FAI...June 2024 Friendlies v Hungary and Portugal

[AZOffaly]

I recently read, though I don't know how true it is - the England manager has a pool of only around 50 Premiership players he can pick from.

Premiership regulars I presume you mean. That would sound about right, when you consider 20 teams, and probably an average of 3-4 English qualified players on each team.

[seafoid]

I recently read, though I don't know how true it is - the England manager has a pool of only around 50 Premiership players he can pick from.

That phenomenon has also hammered Ireland. Back in the good old days the big clubs would have one or 2 Irish players amongst the British players. Now the local proportion is way down as the
money in the game allows clubs to scour the world for talent. And you end up with certain people bigging up Norwich players.Jack Charlton had players from Liverpool , Everton, ManU etc.

[clarshack]

Bosnia it is

[rodney trotter]

 Dzeko the obvious danger man. Pjanic a quality player too.

Walters will be a loss over there in first leg, Long could be missing, O Shea suspended too.

[StGallsGAA]

Will be a big ask without Walters and O'Shea but we avoided the Ukrainians which was a bonus.

[laoislad]

It will be a bonus not having O'Shea IMO, he was brutal against Poland.

Good draw, could have been worse. I think we'll qualify.

[From the Bunker]

Bosnia it is

Seems at distance a good draw?

[clarshack]

How bad is Long's injury?

[From the Bunker]

It will be a bonus not having O'Shea IMO, he was brutal against Poland.

Good draw, could have been worse. I think we'll qualify.

In fairness he was on Lewandowski (Polands best player and a world player of note in his prime at 27) and he stayed toe to toe with him (for a player at the end at 34)!

[magpie seanie]

It will be a bonus not having O'Shea IMO, he was brutal against Poland.

Good draw, could have been worse. I think we'll qualify.

You never liked him anyway. I assume you'll be happier with his replacement, Wilson or whoever that might be. That's bound to work.

At least O'Shea (who is playing poorly at the moment admittedly) has come up against Dzeko many times before.

I think we'll get through.

[Milltown Row2]

It will be a bonus not having O'Shea IMO, he was brutal against Poland.

Good draw, could have been worse. I think we'll qualify.

You never liked him anyway. I assume you'll be happier with his replacement, Wilson or whoever that might be. That's bound to work.

At least O'Shea (who is playing poorly at the moment admittedly) has come up against Dzeko many times before.

I think we'll get through.

At least some of Ireland will be there 😉

[From the Bunker]

Looking at their qualifying games. They had a bad start to the Campaign, but finished strong enough. They took 4 points from their games v Wales which is a worry. They lost at home to Cyprus at home and were hammered away to Israel, but that was at the beginning of the Campaign a year ago!

Bosnia and Herzegovina   1-2   Cyprus   
Wales   0-0   Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina   1-1   Belgium   
Israel   3-0   Bosnia and Herzegovina   
Andorra   0-3   Bosnia and Herzegovina   
Bosnia and Herzegovina   3-1   Israel
Belgium   3-1   Bosnia and Herzegovina   
Bosnia and Herzegovina   3-0   Andorra   
Bosnia and Herzegovina   2-0   Wales   
Cyprus   2-3   Bosnia and Herzegovina   

[rodney trotter]

They started the qualifiers slow enough after the World Cup, but finished strong.

Begovic a decent keeper.

[From the Bunker]

Pjanić and Džeko play for Roma and most of their other good players play in the German Bundesliga.

[stiffler]

They changed their coach after a poor start to the group. Much better since.