The Irish Football Team Thread

Not a shot for the keeper to save 1st half and now this, not forgetting the 2 pens we should have had. Scales took a booking for dissent 1st half not retreating and he was immense. * and ref and var

 

A proper pumping

 

Pointless tournament this anyway

 

Sorry Ireland.

We’ll have a word with him.

 

Hopefully that’s the end of internationals for a while

 

Maybe this will shock some sense into the Irish FA, lol no it wont bad joke that

 

Ireland were bang in the game right up until the penalty and red card.. England couldn’t create anything and Kelleher didn’t have a single save to make. First half Ireland are denied the most stonewall penalty you will ever see as well.

I’m never hesitant to be negative about Ireland these days but that was very unlucky today.

 

Agree with you there on that analysis and like yourself I am the last person to be about making excuses for Ireland. Probably would have got beaten over the 90 minutes but the way things turned out was harsh to put it mildly.

 

Will be playing either
Slovakia
Kosovo
Bulgaria or
Armenia in relegation playoffs
Draw is on Friday

 

I’m totally lost on this nations league stuff. Why does this even matter?

 

It means that in next nations league competition in 2026/27 they have another chance of promotion to league A which in turn means 2 chances of qualifying for the 2030 World Cup.
It’s being held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Also means that Rep of Ireland may have Northern Ireland in same qualifying group in League B if they stay up because Northern Ireland have been promoted from League C

 

Also Liam Scales will be suspended for next match of the nations league relegation play offs with 1st leg on 20th March away and 2nd leg on 23rd March at home.
The first match is only 5 days after Celtic play the huns at Celtic Park

 

Currently Rep of Ireland are 28th in interim ranking and can’t go higher but if Ukraine beat Albania can drop to 29th.
That can change once the playoffs are finished.

 

March 20th and 23rd for playoffs

 

Yeah I liked it for five minutes but now it's just paff. It was done to replace the friendlies and get more games on cable but the trouble is friendlies used to be a time to try out players, now that it's a competition you can't do that. I think fans are getting bored with it too.

 

Currently there are too many permutations if Ireland stay up to see who their opponents will be in next nations league group 26/27 but if they drop to league C they are guaranteed to have 1 of the following teams as one of their 3 opponents:
Belarus
Faroe Islands
Estonia
Cyprus

 

I think the nations league format should be changed to same as league phase of CL.
Currently 54 nations in qualifying so for the draw have 6 groups of 9 teams to be drawn with 1 team from own group and 2 from each of the others making 10 matches 5 home and 5 away.
Since there are 16 teams to qualify make 1st 8 qualify directly and teams 9 to 22 play in knockout matches for the other 7 places plus 1 for the hosts.