Ireland vs Estonia 1st leg-Poland-Ukraine here we come!!

Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has named his starting team (Well most of it) for the Euro 2012 play-off first leg game against Estonia on Friday night.

The time is as follows;


Shay Given

Stephen Kelly Richard Dunne Sean St Ledger Stephen Ward

Daimien Duff Glen Whelen Kieth Andrews Aiden McGeady

Robbie Keane(c) Jonathan Walters

The final place will be given in the morning by Trap.

It will be a dark, cold and bitter night but hopefully a sucessful and happy night for Ireland but one would think that the more likely secenario will be a dull and boring match with little to get excited about. I'm predicting a tight 1-0 win for Ireland in a terriblely boring match will little chances but we really should be trying to kill of the tie with 2 away goals. Anyone else have any thoughts on the game?

Kick off at 7.45

Latest: Ireland 4-0 Estonia FT (Andrews 13 mins, Walters 67 mins, Keane 71 mins, 88mins (Pen) ) Stepanov and someone else sent off for Estonia 35mins and 77 mins
Turkey 0-3 Croatia FT (Olic 2 mins, Mario Mandzukic 32 mins, Corluka 51 mins)
Montenegro 0-2 Cezch Republic FT (Vaclav Pilar 63 mins, Tomas Sivok 91 mins)
Bosnia 0-0 Protugal FT

I might pop a few quid on Ireland to win this one. I just can't see Estonia getting anything and the Irish defence of late has been totally immense.

I agree it won't be a spectacle but who cares?

Would love to see the Irish make the finals. They always put in a good showing at the majors and never seem to let their fans down.

I'm going with Estonia 0 - 1 Ireland. McGeady wonder goal to win it!

I think I went for 1-1 away and 2-1 home, us just to sneak it.

Estonia are a tricky side.

I feel now, on the morning of the game we'll win this 2-0.

Its been far to long without being in a tourament, we all know what happend in the last play off we were in.

This is it, boys will be fired up. It'll be tough, but I have the belief we'll progress over the 2 legs.

Wont be easy, but I think we'll do it.


C'mon you boys in green,

If McGeady scores a goal I would be in shock never mind a wonder goal. Think Trap could be picking a better team and I still want him to go after the Euros. Walters will hopefully get picked. The centre mids are dire though. Decent defence but you would prefer Coleman at right back or on the wing.

I hope walters gets picked to.

Would like to have seen Hunt start.

Coleman should be starting, would have him at right back.

Andrews has done well for Ipswich so far this season.

Thomond I'll bet McGeady scores first now you said that.

Andrews has done well for Ipswich so far this season.

Says it all really . Walters should start he is the best stricker currently available but Trap doean't think that way most of the time. That said he is his kinda of player.

Well theres good and bad sides to the match so far, Good: We're 1-0 up! Bad: We are playing teribble "football" and estonia are growing in confidence. I'm a bit nervous at the moment.

Edit: oh and another red card for a team against us . Need to kill the tie off now.

We won't push on with Trap there although we should. Walters doing well with the limited ball he is getting. Come on you boys in green.

Estonia are there for the taking to score another one of two, the thing is we are more so because of the way we are playing. The match and the tie should both be dead and buried but it is still very much alive. That said I would have taken this at the start be it should be about 3-0 if we bothered attacking. Wonder does Trap know what that means

Ah feck Duffers is down.

GOOOOAAAALLLL!!!! C'MOM WALTERS!!!

Oh and its now 3-0

Easy, easy, easy!!!

Andrews has been good. Has given made any saves?

This ref has been ridiculously biased towards Ireland. Either that or the Irish are great actors. Faheys mo looks good.

Both red cards were very soft. First one Keane was looking for it, second one was a joke.

Given made a few when Estonia were on top but we are coasting now. I agree with you on the reds but we have had that extra bit on luck still the hand of "he who shall not be mentioned".

I would like another goal though just to make sure

Peno for Ireland. GK booked, just about the 10th player not turning up next week.

KEANO!!!! 4-0!!!

Rte commentators aren't great either but above all the rte pundits in the studio are about 10 years past their sell by date. Time to get some younger more interesting, current, energetic guys in the studio.

Soft pen. Bit of a farce now. Happy we are off to polkrane though.

Darragh whats his name isn't bad imo. For the pundits I would get ride of Brady and get Richie Saddler, that man knows his stuff and bardy is too loyal to Trap really.

All over 4-0. I'm a happy man

He was on a yellow for the first one could have been a straight red. Second one was soft. They played well though some decent football. Andrews was a well deserved man of the match, tackled well took his goal brilliantly, passing was poor and he stuck his free very well. The penalty was a body check definite penalty. Also hands off on Sadlier we're trying to get him to be our new CEO at Cork City!

Sadlier is good alright. I'd also get rid of dunphy, giles and billo and bring in the Newstalk off the ball lads. Is also shave kenny cunninghams head and get rid of him.

Oh dear Delaneys on the pitch.

I think we can give him that.

Is that so stag? Club before Countrys T.V. is a fair call for me anyway

Kenny Cunningham is worth keeping for MNS. Knows his LOI onions. Unlike 90% of the country who are barstooling idiots.


Leinster, he will throw his tie into the crowd like he has done the last few away trips. He picked up the tab in a bar last night to the tune of 2,000. He has done it the last few trips apparently. He is getting paid 400,000 for feck all I suppose!

You have mail Curry

Thomond wrote:He was on a yellow for the first one could have been a straight red. Second one was soft. They played well though some decent football. Andrews was a well deserved man of the match, tackled well took his goal brilliantly, passing was poor and he stuck his free very well. The penalty was a body check definite penalty. Also hands off on Sadlier we're trying to get him to be our new CEO at Cork City!

For the first red Keane never touched the ball and actually changed direction to walk into the tackle, granted he flew up in the air and landed on his head but he was looking for it. He certainly made a big deal of asking the ref for the card.

Also really don't think it was a pen. Looked more a dive. Ireland were very professional.

Happy for Andrews cause thought he was good.

Yer man was on a yellow he had to go. Just cause you're looking for it doesn't mean it is not a foul.

Thomond wrote:Kenny Cunningham is worth keeping for MNS. Knows his LOI onions. Unlike 90% of the country who are barstooling idiots.


Leinster, he will throw his tie into the crowd like he has done the last few away trips. He picked up the tab in a bar last night to the tune of 2,000. He has done it the last few trips apparently. He is getting paid 400,000 for feck all I suppose!

He has the life. I've seen him in lilies chasing tail on occasion. Best thing he ever did was to pay for Trapatoni.

[quote="Thomond"]You have mail Curry[/quote]

Many thanks! will come in handy

I still think we should get rid of Trap.

Thomond wrote:Kenny Cunningham is worth keeping for MNS. Knows his LOI onions. Unlike 90% of the country who are barstooling idiots.


Leinster, he will throw his tie into the crowd like he has done the last few away trips. He picked up the tab in a bar last night to the tune of 2,000. He has done it the last few trips apparently. He is getting paid 400,000 for feck all I suppose!

LOI is gaining in popularity. Rather watch that than the crap in the premier league.

It is yeah. Look at attendence figures, they will tell you it's not. Shams and Cork City and possibly Derry are the only teams with decent crowds.

Thomond wrote:I still think we should get rid of Trap.

Why? He has done immense work in turning around this teams fortunes. He has a good record with let's face it a poor enough pool of players by European standards.

Some dive by hunt for the pen.

He is leaving guys like Coleman and McCarthy out of the team and not trying to include the newer generation of Clifford,Brady et al.

On the LOI, I think Shels and City coming up is a major boost for thr lrague so hopefully it will kick on. The standard is raising though.

On Trap, Sack him after the Euros we might as well keep him til then, at least we wont be embrassed by Spain and Germany that way. Get rid of him then and bring someone new (Not sure who though)

Shels get terrible crowds though, they've never had good fans. Standards are decent but won't reach the highs of 2004/2005/2006.

I meant after the Euros, it would be insanity to change your manager before then. As Ivory Coast found out the last World Cup.

Ah I half thought as much, Shels will continue to improve I think but I will most likely be proved wrong. I wonder what team Trap will pick on Tuesday and from here to the Euros?

I hope he picks an experimental team and sees what kind of options we have. He has always been conservative even in friendlies.

Yeah but he does try more players regradless. Interestingly the Estonia manager has said that when he sees Ireland he wishs they were his team and its his dream to play like us

Needs to get his head check out me thinks!

...Ireland doing it the easy way

The story with qualification pools:

From what I understand, the 4 seeded teams will be Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Netherlands. The next 3 pots will go on FIFA rankings and currently look as follows:

http://www.fifa.com/...able/index.html

Pot 1
Poland
Ukraine
Spain
Netherlands

Pot 2
England
Germany
Italy
Greece or Portugal (these two are very close in the rankings)

Pot 3
Greece or Portugal
Denmark
Croatia
Russia

Pot 4
Sweden
France
Republic of Ireland
Czech Republic

The seeds don't purely go on how each team is ranked, it's judged on qualification and the last World Cup (To my knowledge). Scouting around I found one respected source with these likely pots:

Pot 1
Poland
Ukraine
Spain
Holland

Pot 2
Germany
England
Italy
Croatia

Pot 3
Russia
Greece
Sweden
Portugal

Pot 4
France
Denmark
Ireland
Czech Republic

So potentially there could be a group of Spain, Germany, Portugal and France! Best potential group would probably be Ukraine, Greece and the Czechs?

Churchill wrote:The seeds don't purely go on how each team is ranked, it's judged on qualification and the last World Cup (To my knowledge). Scouting around I found one respected source with these likely pots:

Pot 1
Poland
Ukraine
Spain
Holland

Pot 2
Germany
England
Italy
Croatia

Pot 3
Russia
Greece
Sweden
Denmark

Pot 4
France
Portugal
Ireland
Czech Republic

So potentially there could be a group of Spain, Germany, Portugal and France! Best potential group would probably be Ukraine, Greece and the Czechs?

I think your rankings are right aside from Denmark/Portugal. (they're very close on points...would they change if Portugal thrashed Bosnia in the second leg? It says that the pots are decided based on the coefficients at the end of the qualifying campaign so maybe it would change? or is it just based on points gained in the group stages of qualifying? Must be the latter surely) I'm using wikipedia for that information which isn't the best source, but seems to be right for the minute. Here's the link if you want to check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012_seeding

I don't see any decent group there for Ireland at all. If I was to pick a group though I'd go for Poland, Italy and Greece. That would be somewhat doable to get out of I suppose. Imagine Spain, Germany and Russia though? Yikes

I think England might be the best team to play as second seeds, we would really be up for that ala the rugby team. Second would be Italy because of Traps knowledge and they are no great shakes themselves.

I would want Poland, England and Greece.

Irish Curry wrote:I think England might be the best team to play as second seeds, we would really be up for that ala the rugby team. Second would be Italy because of Traps knowledge and they are no great shakes themselves.

I would want Poland, England and Greece.

I would want a England v Ireland fin

Churchill wrote:The seeds don't purely go on how each team is ranked, it's judged on qualification and the last World Cup (To my knowledge). Scouting around I found one respected source with these likely pots:

Pot 1
Poland
Ukraine
Spain
Holland

Pot 2
Germany
England
Italy
Croatia

Pot 3
Russia
Greece
Sweden
Portugal

Pot 4
France
Denmark
Ireland
Czech Republic

Warning: Plagiarism
Group of debt

[quote="liverbnz"][quote="Churchill"]The seeds don't purely go on how each team is ranked, it's judged on qualification and the last World Cup (To my knowledge). Scouting around I found one respected source with these likely pots:

Pot 1
Poland
Ukraine
[b]Spain[/b]
Holland

Pot 2
Germany
England
[b]Italy[/b]
Croatia

Pot 3
Russia
[b]Greece[/b]
Sweden
Portugal

Pot 4
France
Denmark
[b]Ireland[/b]
Czech Republic

[/quote]

[color=blue][color=white]Warning: Plagiarism [/color][/color]
Group of debt
[/quote]

Thread for the second leg is here

wguys do you really think there will be a group that includes germany-italy and england- lol! dont be nuts

That can't happen, those teams and all second seeds which is why are in the same pot.

oh lol - jeas i am losing it today- i thought there were possible groups not pots . My dyslexia is creeping in- need to read stuff before i post lol