FoG

Ireland are tied on points with Poland, both teams meeting in Poland in the last match.  This leaves Ireland with the following options: Beat Poland or a high score draw The easy way to qualify now is simply beat Poland or a 2-2 draw or higher. If the teams are level on points then it will go to head to head. Both teams drew 1-1 in Dublin already - so a 2-2 draw or higher would put Ireland through on away goals. Even in the case of a three way tie (if Germany lose against Georgia) 2-2 (or any draw in fact) would be enough for Ireland to qualify in 2nd based on the matches involving the three nations. A no score/low score draw A nil-nil would almost certainly mean Poland would be 2nd on the away goal they scored in Dublin. A one-one should put them second based on goal difference. So Ireland would likely be 3rd with a no score/low score draw. The one exception would be if Germany are beaten by Georgia then a three way tie would put Ireland ahead of Poland and actuall...

Ireland play Germany in the Euro 2016 qualifiers - its now crunch time and a lot can be decided tomorrow depending on the result. 1. Knock the Scotts out The big prize for a win against the Germans would be that Scotland would be out of contention. Thus guaranteeing at least a play-off place for the Irish. Scotland are currently 4 points behind with a maximum of 6 points available to them in their final two games against Poland and Gibraltar. One more win for Ireland would guarantee that they couldn't be caught by the Scotts. http://www.livescore.com/soccer/euro/qualification-group-d/ 2. Automatic Qualification Automatic qualification is available to those teams that finish in 2nd place, or the best 3rd placed team. This means that automatic qualification is still in Ireland's own hands. A win against Germany would mean that Ireland would be no more than 2 points behind Poland going into their last match against Poland. Even if Ireland don't end up achieving...

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...

The 9th July sees the latest release of the FIFA World Rankings. These rankings will be used on the 25th of July to determine the Pots for the WC2018 qualifying draw. The teams will be be drawn into 9 groups based on these Pots. The 9 groups winners qualify automatically and the 8 best runners up go into a playoff. The Pots are determined by FIFA Ranking Pts, I have added some other team strength indicators in the below tables. Hover over some fields for more details. Bookie Rating is the odds of winning the WC2018 outright. Best result is calculated based on FIFA Ranking points earned (based on match result and level of competition and level of opponent). POT 1 FIFA Ranking Pts Bookie Rating Last 4 yrs W-D-L Last 4 yrs win % Best Result last 4 yrs Form Germany 1411 9/2 33-11-8 63.46% 7-1 vs Brazil L D W D W L Spain 1110 8/1 38-7-10 69.09% 1-0 vs Croatia W L W L W W Netherlands 1204 14/1 28-11-13 53.85% 5-1 vs Spain L W D W L W Belgium 1244 16/1 26-11-7 59.09% 1-0 vs Russ...

The situation for Euro Qualifying is straight forward now. It is beginning to appear that 2nd place is out of our grasp (Germany and Poland are playing the minnows of the group this weekend and should be able to consolidate the top two places between them now). It is a battle with Scotland for the 3rd place and hope to qualify as best 3rd place or by way of a play-off. That makes the Scottish game at the weekend a do or die affair. What of the seeding for the World Cup draw? The ranking of next month will be used to designate the pots and it will be good news for Romania, England and Croatia who all look set to make Pot 1. It could also be good news for Wales and N. Ireland who both have Pot 2 in their hands at the moment. Wales to beat Belgium would actually push them over the edge and into Pot 1. But what of Ireland.  Read  here  to see how we did have our destiny in our own hands before we failed to beat Poland at home in the last qualifier. Now, its complicated. ...