Euro 2016 qualifying

         It is never too early to think about the national team and their chances of advancing to France for Euro 2016. During the draw I was thinking anyone but Germany or Spain. Oh well Ireland drew Germany…so be it. The exciting part of this qualification is the tournament has been expanded to 24 nations. This means the top 2 teams in each group advance directly. The 3^rd place team will enter into a home/away play-off with one other 3^rd place finished for the last 5 spots.

            The Republic of Ireland started the campaign in 2014 with a new skipper at the helm. Martin O’Neil was born in Northern Ireland, and played MF, mostly for Nottingham Forest 1997-81. He also had 64 Caps for the Northern Ireland national team. He was the captain of the Northern Irish team that qualified for the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Northern Ireland won their group of Spain, Yugoslavia and Honduras. They were knocked out by France in the second round. Martin turned into an excellent coach. He managed EPL sides Leicester City, SPL side Celtic, Aston Villa and Sunderland to name a few. Once hired as the Republic of Ireland’s manager he recruited the tenacious Roy Keane. So far so good….however the Irish faithful have high aspirations for their team.

            Presently Ireland is in a three way tie for second place with perennial power Germany and our Celtic northern neighbor Scotland. Ireland has tied Germany on the road which is good…..however beating them at home would be awesome. Ireland has played Scotland away and lost that tight match 0-1. So we have both nations at home. The bad part is Ireland has not played group leader Poland yet. Poland has scored 15 goals so far and have given up the least with only conceding 2.

            This is not a bad spot since Ireland has already played Germany and Scotland away. Ireland better get their point while they can…since the last 2 games will probably be the hardest. Germany at home and then Poland away.