FoG

Bosnia are beatable. Just ask Cyprus and Israel. They also have a poor record in play-offs having being sunk 6-2 by Portugal the last time.  All that said, it will be a tough tie and Bosnia probably hold a slight advantage - but lets stay optimistic!  If we do qualify then we don't want to make up the numbers and live through a repeat of the EURO 2012 disaster in Poland/Ukraine.  We know that the composition of the Pots will depend on the current UEFA co-efficient rankings and some positions are already decided. See here . The last final Pots will depend on the qualifiers from the playoffs. The chart top right shows the probable outlooks for next summer for Ireland based on bookie's odds. Pot 1 France (Hosts) Germany Spain England Portugal Belgium Italy Pot 2 Italy Russia Switzerland Austria Croatia Czech or Bosnia or Ukraine Pot 3 Maybe Ukraine or Czech Poland Romania Slovakia 2 or 3 of Sweden, Denmark, Turkey,...

Now that Ireland are guaranteed at least a play off, we can turn our attention to our potential opposition.  The final UEFA coefficients are beginning to take shape to determine whether we could face Ukraine in a play off, or an easier prospect like Slovenia. It is important, because it can make a huge difference. seeding calculation are based on this work:  http://www.footballseeding.com/national-ranking-uefa/ Option 1: beat Poland To guarantee qualification Ireland need to beat Poland. Then we would go straight through without the need for a playoff. A high score draw would also do - anything 2-2 or above. Option 2: Draw with Poland A draw then Ireland would probably be unseeded and face one of Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia or Sweden . Option 3: Draw with Poland and hope for a couple of favours. But if results did go our way then with a draw we could be seeded and face Albania, Slovenia, Turkey or Norway . For that to happen we would need both Norway to...

The recent slip up from Scotland in Georgia means that Ireland are back in the hunt for Euro qualification. They are 3rd in their group and four points ahead of Scotland. Assuming that Scotland beat Gibraltar then a win in either of Ireland's last two games (Germany[H] and Poland[A]) would be enough to guarantee 3rd and at least a playoff. A draw in either would suffice if Scotland fail to beat Poland in Scotland. Ireland can even lose both and still hold on to 3rd if Scotland lose to Poland. If Ireland do hold on to 3rd spot they would likely go into a playoff against one of the other third placed teams. See below 3rd placed teams ranked courtesy of wikipedia . Currently Ukraine would qualify automatically and the rest would be seeded according to the UEFA National Co-efficient. The unofficial rankings are as below (courtesy of footballseeding.com ). Most teams have one or two more games before the below ranking will be made official and much can change in those few ga...