GreenScene » Republic of Ireland seeded for Euro 2012 Playoffs

Republic of Ireland seeded for Euro 2012 Playoffs

11 October 2011 3,593 views 4 Comments Written by Ronan

Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland qualified for the Euro 2012 playoffs with a 2-1 victory over Armenia at the Aviva Stadium tonight, and thanks to results elsewhere will be seeded for Thursday’s playoff draw.

Needing either France to beat or draw with Bosnia, and Serbia to fail to win in Slovenia, the boys in green really had the “luck of the Irish” onside as both results went our way, and Ireland end up going into the draw as the 3rd highest ranked team, with Sweden qualifying automatically as best runner-up.

Bosnia’s draw with France in Paris sees them make the playoffs, but a 4-1 win for Czech Republic in Lithuania sees the Czechs leapfrog the Bosnians in the rankings to become the fourth seeded team. Despite claims from Eamon Dunphy to the contrary, the seeded team will play the second game at home. The matches will be played on the 11th and 15th of November.

The draw for the qualifying play-off matches for UEFA EURO 2012 will take place from 13.00CET (midday Irish time) on Thursday 13 October at the Sheraton Hotel in Krakow, Poland.

Seeded Teams
Portugal
Croatia
Republic of Ireland
Czech Republic

Unseeded Teams
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Estonia
Montenegro
Turkey

4 Comments »

IrishRI said:

God, please let it be Estonia.

# 11 October 2011 at 10:39 pm

Richie said:

By current FIFA rankings the order of preference for us would be:

Estonia (58)
Turkey (27)
Montenegro (26)
Bosnia (22)

ps. We’re 29th in those rankings at the moment..

Obviously Estonia are the weakest of the 4 sides on paper. Bosnia are the one I really want to avoid, a strong and rising outfit that would give us an awful lot of problems I think. I sort of fancy the idea of a rematch with Turkey to avenge our Euro 2000 playoff defeat, although Istanbul is a very intimidating place to play. Montenegro would give us a close game as they did previously and with England in the current qualifiers but I think we could edge it.

It’s worth noting that all of the unseeded teams will probably be hoping to draw us! If I was Montenegrin or Bosnian I’d certainly be hoping for Ireland as opposed to Portugal, Croatia or the Czechs.

# 12 October 2011 at 3:14 am

GreenScene » Spotlight: Ireland’s Euro 2012 Playoff Opponents said:

[...] clearing up those mixed messages about the playoffs, and confirming the Republic of Ireland are indeed seeded for Euro 2012, we can now take a look at the four possible opponents Giovanni Trapattoni could face [...]

# 12 October 2011 at 8:36 am

IrishRI said:

Back in Dec 2009 after the Henry uproar Platini stated that the Euro play-offs will be seeded with the seeded team playing their second leg at home. Now according to UEFAs website the draw will also decide the order of the home and away ties. If this yet another case of UEFA/FIFA changing the rules as they go along. I didn’t think the seeded team playing at home in the second leg was fair when it was announced by Platini but at least we knew in advance this time unlike the World Cup. Now it appears this may not be the case.

“It will define the four pairings as well as the order of the home and away ties.”

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro2012/news/newsid=1695380.html#seedings+confirmed+euro+play+draw

# 12 October 2011 at 2:43 pm