Saturday's demoralizing one-nil home loss to France in the first leg of their World Cup play-off sees the Republic of Ireland facing an uphill task to reach next summer's showpiece. As French fans start booking their flights to South Africa, the Irish faithful are left praying for a miracle.

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Of the European World Cup play-offs I would argue that the Republic of Ireland's fixture against France is the pick of the ties. The Irish have shown a great battling spirit in their qualification campaign so far, drawing twice with Italy and narrowly missing out on defeating the Italians particular highlights.

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Jogaram em Dublin, no estádio Croke Park, para um público de 70.640 pessoas, as seleções do Eire (34º no ranking da FIFA) e Itália (4º do ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Copas do Mundo
1994
New York/New Jersey
18/06/1994
ITA
0:1 (0:1)
IRL
Group matches
1990
Rome
30/06/1990
ITA
1:0 (1:0)
IRL
Quarter-finals
Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo
2010
Bari
01/04/2009
ITA
1:1 (1:0)
IRL
First stage
Eliminatórias Eurocopa
1972
Dublin
10/05/1971
IRL
1:2 (1:1)
ITA
Preliminary round
1972
Florence
08/12/1970
ITA
3:0 (2:0)
IRL
Preliminary round
Amistosos
2005
Dublin
17/08/2005
IRL
1:2 (1:2)
ITA
1992
Foxboro
04/06/1992
IRL
0:2 (0:1)
ITA
1985
Dublin
05/02/1985
IRL
1:2 (0:2)
ITA
1926
Turin
21/03/1926
ITA
3:0 (3:0)
IRL
O quarteto de arbitragem foi assim definido:

• Referee: Terje HAUGE (NOR)
• Assistant Referee 1: Steinar HOLVIK (NOR)
• Assistant Referee 2: Frank ANDAS (NOR)
• Fourth official: Espen BERNTSEN (NOR),

Aos 8 minutos do primeiro tempo, 6 Glenn WHELAN abriu o placar para a seleção da Irlanda. Click to continue reading...

"Is it a dive? Never in a million years. A dive is when you try to influence the referee, you throw your arms up and so on."The quote above is what Tony Mowbray said following Aidan McGeady's yellow card for diving yesterday. I have a degree of sympathy with McGeady, we have seen in the past few days just how randomly the media can react to extremely similar incidents. Click to continue reading...

This morning, Tony Mowbray looked out of his window, saw the clouds and the threat of rain, and though "a bit of rain will help our game tonight". He made his breakfast, ate it, enjoyed it, and began the journey to the Lennoxtown training centre in a buoyant, if not overly-confident mood.

But, somewhere along the way, he must have ran over a black cat.

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We would love to see this today

The Battle of Britain is on.

Celtic v Arsenal

UEFA Champions League, Celtic Park

Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 19:45

Heading into the match Wenger cautioned into reading too much into the Everton results:

"I said many times that I believe in the team but you cannot go to any conclusion after one game," said the Frenchman.

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Listened to the boys on Fox talking up the quality of the Irish team the other night.
I was thinking do they know anything about the Irish team?
Yes the Irish did a job on Italy recently getting a famous 1-1 win. I know it's a draw but in Ireland 1-1 has become a win.
But none of the Irish play outside of England, or Scotland play at a high or technical level other than maybe Robbie Keane and Aidan McGeady. Click to continue reading...

Ok, naf title, but we have drawn the ‘Bhoys' in The Champions League qualifier, first leg is the 18th August across the border in sunny Scotland – in The Emirates Cup we swept aside Rangers, the current champions of Scotland with some ease, so on paper we should be able to do the same with Celtic.

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According to the London Times, Tony Mowbray will be installed as the new manager of Glasgow Celtic. He leaves behind a relegated West Bromwich Albion, but this is a good move for both Celtic and Mowbray. Tony did a great job getting WBA promoted in the first place. He also didn't receive a lot of financial support to buy new players once the team were promoted. Click to continue reading...

Damien Duff has been ruled out of Ireland's World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria and Italy with a hamstring injury.
Thursday evening's shock news was a big blow to Ireland boss Giovanni Trapatonni before the important group 8 games against Bulgaria and Italy.
There had been no suggestion of any problem with Duff's fitness and Aiden McGeady remains a fitness doubt because of a foot injury, but goalkeeper Shay Given will be fit. Click to continue reading...

Ireland assistant manager Marco Tardelli has played down injury concerns surrounding Shay Given and Aiden McGeady.
The Manchester City keeper and Celtic winger received treatment at their clubs on Monday ahead of Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria.
"I'm sure they will be available for the next training," said Tardelli. Click to continue reading...

Bayern Munich could be set to make a move for Aiden McGeady following a fact-finding mission on the Celtic winger.
Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni claims he was asked to give his assessment of McGeady by the German outfit.
The Italian met Bayern representatives at Chelsea's 1-0 win over Manchester City last week, where the discussion took place. Click to continue reading...