Euro 2016 Play-off Seedings
New Faustian Man
As an Irish fan, of that lot seeded, Hungary probably looks the easiest tie. Generally though I think last night gave us the best-case scenario, with the Turks and Croats qualifying automatically, I doubt anyone would have wanted to head there thinking they could get a result. Nor travel to Holland had they made the play-off stage, no Dutch in the tournament is a bit of a disappointment though.
Getting matched up with Ibrahimovicland (Sweden, not Bosnia) would probably be the most difficult game, though an away tie in Ukraine when we had to get a result would be a bit of a nightmare too.
Thoughts?
Comments
Ukraine and Sweden should qualify (in my opinion) so you just don't want to be drawn against them.
I have no idea what rivalries are like up in Scandinavia but Sweden vs Norway sounds like it would be a fun game.
Agreed yh, tho tbh I don't really know anything about Ukraine, the last time I remember watching any of their competive games was at the last Euros, and I doubt that's a marker of where they're at now, but having to go there and get a result wouldn't be ideal. Sweden with Ibrahimovic would be a bitch to go up against too, you never know what he's gonna do and I doubt we could keep him out for 180 minutes. BiH would be no push-overs, but of all eight teams in the pot either them or Hungary would be my prefered opponents anyway, so I don't think falling to the 'Unseeded' pot has really harmed us, I see it as a 50/50 chance of getting a game we would be fairly confident of winning.
A think any team from unseeded have advantage in game with Ukraine 😁
We have fantastik statistic in play-off. From the start of independent our country - we play play-off 5!! times(more than anyone for last 20 years or more) , and we lose all of they. No matter whith who we must play - we lose Germany, France, Croatia and Slovenia, and Greece /o\ .
Now we have not bad players, actually our team better even that team with Sheva when we play in 1/4 Wcup in 2006. But we have weak manager , he want play only in defense even with Luxemburg or Macedonia. So we have a problem in offence with any team
The Republic's history in playoffs is pretty abysmal too, apart from victories against Iran and Estonia in the last few years, normally they get beat, most memorably when Henry handballed an "assist" depriving Ireland of qualification to WC2010. That one stung!
O'Neill's approach [the Ireland manager] isn't defensive, but it's a possession-based game that normally plays out pretty conservatively, and if the more creative players aren't on it's potluck whether we can get a competent attack going. We can still be dangerous tho, we beat Germany at home and drew with them in Germany in the group stage which was good going, and tbh have come on leaps and bounds since Trappatoni was the boss.
Which team would you prefer to play?
i prefer Slovenia) Some people say that is weakest team from unseeded
I hope Ireland goes to the Euro, great fans I partied with them on Cracow on the last Euro 🙂
Ibra deserves to be in the Euro too.
As for the other teams best of luck and I hope to see you in France hehe 😃
Hungary is the most accessible opponent. I saw them playing twice against Romania during group stage and they have nothing special but luck.
Hope you beat them hard!
Sweden, Ukraine and Ireland look to be the stronger teams .
Go Bosnia-Herzegovina! I like "surprises"!