home the last time we played but I think 6 points should be the norm here.

Scotland will be tough, Strachan has them playing with belief and they beat Croatia twice in the group, We will do well to take a point from Hampden.

Poland will be tough but I'd put Scotland ahead of them in terms of a threat.

If we win all our games at home bar Germany we will qualify

cardwizzard

major bill wrote: »

When it was drawn first I thought ''****e'' but now after reviewing it I think we have very decent chance.

We won't expect anything from Germany so lets assume they will win the group.

Gibraltar should be 5nil x 2, We struggled against Georgia at home the last time we played but I think 6 points should be the norm here.

Scotland will be tough, Strachan has them playing with belief and they beat Croatia twice in the group, We will do well to take a point from Hampden.

Poland will be tough but I'd put Scotland ahead of them in terms of a threat.

If we win all our games at home bar Germany we will qualify

Hampden might be out depending on the dates due to the commwealth games. Parkhead or Ibrox might come into it. Which might make tickets scarce.

Idbatterim

they are far tougher groups IMO. The travelling would also have been far worse...

Group A: Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic

Group G: Russia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Austria, Sweden

losthorizon

Collie D wrote: »

Is that a runway in the background?

That is a runway. The runway goes right across the main road into Gibraltar. When a plane is about to land a loudspeaker comes on and warns people, followed by red lights to stop cards and show light coming across the runway and then the the two barriers come down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj9D5oOVDdQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ5Wo5CteEA

Jelle1880

cardwizzard wrote: »

Hampden might be out depending on the dates due to the commwealth games. Parkhead or Ibrox might come into it. Which might make tickets scarce.

Surely Celtic Park will be the preferred venue :pac:

Belgium's got a brilliant group, happy with that.

losthorizon

Idbatterim wrote: »

they are far tougher groups IMO. The travelling would also have been far worse...

Group A: Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic

Group G: Russia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Austria, Sweden

Group G Looks about the level of difficulty as Irelands group.

Broxi_Bear_Eire

cardwizzard wrote: »

Hampden might be out depending on the dates due to the commwealth games. Parkhead or Ibrox might come into it. Which might make tickets scarce.

Parkhead holds roughly eight thousand more than Hampdump and Ibrox has a capacity of slightly less than Hampdump

But it shouldn't take them long to get it back to a football stadium after the commonwealth games I reckon the games will all be at the national stadium

Lemmy Scott

Poland are awful in fairness we beat them last year and should of won over there aswell -absolutely nothing to fear there.Scotland are pretty rubbish now I must say so all in all I expect us to finish 2nd

keeponhurling

It'll be interesting.
Germany will win the group and we can compete for 2nd.

However anyone highlighting that Poland or Scotland are very beatable must remember that so are we.
We are a bit short up front after Keane goes or gets old, and centre back is a problem too.

Add to that if we get a few injuries, the level of players we may need to call on is really quite poor

thelad95

Lemmy Scott wrote: »

Poland are awful in fairness we beat them last year and should of won over there aswell -absolutely nothing to fear there.Scotland are pretty rubbish now I must say so all in all I expect us to finish 2nd

While I agree with this, Trap and Stan were extremely conservative against our rivals even though they were beatable. Slovakia should've have been beaten twice in the 2012 qualifying campaign as should Austria in the last campaign. Trap overestimated them and underestimated us and Stan was Stan.

If this lack of balls continues, we could find ourselves in fourth.

We only qualified for the Euro's because Slovakia imploded and we got a miracle draw against Russia.

TaosHum

Qualification will hinge on what we do against Scotland and Poland. In our last campaign, Ireland took 2 points from a possible 12 against Sweden and Austria. That's gonna have to improve if we want any hope getting out of this group.

Also, if I was to arrange the fixtures, I would get the trip to Tblisi out of the way first, as Georgia will be tricky and September would be the ideal time to go there at the start of the campaign,

Lennonist

This goal in 1987 was the sign that fortunes were changing for Irish soccer. Scotland's national team used to be a far stronger soccer team than we were back then and prior to that.

They're having a bit of a revival under Strachan, but we should be looking to take at least 4 points from them.

xtal191

I think we'll get second place easily.

keeponhurling

When will we know what city the German away game will be?

Not sure how they decide these things.

Last two were in Koln and Stuttgart, might be a different one this time