We’re went live to Krakow for this morning’s Euro 2012 play-off draw.
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Ready? Let’s do it.
Euro 2012 play-off draw (ties to be played 11/12 & 15 Nov)
Turkey v Croatia
Estonia v Republic of Ireland
Czech Republic v Montenegro
Bosnia & Herzegovina v Portugal
It’s 12pm. You know what that means, don’t you? It’s time for the gods of the draw to determine our Euro 2012 fate.
Don’t dare move.
So, we all know the deal at this stage, right?
Ireland are one of four seeded teams in this morning’s draw, along with Croatia, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
Over on the other side of the draw, our potential opponents are Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Estonia.
The games are two-legged and will be played on 11/12 November and 15 November.
There was a bit of confusion earlier in the week as to whether or not Ireland’s seeding guaranteed them home advantage for the second leg. Once again, I can confirm that it does not. There’ll be a draw for that as well.
Apparently, according to smiling UEFA man, we have a “little problem.” That problem is that there are eight teams left, but only four qualification spots.
That’s a dilly of a pickle alright.
UEFA general sec Gianni Infantino (what a name) has explained the procedure. Here come the balls.
Ready?
So there you have it. Lucky, lucky Trapattoni.
Here’s the draw in full again:
- Turkey v Croatia
- Estonia v Ireland
- Czech Rep v Montenegro
- Bosnia v Portugal
We appear to be having some technical difficulties at the moment, but hopefully you can all still see this. If not, my apologies (but that’s hardly much use either because you won’t be able to see it).
Know nothing about Estonia? Here’s what Paul had to say about them yesterday
Estonia are a side that Ireland would not exactly fear, given that they have defeated them on several previous occasions. And their first Group C game was a decidedly unimpressive 2-1 home win over Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands, with two last-minute injury time goals needed to secure victory.
More tellingly still, they suffered an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Kerr’s team in the corresponding away fixture. However, back-to-back victories over Northern Ireland in their final two games indicates that they improved as the campaign wore on.
I’ve just checked with him and he says that all of the above still applies.
Yesterday, 68% of you said that Estonia was your dream draw. You all still feel that way, right?
Let’s be a little bit serious here for a moment. This Estonian side are no mugs. So far in this campaign, they beat Serbia and Slovenia on the road. That’s got to count for something.
Time for a quick snapshot of the fans’ reaction. Here’s what you lot have been saying over on Facebook.
Who’s surprised? Hands up please.
There’s a prize for anyone who can tell me when the last time we played Estonia was. Anybody? Bueller?
You may remember that they were in our qualification group for the 2002 World Cup. On that occasion, we won 2-0 home and away with Richard Dunne scoring on both occasions.
That was 10 years ago, however. I’ll take a 1-0 aggregate win this time around if that’s ok.
Martina Ni Githan has definitely got the right attitude. She has been in touch with this comment: ”Hopefully Ireland don’t get above their station and think Estonia will be a walk over. Keep your feet on the ground lads!”
Sound, sound advice. Nothing is won yet, though you have to feel that Trap’s contract will only be renewed if we managed to get to next summer’s finals.
I think it’s hilarious all the hating on Robbie on this. People seem to forget he’s the only player we have who can nick a goal. Granted we have more technical strikers but it’s all about scoring and Robbie is the only source we have
Have a lot more time for Robbie than Roy, yet some people still slag Robbie and rubbish his achievements with Ireland while at the same time worshiping at the altar of Roy. Never in a million years will another Irishman ever score 66 goals for his country, and deep down we all know that.
Robbie never let us down.
To be honest I think we will be just fine without Robbie keane
If we don’t play Darren in goal, Sol won’t be happy!!
Good article but I’d have to disagree that spurs have used 4-4-2 effectively.
McGeady & McLean or Walters. Its the one position we have a few options
Walters is chronic
Forde
Coleman – Clark – O’Shea – Wilson
McCarthy – Reid – Meyler
McGeady – Long – McClean
Would be a good shout.
Randolph
O’Shea Dunne Wilson
Coleman Brady
Mccarthy Meyler
Reid
Long Keane
Brady will not play again this season so you’ll have to find someone else!
personally I think our best 11 is
Given
Coleman-Dunne-O’Shea-Brady
McCarthy-Gibson
McGeady-Hoolahan-Pilkington
Long
brady left back?! given back in nets?
randolph
coleman – oshea – wilson – delaney
mccarthy – meyler
mcgeady – hoolahan – brady
long
would be a good team for tomorrow night – our best team; im not sure what it is – but what its not
@Brendan, Brady has played left wing back for Hull for the past 2 and a bit seasons and it would be a good balance with Coleman at lb, after all Wilson is right footed so Brady would provide more delivery’s. And why not Given?hes shown in the past couple of months hes still well capable of producing great performance. Im all for Forde but his distribution can be rubbish at times
Delaney is back at his club!
… so is Brady!
I disagree that Hoolihan could only be accommodated in a 4-5-1. He could play in a 4-4-3 or a 4-2-3-1 which given the players currently available to Ireland might be the way forward. There are a few players out tomorrow with injuries but going forward my first choice Irish 11 would be
Forde
Coleman, Dunne, O’Shea, Wilson
Gibson, McCarthy
McGeady, Reid or Hoolihan, Brady
Long
I think that Pilkington could do a job on either side of the 3 as could Walters at a push.
That was meant to be 4-3-3* of course :) tho maybe we could sneak an extra player in, who knows
agreed, best looking line-up there, for the near future at least anyway.
As the article suggested, having McCarthy and Gibson sit in front of the back 4 would be great to utilize one of our best attacking options – right-back Coleman. McCarthy too has been excellent in that sitting position for Everton
Need to start playing Clark, as the only decent centre back we have under 30, the more international gametime he get the better.
Think we’d be better concentrating on the players actually available tomorrow rather than playing pie-in-the-sky selections for the future.
Hopefully it’s the last we see of Paul Green
Long up Front alone is just madness, where on earth are the goals going to come from.
Good player as part of a duo, but terrible goal scoring record at every level…..forget qualifying for anything with him up front alone.
Lewandovski is miles ahead of him.
Yeah and he plays for Poland so we ‘re fooked there boss!
I would like to see use play with wing backs with 3 in the centre of the park and 3 in the centre of defence. Has been utilised to good effect by the like of Hull and Villa recently, particularly when taking on the bigger teams giving you stability at the back and a chance to pack the midfield (both places we have struggled recently).