while i'm not so sure on this but as a whole defo there are no real easy games now. even the poor teams are compact and make things difficult. seen some of that france game last night and they were poor. the luxembourg one away in bulgaria was a bit of a suprise.

Draw away to Serbia a good result? Absolutely agree.

 

But I think what people will have difficulties with is the performance. Think we were quite fortunate to get anything out of the game and seemed to be playing a bit headless for large parts of it. With that in mind, a draw is a fantastic result. Qualifying campaigns are a marathon not a sprint so theres plenty of football to be played.

The problem for me is non-football fans or non-international fans who tink Ireland have some god given right to win every game, and think "I've never heard of Georgia, how did Ireland not whallop them".

Also the strength in international football has changed perception of World Rankings. Previously we'd be expecting to beat anyone below 30ish. Now there's decent teams all the way down to about 100, certainly in UEFA

Luxembourg and Faroe Islands have had some good results over the past few years so I'm not surprised they got decent results this week (I know Luxembourg were beaten last night).

I would never class Belarus or Kazakhstan as whipping boys/minnows. They are always difficult opponents. I've no idea why Serbia are on your list.

Definitely. If we'd played wonderful attacking football the other night and created loads of chances but lost 2-1 or 3-2, we'd be in a worse position than we actually are right now. 'Performances' are very little use unless you're getting results as well.

i don't think France are great, yes they have some excellent players but i would'nt fear them. they were awful last night i thought. Only really Germany and on their day Spain would i really not want to face(within europe now im talking). other than that theres nothing much between a lot of teams.

Is it beyond the irish players to pass the ball 5 yards to each other during a match? I'm an irish football fan and I do not expect that much.

Sorry but your expectations must be low. 

We should be annihilating teams from Pot 5 downwards, the only exception is Georgia away, but everyone knows about that now, it's so predictable they're just going to defend with 11 men in their own half for the entire 90 minutes and maybe snatch a goal if the other teams commits too heavily.

That isn't football, Gibraltar played more positive football than that ffs.

 

While in a way it's good to see the spots 2-5 all becoming much more competitive and close, it's also a worrying trend for us. 

But that is football.. defending is just as much part of the game as attacking. You're not under any obligation to play the game any particular way, once what you do is inside the rules then you can do what you like.. You may not find it attractive, but it most definitely IS football. 

It was more of a figure of speech but the point being is their game plan is bore teams to death with their ultra defensive mindset and it's definitely not fun to observe.

Gibraltar concede tons because they come out to play football and create half chances for themselves, although they are probably the worst nation in UEFA I appreciate that more than sitting back for as 11 for 90 minutes.

It's having personal advantages for the Gibraltar players too, the keeper's now playing in English football, low tier but he's at a Professional English club whereas he was literally a nobody before.

Most teams in Europe these days have professional coaches and a well organised system, any team that thinks they only have to turn up is in for a rude awakening, especially those thinking about a second game in a double-header etc. I believe an element of that was certainly visible in our players on Thursday and while the buck must stop with the gaffer, I think in this situation it must rest with individuals, the rollicking at half-time had an impact, maybe he should have given it before the game! Hopefully they get it tonight! 

I'm not sure about that, we had too many passengers at that point that the Georgians were on top and had no midfield player willing to take hold of the game, I'm not sure we could have found a way out that easily. I think their confidence will be jaded, two performances where they were the better team and nothing to show for it, hope I am wrong though. I think these games haven't always suited Wales, they seem to prefer to counter, but Bale often pulls them through.

They can't rely on that forever. He has dragged them through some games they were really struggling - Andorra springs to mind. I don't honestly think that the night that fails is tonight but it will eventually.

Yes, I'd have Georgia at around 80 or 90.....maybe at around the same level as that Lithuanian team that drew with Scotland last night.

Today, the likes of Albania have improved to the point of being a recognisably decent team, while Latvia, Slovenia, and Slovakia have all made it through to international tournaments. Estonia have made play-offs. However, for the most part the best results their contemporaries have achieved are against former strong teams who are going through a serious bad patch. Alternatively, they have made it very difficult for stronger teams to win games, and have often pushed them to the wire. Essentially, these are no longer easy games, but I would suggest that these are often games that teams make harder for themselves.

However, in terms of easy games, the likes of Liechtenstein, San Marino, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Luxembourg, and Andorra are "Easy" and should be viewed as such. Anything less than large wins against these teams, for those with realistic aspirations to attend major tournaments, is not acceptable. At second level, teams like Moldova, Faroe Islands, Belarus and Malta would be relatively easy, and beatable. Beyond that, teams like Cyprus, Kazakstan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland are banana skins, while former powers like Norway, Bulgaria are beatable, but whose reputation sustains them. After that, no team would be a pushover, and would certainly not be an "easy game".

However, unlike in the European Club game, there are certainly "easy games". Its just the number of such games has greatly diminished as teams have utilised their two decades of experience to render themselves hard to beat.

Just because the scorelines was low doesn't mean it was 'tough' 

If anything Northern Ireland struggled more against San Marino and they ended up with more goals, 1st half was really cagey.

Aside from Gibraltar all the 6th seed teams do is just hoy 11 men in their own box and hope for a draw, and that apparently makes International games 'tougher'  

The problem I see is that we've done very little to evolve with football, while the other sides are more street-wise and tactically astute. I remember watching us beat Liechtenstein 4 nil at home in 94 and I think we were two goals up in the first couple of minutes, that wouldn't happen today for sure. The changing order in football means that we need to adapt or fall even further behind. 

In reality, we are not good enough to have that many "easy" games. However, there are games that we should win easily, even if we don't rack up large numbers of goals. I would include the likes of Moldova in that. While i suspect we will pull over the line tonight with only a little to spare, in Dublin we should be expecting an easy and without qualification 2/4-0 win.

I was also thinking that if you didn't know anything about European football and you watched the first three rounds of fixtures in our group that it wouldn't be too ludicrous to come to the conclusion that Georgia were the strongest side in the group. Very unlucky not to win at home to Austria, definitely should have got something away to us and again unlucky not to beat Wales away. They look to get the ball down and play all the time.

 

Every team in the group should be beating Moldova at home but apart from that fixture everything else is either tough or a potential banana skin. We probably have the most interesting group in qualifying.

Rather drop them to Macedonia than anyone in our group 

Had Cyprus -2.

Would have been a nice one too.

 

and Toblerone ........................and

no, that's it.

I know you are merely quoting a classic but they are technically German.

 

Northern Ireland should be thanking San Marino for keeping the Czech's out....

Poland seem very short for such a tricky game. I can't see Scotland winning either.

Have Armenia, Poland and Slovenia (Armenia already won) at 17/2. Poland should be winning in Montenegro, and Slovenia too big a price for the shambles Scotland are at  the minute.

Slovenia were very good at home to England and should have won. I think they'll beat Scotland Tonight.

Have Slovenia dnb and a small acca on Slovenia, the pub team, Slovakia -1 and btts in the Polish game. 16/1. I think the north will sneak it against an average Norway.

While in Asia our old foes Oman beat Bhutan 14-0, that was always a tricky one for Bhutan.

Since the beginning of the Euro 2024 campaign in March this year alone the following have pulled off results.

Moldova 3-2 Poland

Bosnia 0-2 Luxembourg

Slovakia 0-0 Luxembourg

N.Ireland 0-1 Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan 3-2 Denmark

Wales 2-4 Armenia

Georgia 1-1 Norway

...Yet we still have a section of deluded fans thinking we have some sort of right to beating these nations every single time we face them. Not only beating mind, thinking we should be hammering them.

Theres also been half a dozen results where other nations had a "get out of jail" moment to come away with the win against the "minnows" of Europe.

To win like we did last night.  After that it gets tricky for sides like us.  We need more authoritative players. You see Robertson for Scotland.  He is the boss in the pitch because he knows he is talented and loves the leadership.  Coleman is the same but not as good but performs above himself and does that for others. We have no one else like

That in the group. McClean and Egan are great characters but they don’t make others play better and just boss 5th and 4th seeds like Robertson does.