Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

They say don’t change a winning team.

But Thursday was a huge effort and there’s not much recovery time. Manning and Molumphy are options, if we’re unsure about Azaz or Taylor.

Kenny never had us in this position. Its no contest between the two.

Yup we're a small country that has no footballing industry and treats it as more of a past time. Hopefully Thursday night serves as big momentum for tomorrow but if things don't work out you are 100% correct it doesn't make Thursday night meaningless. Results like that will never be meaningless for countries like ours.

Once the performance is there tomorrow, nothing will be undone from what happened on Thursday. Even if we don't end up beating Hungary. And let's face it, away from home, over there, it will be extremely difficult.

If we play very well tomorrow and still don't manage to get over the line, at least the team will have improved to the point where we can look ahead to the Euros campaign with a lot of positivety.

They were far from well beat at that stage.

There was half an hour left. Wed already been playing seige football since before the end of the first half.

Ronaldo should have been subbed and if Portugal could finish a chance theyd have at least had one back before he was sent off.

Anyway it was a great win. Delighted for everyone. The team beat what was in front of them. If we revert to form tomorrow itll be a blip and nothing else to me.

People looking to put it in their family album is sad imo but each to their own.

Sounds a bit like some have their nose put out that we won, Jesus saying Kenny was unlucky is very generous in the extreme, he was a clusterfuck, nice fella and I wanted him to succeed as you could see it meant a lot to him, but, he was out of his depth, HH is little over a year in the role, inherited a totally demoralised squad with no world class players, but, at least has us in a position where we have a decent chance of making the play-offs. Portugal are one of the top teams in the world and were always going to top the group and Hungary have been significantly better than us over the last few years and would be expected to get second place. Realistically, third was always our most likely position, with an outside chance of getting second or fourth! Progress has definitely been made, whether people like it or not.

Before the qualifying started I'm pretty sure most of us said we would take progression as a positive and the real goal was being ready for the home Euros.

Kenny was a shambles. A painful period in Irish football.

Hopefully the next few years are brighter

He wasn't up to standard as an international manager but to be fair it wasn't all his fault. He had the poorest players collectively ever to play for Ireland available to him (feel free to argue otherwise). No manager was going anywhere with those squads.

Also is there any hope our bankrupt dump of an association will get someone better. I hope he stays. There's just something about his kinda grumpy depressed demeanor that suits us. Jack, Mick, Martin and Giovanni all had it.

Until we find a midfield there are no alternatives. We would look ridiculous getting rid of a manager who somehow engineered a clean sheet win over Portugal with this team no matter what happens tomorrow.

I for one will gladly eat my hat with salt and vinegar if HH pulls off a miracle.

The anti SK brigade are the ones that brought him up here not the fan bois.

One swallow does not make a summer. SK had decent performances, ironically against Portugal as well. It never amounted to anything as wed lose to weaker opposition afterwards.

A decent performance today and ill happily call it progress. Anything more and ill kneel at the HH alter. Anything less and its business as usual.

Thank god we found our actual level, splitting wins with Armenia.