FAI...New Manager Hunt continues

[seafoid]

Rd 1 draw for 6 October:  Scotland v Austria, Wales v Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal v Belgium.

Rd 1 draw for 11 October: Portugal or Belgium v Iceland, Scotland or Austria v Ireland, Switzerland v Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Update for 11 Oct:  Portugal v Iceland, Scotland v Ireland, Switzerland v Wales.

Top 2 direct to World Cup, third place team goes to play-off tournament in NZ in Feb 2023.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/1006/1327566-what-ireland-need-to-happen-to-seal-a-world-cup-ticket/

Rankings are not necessarily correlated with performance over 90 minutes. It's Cup final stuff
Portugal (27) beat Belgium (19)

https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/women?dateId=ranking_20220805

[seafoid]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/1006/1327455-agg-takes-emotional-cobh-trip-ahead-of-game-of-her-life/

[Capt Pat]

Fcuk that for a game of marbles.

[general_lee]

At least Kenny will get the boot.

[Capt Pat]

That draw was a bit fcuked up. They had top teams in pot 2 who certainly should have been in pot 1, hence the England Italy group and our group with Netherlands and France. It was the same throughout the draw, some teams were in pots above their level and some teams in pots below their level.

Now I don't expect Ireland to qualify but hopefully we can get back to giving the top teams a right rattle and beat the lesser lights in the group.

[Ed Ricketts]

In a weird way, that draw could be the making of Kenny and/ or the brand of football he's trying to introduce.

A handier group would have brought expectation, which might have seen compromise on the project of reinvention. But this group provides the opportunity to stay the course and just see how it goes. Taking anything from Holland or France will be a bonus, so it's really all about the playoffs from the start.

[snoopdog]

Realistically 3 of the 5 teams in that group are above Ireland.

[seafoid]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/1009/1328043-uphill-task-for-ireland-after-difficult-euro-2024-draw/Republic of Ireland have been handed a nightmare draw for Euro 2024 qualifying with Netherlands and France in Group B.

The Boys in Green are in a five-team group along with one of the strongest fourth-pot teams, Greece

Stephen Kenny's side will also face Gibraltar as the final side in the group.

The top two teams will qualify, with a play-off possible for the tournament in Germany based on Nations League standings and the number of highly-ranked teams which have already qualified automatically.

It represents one of the worst possible scenarios for Kenny as they must get the better of one of two powerhouses in world football.

[Ed Ricketts]

That draw was a bit fcuked up. They had top teams in pot 2 who certainly should have been in pot 1, hence the England Italy group and our group with Netherlands and France. It was the same throughout the draw, some teams were in pots above their level and some teams in pots below their level.

Now I don't expect Ireland to qualify but hopefully we can get back to giving the top teams a right rattle and beat the lesser lights in the group.

Always one or two big shots that fall out of the top pot, but it got pretty ridiculous this time round. They'll surely have to revisit the seedings for next time. Using Nations League performance lacks legitimacy when many of the bigger nations still treat those games as friendlies.

England and France are the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams in Europe, but slipped into the second pot because they used the last Nations League campaign to run their squads in advance of the World Cup.

[From the Bunker]

We'll finish 4th in that group. Gibraltar have proven a nightmare for Irish teams to beat recently.

Greece are ranked 19
Netherlands ranked 6
France ranked 5

Denmark (16), Finland (37), Kazakhstan (30), Northern Ireland (44), San Marino would have been a nice draw.

Then again, you'd never know what kind of results we'd get against those teams.

[AustinPowers]

Netherlands aren't great.   Sure Van Gaal  is over them ffs

And France can struggle in qualifiers too.  But Even if Ireland lose to them , I'd just be happy to see them go out and kick the shite  out of that Pogba  dick.

Greece are poor. Should get 4 points there and 6 v Gibraltar

[Captain Scarlet]

We need to move on from the lads saying 'at least we are playing nice football' and batten down the hatches if needs be versus France and Netherlands.
Looking back at the Portugal game we didn't play nice, we did what we had to do and we could have gotten a great result. It will be a case of digging in for France and Holland.
If we are classing them as not great what are we?

If we are progressing the way we claim to be we should be able to play against Gibraltar and go to mix it up versus Greece.

You would hope Parrott and Obafemi can build a partnership as Cullen in front of Collins, O'Shea and Omobamidele is solid.

[seafoid]

Expectations going in should be reasonable. They can also use the Nations League to qualify.
3rd place gets a playoff. The main thing is to minimise mistakes.
Euros are very generous and around half of teams qualify... 24/54....

[Gael80]

It's a great draw for the FAI, I'd imagine tickets will be sold on a 'season ticket' basis and with Holland and France heading to Dublin they'll make a lot of money. Third spot is possible but Greece are not a bad side and with our Nations League performance you'd need a lot of luck to finish in one of the play off spots even if we finish third. Qualifying from any group was going to be a challenge so at least there is some great games for the teams development.

[shark]

It's a great draw for the FAI, I'd imagine tickets will be sold on a 'season ticket' basis and with Holland and France heading to Dublin they'll make a lot of money. Third spot is possible but Greece are not a bad side and with our Nations League performance you'd need a lot of luck to finish in one of the play off spots even if we finish third. Qualifying from any group was going to be a challenge so at least there is some great games for the teams development.

You'd need a lot of bad luck to not make the playoffs. Will only fail to make playoffs if more than 2 teams ranked lower in Nations League qualify automatically. Most likely to do that are Sweden , Romania , or Turkey. Chances of all 3 doing it? Slim I would say.