Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

Looks like pot 2 is Poland , Czech, Wales, slovakia

We were already going to need to play out of our skins like this week home or away

Denmark aren’t going to drop 13 spots in the rankings from 1 loss. They will be in pot 1.

Poland, Wales, Czech Republic and Slovakia will be pot 2 and our potential opponents.

No matter who we get we will be underdogs ,but if I had to pick 1 game I would tentatively hope for Slovakia.

Pot 1 looks like some good teams ( on paper at least ) Italy, Turkey, Denmark and Ukraine, the North might have a chance v Ukraine but that's it.

If we get them after winning our first match, maybe. We've played them 19 times in all games winning 5. We've tended to meet them when they're in the ascendancy. Mid eighties fabulous side whopped us 3-0 4-1 in WC qualifying. We got spanked in 2018 by Erikson. But loads of draws too.

Having a fight with chatgpt to base everything on the expected rankings after tonight but eventually got this.

Projected Pots (based on provisional rankings after tonight’s results)

Pot 1 — top-4 seeded runners-up (ranked 1–4 of the 12 runners-up)

1. Italy — (highest provisional FIFA points among the runners-up).

2. Austria — (next highest provisional points).

3. Turkey (Türkiye) — (next).

4. Slovakia — (4th-highest among the runners-up in the provisional table).

Pot 2 — seeded runners-up (ranked 5–8)

5. Poland.

6. Ukraine.

7. Denmark — (after losing tonight they drop into the playoff pool but provisional points keep them inside the top-8 seeded bracket).

8. Czechia.

Pot 3 — remaining runners-up (ranked 9–12)

9. Republic of Ireland.

10. Albania.

11. Wales (finished 2nd in Group J tonight — but are lower in provisional points than the teams above).

12. Kosovo / Bosnia & H. (depending on the precise provisional points ordering between them on the live tracker; both are the lower-ranked runners-up candidates).

Pot 4 — Nations-League route (ranked 13–16; these are automatically the unseeded NL teams)

13. Romania (NL group-winner, did not finish top-2).

14. Sweden (NL group-winner, did not finish top-2).

15. Northern Ireland (NL group-winner, did not finish top-2).

16. North Macedonia (the final NL-slot because Wales finished 2nd — North Macedonia take the Nations-League place).

Slovakia are the obvious one (very poor against NI in both games, however did beat Germany in first group game - Germany fecked that up though) but I'd take Wales as well.

I think Poland would be the worst.

I hope not, AI is a mess of contradictions but just acts confidently enough to convince us

Probably. . . but it'll be FIFA doing the draw. ;)

Saw that earlier. . . . That's just **** crazy. Just let the players go home ffs.

Agree how would ir also work for tickets aren't they played 4 days apart be crazy if we win either way I suppose

Your right tickets can be easy but here is the next problem lets say for argument sake we play Wales away great get the ferry or a plane to wales but lets say the final are away and our other 2 teams are poland or slovakia getting a plane will be expensive and horendous.

As for the friendly not that hard you have to plan for the game anyway so you have from November to March to get ready the only thing you don't know is the team. Yes for the awy team it is fustrating as you have no time to plan for that team and need to get flights but hey UEFA say we have to do it let them put on the flight

Heimir is doing a great job of just keeping himself in the background and not making it all about himself while getting the job done.

Too many managers in the past wanted to be the center of attention.

How many times has his name been mentioned in last few pages???