Realistically, I think we will get 4/9. We haven't a chance against Portugal, so I'm writing that game off. It's a shame that it's the 1st game of the window because it could halt any momentum. 

Beating Azerbaijan and drawing with Serbia is a realistic target. 

Serbia have 1 less game to play which could also work against us.

They appear a solid enough outfit, but three points would be a great result.

Portgual will be too good but Serbia, if you took Tadic out of the team for example, I dont think are absolutely above our level.  If tadic is injured it would probably even things out. But even with Tadic there, with fans back I  Aviva and hopefully players in form then maybe we could squeeze the win.

Azerbaijan will be very tough too. Will be a tight game but again, with fans you would have to believe we could squeeze the win there.

But most likely we get 2 points knowing us!

We'll badly struggle having to play 3 competitive games especially if we're missing players so if he plays our strongest teams in the first two games, we can forget about even having a remote chance of beating Serbia. 

This might not be the most popular thing to say but I'd nearly rather Kenny rest our players against Portugal as it's a certain loss no matter who we have available and have our best available players to have any chance of taking 6 points in the other two games. I know a 5-0 hammering by Portugal would put a huge amount of pressure going into the Azerbaijan game but we have to prioritize the Serbia & Azerbaijan games in that September window. 

I predict 4 points and hopefully Luxembourg drop points at home to Azerbaijan and away to Serbia. We should probably start shouting for Serbia to beat Luxembourg as the gap is too much for us to recover from even if we beat them in Dublin.  

He certainly can’t afford to rest players again Portugal away or it could be an awful result! Hopefully things are starting to turn so to go away to Portugal and try to come away with even a 1-0 loss when we will realistically play for the draw or something like that would be ok such is the quality they have! Get the win against Azerbaijan in the second game and sure at that stage just hope they can grind out something against Serbia then! A 5/6-0 loss away to Portugal would only turn some of the more fickle people against him!

Those people won't be appeased either way but the heavy loss by Portugal could be mitigated by two positive results in the following games. 

He's simply going to have to take risks as there's going to be a drop off in energy levels at home to Serbia if he plays his strongest possible sides in the first two games. 

Look at the start Turkey had in their group beating both the Dutch at home and Norway away only for them to concede two second half goals and drop points at home to Latvia in the 3rd match. This would have been a guaranteed win if they played them first or in the second match imo. That draw might cost them 1st spot at the bed of the qualifying campaign.

I think Kenny will play his strongest possible side against Portugal and might be a bit more inclined to change it round for the Azeri's with the Serbia game in mind. We'll also need every possible player available for this 3 competitive game window without a doubt.  

I don’t want to make the mistake of lowering the standard for Kenny too much. We do need to be competitive and need to win a few football matches the rest of this campaign. 

 

Battling back for a 1-1 home special

Barring some Lazurus like turnaround, I don't see Hendrick getting a call up. 

Hourihane is a passenger. 

If there's a lot of players in form, Kenny might have a few tough decisions to make. Nice position to be in. 

Still need some advanced playmaker to show some form, whether that's Byrne in Cyprus or your man at Peterborough. Definitely need something different to spring from the bench.

Portugal away is a free hit, come away with some credit for effort and maybe nick a goal but ultimately fall short. I'd like to see us look solid (as we normally are) but also to carry a bit of a threat on the counter and keep the ball to take the sting out of the game a bit.

Serbia are too tough for us and have more players who can make it count in the decisive moments - we saw that last time they were in Dublin - if they get a chance they'll bury it. A narrow loss or a draw with us pushing hard for an equaliser/winner is about par for a team like that visiting. I'd like to see us try to control this game if we can, or at least have parity in terms of being on the ball. 

The game to win is against Azerbaijan - it's this kind of game that we need to control and win comfortably.. scoring the first, building on it to get 3 or even 3 ahead.. that's what will start to mark this team and this manager out as being different to all that went before.. 

3 points from 1 win and 2 defeats. 3 draws would probably feel worse as the last result would be so disappointing after the first 2. 

1 point from 9, coming in a draw v Azerbaijan, and the final nail in the coffin for Kenny I expect.

6 Points should be the minimum target in the two other fixtures, Azerbaijan at Lansdowne has to be a win no excuses regardless of how tricky they'll be to play against or how well they've done so far in developing as country football wise. 

The performance away to Serbia shows we can compete and at home and hopefully no Goalkeeping errors this time we should be aiming to beat them. 

Completely agree with you. Normally, I'd expect a win over Azerbaijan and fancy getting something out of the Serbia match. However, all I expect under Kenny is a draw with Azerbaijan and nothing from the rest which should mean the end for him. 

first time poster so I am gonna come out all positive!!

We'll catch Portugal cold after their exertions in the summer at the Euros and hang on for a nil all draw. We have Azerbaijan up next and we should be expecting ourselves to beat them. That brings a very postive team attitude into the final game of the series at home to Serbia. We showed away from home that we could compete with them. A few goalkeeping errros cost us. I fancy us to go into that game on a huge high and turn them over.

Leaving us with 7 points out of 9, and somehow, miraculously, our chances of getting 2nd place in the group are in our own hands.... I'm not ruling out a World Cup yet!!

You expect or hope?

If Portugal have any kind of Euros Hangover then why couldn't we at least pick up a draw there

Azerbaijan will be difficult but I still think we should have enough to pick up a win.

Serbia at home I think we could beat them, bar goalkeeping errors in Serbia we could have won or least drew that game.

I definitely think we'll bring the confidence from the Training camp into these fixtures whether it will be enough I'm not sure

I'll go further. We'll get all 9!

In a thread with 'realistic expectations' in the title, considering we have no competitive victory under Stephen Kenny and our only win of his reign of 12 games came in a friendly against a joke outfit who have 6 wins in their history - surely this is the most realistic response. Christ even the Andorra game we tried our best to avoid winning it. 

The other responses are pie in the sky stuff, if we are actually bring realistic.

I do expect us to beat Azerbaijan, most likely a close affair and a 1-0 or 2-1.

Serbia are no world beaters, as we have seen recently. Good results and performances in the 1st 2 games would have us filled with confidence going in to that and we have a better chance of beating them, than they do of us.

Obviously we need to avoid another injury crisis, a bit of luck or ruthlessness in front of goal, and fingers crossed, Ronaldo announces his International retirement after the Euros!

not this again. They are absolutely a rung above us at the moment.

Yeah sadly true, I do fancy us getting something out of the game in Dublin though. More to them than just Tadic, Vlahovic in Serie A was superb if I remember correctly and that’s just one example.

Milinkovic-Savic was linked with Man Utd.

They used to say playing a big country coming off a summer with an international tournament was an opportunity to spring a surprise- don't think that will be a factor against Portugal unfortunately 

3 points against Azerbaijan and 2 performances that are competent/good in the other two games would be par for the games. Anything more is a bonus, anything less....well no need to go into that after the decent week we had!

The Thought of us playing them is scaring me but id go to the home match in November just to see the quality they have 

We are a team in transition so I hope to see some green shoots and see some younger players pushing on in the next window. Maybe see a few cement their place in the team.

I'll go for a win against Azerbaijan and a draw against the Serbs but wouldn't be surprised if we draw with Azerbaijan and lost to Serbia. 

Ot would be a test for us.