Corcaigh

How shyte are B'burn are we're bossing them in the possession %? Am expecting a woeful second half given how good that 1st half display was.

No wonder you think Ireland are shyte - dam the curse of Mcleishism!

Tbf we're not saying Ireland will win the EC because of some assumed superiority, we're just talking up our chances to get out of the group, it'll be tough but doable imo. You watched much of the Irish team lately per chance?....

but we were within minutes of beating them in last campaign and our B team gave them a beating in Belgium in the summer That last campaign was 2009, we are now in 2012. Look how good Villa were in 2009, challenging Arsenal for 4th place. Italy were impressive in their qualifying campaign and have many good young hungry players coming through. I predict they will be 2nd in the group. And because a team beats someone else in a one off game, it does not mean they are better. But they lost at home last night to the USA! on paper the Italians might have a better team but I'd be quite confident given our most recent meetings with them of getting a good result. However knowing the Irish, we'll probably lose to Croatia, draw against Italy and beat the Spaniards.

And Italy, who haven't beaten IRE in ages! EC Q/F here we come

New LOI season beginning this weekend and who's back in the big time - CCFC! happy days.

am sure I heard Jamie O'Hara will be available after the World Cup as well Fawk Jamie O' Hara, his time to declare for the green has come and gone. Besides, there's bound to be more younger and better prospects coming through from the North or Scotland who'll want to play for us instead. Strong starting line uptonite, should be good.

Would be good if true. Nice having the likes of McClean, Ireland, McCarthy, Clark etc. Waiting in line to step up into the first XI for the 2014 WCQ campaign.

Can't see too many people in the 26 ever wanting to play for NI tbf. As for FIFA's rules, surely political agreements negotiated between nation states, like the GFA between the UK & The ROI, take precedent over arcane rules and regulations dreamt up by Stepp and the boys in between pocketing wads of cash.

I am familiar with Macroon as they make some truly ugly kits for teams in the League of Ireland. Even my team Cork City have got some lovely looking retro gear through their Umbro deal, Villa deserves more then Macroon.

Decent draw for Ireland considering our recent record against the Italians, Croatia are good but beatable and the Spanish are the Spanish. It'll be tough to get out of the group but i fancy us to sneak second place.

If Ireland are in a group with more than 1 other team they'll struggle big time. Less of your jive talk, don't you know it's time for another glorious tournament summer of Ireland pwning our supposed footballing betters?

If Ireland are in a group with any 2 or more of Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Russia or Portugal then I think we'll struggle big time to get out of the group. If we're in a group with just one of the above then I think we can grind out a glorious QF qualification.

hopefully the FAI will use their heads and give the English fa little or no tickets at all.

Delighted Off to the local credit union in the morning to arrange my finances for next summer. Fingers crossed Ireland are drawn in a Polish group, even better if they're based in Poznan as that is where one of my chums is from and he said he'll put me up for the tournament!

The Ireland game is going to be unbearably tight and tense,my prediction is 1-1 in Estonia and 0-0 at Lansdowne which i'll be at pissed off my face. COYBIG!

Poppies on display are as rare as hens teeth round my way, though of course it wouldn't surprise me to see that poppy wearing is more common in Dublin ;-) . Not that it means people don't commemorate the terrible waste of Irish lives fighting other people's wars in my local town. There's a commeration at the local WW1 memorial every 11/11, but participants generally wouldn't sport the poppy.

RIP - a tragedy when it's someone so young.

Shit music and tosspot personalities.

Great draw for the ROI,still probably make a hames of though.........

How did Bannan and Hutton play?

Why would we be? unlike the 2010 WC qualifying campaign, where FIFA decided to introduce the seeding system about 5 minutes before the European play offs occurred when it became clear that a few 'big' nations/TV markets would be in the play offs, this time around everyone knew the rules from the beginning of the qualification series back in 2010. COYBIG

We are closer to Germany and Italy than these nations. I mean Hungary seriously? They haven't qualified for a major tournament in 25 years... Blues won a trophy. Doesn't make them a bigger club than Arsenal. :idea: You talk a good game bigging up your national team but it's not enough to convince. England need to have a good tournament sometime soon to be again mentioned in the same breath as the big boys you compare England with who've been winning and losing at the business end of tournaments while Englands squad are already at the beach. As it stands, qualifying for this Euro Championship after failing to qualify for the last one will be an achievement in itself. England were a decent enough tournament side there for a while in the early - mid 1990s. But not so much these days and definitely not in the European Championships. I'm not overly convinced Capello will do great things next summer with his team. Do you?

What about Guus Hiddink? did sterling work with S. Korea & Russia, less so with Turkey but could do quite well with England I reckon.

So true. But everyone still regards Liverpool as a big club. Likewise England should still be regarded as a top nation. England are a 'top' football team in the same way Turkey, Croatia, Denmark, Russia, Greece, the Czech Rep. and Sweden are. After all these are teams which have in recent memory won, finished second and/or third in the big tournaments, far, far ahead of England.