Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

PTH2009 · 16-11-2025 09:37PM

Christ what a way to win the match and **** love rewatching it

Didnt see it live due to work and only noticed rewatching the ref played on after the 3rd goal. My heart would not be able for that esp with that shot blocked and cleared

Avoid Italy and Sweden's path from starters but nice to be in that draw as very little of us expected it

MONarmy · 16-11-2025 09:39PM

If Ireland progress to a play off final, they have a 50/50 chance of being at home for that final. This will be determined by the draw on Thursday. This is a fact.

In terms of the semi final, by calculations being done in numerous places regarding FIFA rankings, we have around a 50/50 chance of being in pot 2 and a home semi final. We need Austria to get a result at home to Bosnia (this should happen) and we need North Macedonia to get a result against Wales (50/50 ish by the odds).

So, definite 50/50 chance of a home final if we make it that far. 50/50 chance (or slightly less if being pedantic) of a home semi depending on the Wales and Austria results on Tuesday.

athlone99 · 16-11-2025 10:05PM

Brilliant result, dont know how we did it but it happened. Whats the saying better to be a lucky general than a good one...

I think HH hoovered up all the luck over the last 10 years.

He deserves a new contract if he wants it, not sure his style of football will bring long term success but he speaks well and appears to be building something. All the players hitting the 20-30 cap mark is a huge help.

I had almost switched off after the 1st 2 games, was sure it was done.

Delighted for the players they have suffered over the last 6/7/8 years some of it there fault alot of it on the management.

Festy Festy Festy, i hope thats the last time he plays for Ireland, robbing a living and offering nothing.

adaminho · 16-11-2025 10:05PM

As well as Thursday's draw for the play offs we are also in the draw on Dec 5th for the WC itself so we can see what group we could get.

johnnyryan89 · 16-11-2025 10:29PM

https://twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1990114581063029137

...

MONarmy · 16-11-2025 10:36PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994201#Comment_123994201

I've not seen any other sources claiming this regards the play off final. Every source beforehand has the fact there will be a draw for home venue for the final. It is irrelevant if the team in the final is seeded or unseeded, the draw determines final venue. Now Gavin Reilly is usually on the ball, but this is all very odd.

Rte even reported it differently earlier today. I think Reilly is incorrect.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2025/1116/1544282-republic-of-irelands-world-cup-play-off-draw-explained/

Dr Robert · 16-11-2025 10:47PM

Yeah, that doesn't sound right. Although, it wouldn't surprise me with Uefa.

Did you smash it · 16-11-2025 11:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994061#Comment_123994061

sure if they want to do a few Dutch or Italian cupla focal in private good luck to them but thinking Irish academies have the resources to have langauge classes like you originally proposed. That’s not going to be possible

siblers · 16-11-2025 11:25PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994201#Comment_123994201

Are we definitely unseeded? The rankings are being updated after the last qualifying games are played

AdrianG08 · 16-11-2025 11:39PM

Hard to see the likes of Italy being drawn away from home in a final.

I've a feeling we might see a couple of shocks, some pot 4 teams knocking out pot 1 teams.

Remember North Macedonia beat Italy in the semi before Portugal knocked them out

I.am.Putins.raging.bile.duct · 17-11-2025 12:00AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123993880#Comment_123993880

I worked it out as 50 points gained

Ignacius · 17-11-2025 12:01AM

Festy scared the life out of them when he came on. He has good pace and huge strength. His end product is not there but he created havoc which is exactly what was needed. He was very important in getting that win so I think the criticism is unfair.

MONarmy · 17-11-2025 12:10AM

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/arid-41742606.html

The examiner also reporting that there's a draw for home venue for the play off final.

Hopefully North Macedonia do us a huge favour on Tuesday night. A home semi against a pot 3 team would be brilliant.

~Rebel~ · 17-11-2025 12:12AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994473#Comment_123994473

Be amazing. Heimer's made us tough to beat at home again, we'd have a solid shot against any of the possible teams at the Aviva.

Guffy · 17-11-2025 12:30AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994474#Comment_123994474

If we are pot 3 we'll have two away games regardles?

pgj2015 · 17-11-2025 12:44AM

I wonder would the likes of Dewsbury hall and jobe bellingham regret turning us down now?

being part of a game like that today or perhaps never playing 1 international game for England.

topmanamillion · 17-11-2025 01:01AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994514#Comment_123994514

No, they are English and that’s who they want to represent, and fair play to them, we need to respect that. After seeing what it meant to Parrott today, there’s no way we should be going out of our way to bring in players who are hesitant, only to block the path of someone who genuinely values an Ireland cap.

~Rebel~ · 17-11-2025 01:01AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994496#Comment_123994496

Thankfully no, if we start in pot 3 we'd have an away game for the first game alright, but home advantage for the second game would depend on the draw on Thursday.

We could end up going into the first game away, knowing that a win would see us into a home final.

D-Lo Brown · 17-11-2025 01:11AM

Going to Ireland matches for 23 years and that is the best day I have ever had. Bar none. Can't even begin to explain it. Unbelievable.

kowloonkev · 17-11-2025 01:16AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123993669#Comment_123993669

Nothing more boring than the person who has to share political views in every situation as if he's being informative.

johnnyryan89 · 17-11-2025 02:10AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994473#Comment_123994473

Yeah looking back at the last playoffs they had a draw to see who gets home advantage. Fingers crossed we can sneak into Pot 2. Two potential home games will bring in a few quid.

EltonJohn69 · 17-11-2025 02:34AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994566#Comment_123994566

Orban hijacked football in Hungry and used it to spread his political ideology, he made himself part of the story.

kowloonkev · 17-11-2025 02:36AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994605#Comment_123994605

I think usually they decide on the morning of the draw, depending who they want to qualify.

I definitely remember them making a decision in the past - post group stage -about playoff seedings that negatively affected us.

Nightwing1862 · 17-11-2025 03:16AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123994614#Comment_123994614

I think that was the qualification for the 2010 world cup playoffs. The difference there was that there was nothing specified in the initial qualification protocol so it was initially assumed that it would be an open draw. Fifa decided to seed the playoffs by world rankings very late in the qualification process with the obvious intent of avoiding France/Portugal/Russia being drawn into the same tie. (We got France and the less said about Henry's handball, the better)

The protocol for these playoffs has been set in stone from day 1 of the qualifying campaign. Fifa/uefa don't really have much wiggle room to disregard it.

https://ia600804.us.archive.org/19/items/draw-procedures-for-the-uefa-preliminary-draw-for-the-fifa-world-cup-26/UEFA_Preliminary_Competition_for_the_FIFA_World_Cup_26_Additional_Competition_Information.pdf

Girly Gal · 17-11-2025 09:02AM

Great result and great character shown by the players, delighted for them all. They really have turned things around in the last 2 matches, I don't think anyone saw this coming, at best I was hoping we would get it to the last day by hanging onto a draw against Portugal and then probably going down fighting against Hungary, but, to win both games is unbelievable. Hungary will be kicking themselves, probably the better team, but, who cares, result is all that matters, their time wasting came back to haunt them and our lads kept battling to the end

Anything from here on is a bonus, we will in all liklihood be outsiders in the play-offs, but, we're there now and in with a decent shot. Realistically that's all we could have hoped for at the beginning of the group stages, to get to the play-offs as Portugal were always going to top the group.

I think we should always be in the mix for the play-offs going into the last match of the group stages, even an outside chance, because as we've seen anything can happen, that's why the SK era was so disappointing, we didn't even get near the play-offs, and still some lads in here would prefer failure under SK than being at least competitive under HH. Regardless what happens in the play-offs, the team is in much better shape now, have a bit of belief in themselves and are competitive again, which is great to see. The last 2 matches almost feel like a euros or world cup tournament, pity the play-offs aren't in the next week!

The Subliminal Verses · 17-11-2025 09:11AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123993590#Comment_123993590

what?

PokeHerKing · 17-11-2025 09:33AM

Man what a week its been. Still pretty speechless. After the Armenia game id consigned this campaign to the pile.

Portugal away felt like the usal bitter sweet game and i tuned into Thursdays game out of duty not desire.

Unbelievable scenes since. 5 goals in two games, where everything mattered. Winning away from home. Coming from behind twice. A last second winner to complete a hatrick. Proper fairy tale stuff.

Not even the most delusional irish fan could have dreamt it all up. All hail HH, i had him written off early.

Never so delighted to be so rediculously wrong in my life.