International footballers are used to their season going on a bit longer than other players, but playing an important match almost halfway through June is an unusual situation outside of finals tournaments. By the time the Republic of Ireland play Scotland this Saturday, some of Martin O’Neill’s squad will find themselves still going six weeks after their club seasons ended.
The stakes should be sufficiently high though to keep everyone focussed for one last push, as qualification for next summer’s European Championship finals could be either an increasingly realistic prospect, or all but gone, by around 6.50 on Saturday evening.
If last minute winners and stoppage time equalisers didn’t count, then the campaign would be almost over already. Without the late interventions of Aiden McGeady in Tbilisi, John O’Shea in Gelsenkirchen, and Shane Long (above) against Poland in Dublin, Ireland would be on four points after five matches, and already needing something of a miracle.
As it is, overtaking Germany seems highly unlikely, and even making up the three point deficit on Poland looks a tall order, especially as Ireland still have to visit the Poles in the final match in October.
So although there’s still plenty of scope for things to change, realistically the aim at this stage must be to finish ahead of Scotland and take our chances in the play offs.
The two sides face very similar run-ins when the campaign resumes in the autumn. They’ll both travel to play Gibraltar, both will be at home to Germany, and while Ireland’s other two matches are at home to Georgia and away to Poland, the Scots will face the same two opponents, albeit the other way around.
A win for Ireland on Saturday would send them into that run of similar fixtures already a point above Scotland, occupying a play off spot going into the summer, but the alternatives do not make attractive reading. Defeat would open a five point gap between the teams, making it an almost impossible task.
Even a draw would leave us probably taking our chances on beating the world champions in Dublin in October, or going to Warsaw a few days later, needing our best competitive away win for almost 30 years.
