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World Cup qualifiers - Qatar 2022


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About time. Years of clogging their way to tournaments.
Fair play to them for overachieving for so long, but a well deserved spell in the wilderness looms.
Exactly this. They've been overdue a long spell in the wilderness. They were always clogging under Charlton and since the France playoff, South Ireland have gotten progressively worse but been jammy by dint of managers who realised just how shite their crop of players was and played accordingly.

With Irish in-laws, I hope Kenny stays for a few years yet.
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I don't actually think Luxembourg winning is that big of a shock. As said, Ireland mainly have a Championship squad. Luxembourg have a very decent team for their standards. Their starting XI came from the following leagues:
3 - Ukraine Premier League
2 - Belgium 1st tier
1 - MLS
1 - Bundesliga
1 - Swiss Super League
1 - Belgium 2nd tier (champion)
1 - Portugal 1st tier
1 - Portugal 2nd tier

So their entire Starting XI is full-time (and nearly their entire squad is) with all but 2 playing in the highest tier of a country (and one of the 2 that don't will next season). They are much better than they were not too long ago.

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No, people are going by their reputation as the (pre-Soviet breakup) worst side in Europe. They've been digging out results for a few years and gradually working up the pots, and are clearly capable of being difficult for anyone. Not saying we'd lose, but I'd be worried about taking six points from them these days.

But still, an away win at a country that would have legitimate hopes of qualifying is a cracking result for them, and third place doesn't look out of the question if they can keep performing like that.

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11 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

Is the boy Collins that Ireland are playing to front the one that played for Hibs when they went down? As in the ‘laughably out his depth in the Scottish Premiership’ one?

Sadly not, it's just another similarly gubbins James Collins. 

It's always hard to tell though, given that the English leagues have harboured similar frauds like Lucas Akins and Clayton Donaldson.

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2 hours ago, virginton said:

Who could have predicted that Stephen Kenny would prove a monumentally abysmal managerial choice?

He kept Shane Duffy benched.

Better managerial acumen than some Irish managers.

Edited by Ya Bezzer!
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17 minutes ago, virginton said:

Sadly not, it's just another similarly gubbins James Collins. 

It's always hard to tell though, given that the English leagues have harboured similar frauds like Lucas Akins and Clayton Donaldson.

I thought it was him - just grown a wig.

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Ireland's problem is that it has virtually no domestic game, because there is no support for it. The League of Ireland is a standard akin to our League One. Every Irishman supports Liverpool or Man United. The Irish national team almost exclusively relies on English academies producing it's players.

Northern Ireland has managed to get limited success with a shite domestic game, but equally would you be that surprised if NI lost to Luxembourg? Not really.

Ireland is more interested in the EPL and GAA. Nights like this are going to become more common for them.

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2 hours ago, Rbon said:

Stephen Kenny is a League of Ireland manager at best a very bizarre appointment in the first place. 

Kenny's had a lot of success in LOI, but most of it with teams that had the money to buy the best players.

There's much discussion in Ireland about how he would move away from the awful-to-watch teams of the O'Neill/Keane era and introduce a new, exciting brand of football. They recently went six games without a goal.

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16 minutes ago, G51 said:

Ireland's problem is that it has virtually no domestic game, because there is no support for it. The League of Ireland is a standard akin to our League One. Every Irishman supports Liverpool or Man United. The Irish national team almost exclusively relies on English academies producing it's players.

Northern Ireland has managed to get limited success with a shite domestic game, but equally would you be that surprised if NI lost to Luxembourg? Not really.

Ireland is more interested in the EPL and GAA. Nights like this are going to become more common for them.

The strength of a domestic league has no correlation to the success of an international team. Croatia reached a World Cup final in 2018 and their domestic league is an absolute nick, much closer to the LOI than SPFL. I doubt the Irish domestic league was any stronger when Charlton was in charge of their international team of ringers either.

Ireland is also in a free travel zone with Scotland and England: a viable springboard and top table country for top footballing talent respectively. The League of Ireland could therefore be diddy drivel at senior level (and it is - I see former Morton 'legend' Billy King even scored this weekend) while still doing a roaring trade in exporting top talent at an younger age to the big leagues.

The real issue for them is that football is competing with two other popular sports for athletic talent, while they've had a run of losing every tug of war with England over their best prospects, as well as England C players who would walk into their team under the granny rule like Bamford. 

Edited by vikingTON
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