EURO 2012 DRAW:
IRELAND V ESTONIA
CROATIA V TURKEY
CZECH REPUBLIC V MONTENEGRO
PORTUGAL V BOSNIA
So there you have it, all our prayers have been answered, although to be perfectly frank, all Estonia’s have been as well. We couldn’t have asked for much better to be honest, and to get the away leg first was a further fillip to our qualification prospects.
Can I just add that the draw was the most efficient UEFA draw I can ever remember? No long-drawn out speeches, no interviews with pointless UEFA dignataries, just the draw and one quite impressive highlights montage to boot.
We’re off to celebrate and to look into flights to Tallinn post-haste. Thanks for tuning in folks, we hope you’re happy with the outcome as we are!
Ireland are away to Estonia first, which means we’ll play at the Aviva on 15 November. Ireland v Estonia on Friday 11 or Saturday 12 November in Tallinn it is then. Serious potential for a weekend away there, folks.
EURO 2012 DRAW:
IRELAND V ESTONIA
CROATIA V TURKEY
CZECH REPUBLIC V MONTENEGRO
PORTUGAL V BOSNIA
Now to find out whether we will be home or away first…
That leaves Portugal v Bosnia, probably the toughest game of the lot.
Montenegro v Czech Republic
YESSS!!!
Estonia next out against….IRELAND!!!
Dodged a bullet there…
Turkey first out…against Croatia
Infantino and Boniek have taken to the stage…
We’re back on track. Currently in the middle of a montage detailing what the cream of the (qualified) crop in Europe have to offer. It may only be a couple of minutes, but Holland, Spain and Germany look damn impressive.
Unsurprisingly given the high demand, the live feeds for the draw are a bit faulty, but bear with us…
Extremely Quick Reminder:
Seeded:
Croatia
Czech Republic
IRELAND
Portugal
Unseeded:
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Estonia
Montenegro
Turkey
Draw about to get underway, fingernails clasped between our teeth as we speak.
“No easy tie for Ireland, whichever team they get. Hopefully Estonia comes out of the bag,” says Colm M. Our sentiments exactly, Colm. Although I hope all this Estonia-bashing doesn’t come back to haunt us if we do indeed get them in the draw.
As you are probably aware, Ireland’s record in play-offs is not so great. For the record, we have been successful in one of six attempts to date.
The defeats? Spain beat us prior to the World Cup in 1966, Holland beat us before Euro ’96, Belgium had our number ahead of the World Cup in 1998, Turkey infamously dumped us out before Euro 2000, and of course, the greatest injustice of all, France’s Henry-handball inspired victory before the World Cup last year.
Our only success to date was against Iran prior to the 2002 World Cup. Safe to say the omens ain’t good.
Ten minutes to go ’til things kick-off in Krakow.
If anyone is going to get a helping hand from this draw, it’s going to be Ireland. The two men conducting the draw are UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino, a Swiss native of Italian origin, and former Poland international Zbigniew Boniek, who played under Trapattoni at Juventus. Do us a favour lads.
A quick glance at Twitter via the #Euro2012 hashtag reveals that most of us out there are hoping we’ll pull Estonia out of the hat (wouldn’t it much more entertaining if we the balls were drawn out of actual hats?), but I don’t think it’s stretching it to say that all four unseeded teams are probably hoping to be paired with us rather than Portugal, Croatia or the Czech Republic.
And why wouldn’t they? Bosnia (22), Montenegro (26) and Turkey (27) are all ahead of Ireland (29) in the World Rankings that Giovanni Trapattoni seems to attach so much importance. Estonia, meanwhile are 58th.
Just so you know, the fact that we are seeded does not mean that we will play our away leg first, the scheduling of the home and away legs will be decided upon at the draw. That’s a bit of a bummer for a couple of reasons.
First of all, playing away from home first offers a distinctive advantage and secondly, if were to play Estonia, for example, at home first rather than away, the travelling Irish supporters would be looking at a trip to Tallinn on a Tuesday evening as opposed to making a weekend of it should we be playing away on a Saturday night.
All the more reason to hope for an away draw first.
The fact that we’re actually in the draw is not the only Irish connection with events in Krakow. The hotel that the draw is taking place in, the Sheraton, is owned by the once wealthy Sean Quinn, now deep in the financial quagmire. Small world, eh?
Good morning folks and welcome to our live coverage of the draw for the Euro 2012 play-offs. There’s still an hour or so to go until things get underway in Krakow, but don’t worry we’ll keep you entertained with a few titbits of information until then. Any excuse to keep your mind off work for a bit, eh?
Anyway, to start off, why not cast your eye over Ireland’s potential opponents in the draw here.
Incidentally, the article in question gained us a bit of notoriety on the website of major Estonian newspaper Postimees yesterday, with the sensitive Estonians taking umbrage our suggestion that we wouldn’t mind drawing them in the play-offs because of their fine women, lively nightspots and mediocre football team. Ah well, you can’t please everyone.
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