GreenScene » Ireland take on Bosnia and Hungary in Euro 2012 warmup games

Ireland take on Bosnia and Hungary in Euro 2012 warmup games

25 January 2012 1,803 views 6 Comments Written by Ronan

The Republic of Ireland will play friendlies against Hungary and Bosnia & Herzegovina as part of their preparation for Euro 2012.

The FAI has confirmed that Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland side will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday May 26th, before they travel to their training camp in Florence. Following a week in Italy, the squad will travel to Budapest to face Hungary on Monday June 4th.

Bosnia finished runners-up to France in Euro 2012 qualifying Group D, but fell at the final hurdle as they were once again drawn to face Portugal in the playoffs. A credible 0-0 draw at home was followed by a thrilling 6-2 encounter in Lisbon, which knocked Bosnia out of the competition. They are currently ranked 19th in the world, their highest ever FIFA ranking.

Fourth seeds Hungary performed above expectations in qualifying, finishing third in Group E behind the Netherlands and Sweden, beating the Swedes 2-1 in Budapest, and playing out a 5-3 loss with Holland in Amsterdam. They are 37th in the world, but the away friendly should be a good test for Trapattoni’s players.

Ireland take on Czech Republic at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday February 29th, with tickets prices €20 for adults and €10 for children available from January 26th.

6 Comments »

IrishRI said:

Good opposition in B&H. Were the best team in Frances group in qualifying and should have gotten through automatically were it not for a dodgy penalty given against them in Paris. It seems a long time to go without a Friendly from Feb to the end of May.

# 25 January 2012 at 3:22 pm

Ireland Euro 2012 warm-up fixtures confirmed – RTE.ie - Fun in Ireland said:

[...] of Ireland name warm-up opponentsBBC NewsRep of Ireland announce EURO warm up gamesInsideireland.ieGreenScene -Herald.ie -SportsNewsIRELANDall 14 news [...]

# 25 January 2012 at 3:49 pm

Hungary, Bosnia and sunshine to ready Ireland for Euro test – Irish Independent - Fun in Ireland said:

[...] TimesEuro 2012: Republic of Ireland name warm-up opponentsBBC NewsInsideireland.ie -GreenScene -Herald.ieall 18 news [...]

# 26 January 2012 at 12:02 pm

Propagandhi said:

We’re warming up for matches against the European and World champions Spain, Italy and Croatia, in friendlies against Bosnia and Hungary(who have been crap since the 1950s.

Absurd stuff but then again, we are talking about people who decided to base their training camp in Italy, so the Italians can get an insider’s edge on us and so the Italian media’s obsession with Trapattoni can affect the players.

But hey, we are just glad to be there, as per usual.

# 27 January 2012 at 2:19 pm

Richie said:

Who do you think we should be warming up against, Prop? We have actually played against 2 of our 3 group opponents within the last year, and there’s hardly a lot of options when it comes to finding another side that will approximate the experience of playing Spain. I would suggest Holland or Portugal would be good, but who knows what factors come in when it comes to arranging friendlies- availability, schedules, financial considerations, etc.

Bosnia are a very good side, currently ranked above us and not too far behind Italy and Croatia. I’m not all that sure of their style of play but presumably somebody has researched them and found them to be compatible with one or more of our Euros opponents.

As for Hungary, the prospect doesn’t set the pulse racing I agree but with that game being within one month of the finals we are restricted to opposition not taking part in the tournament, and having checked the UEFA rankings the only other possible opponents ranked above Hungary that we haven’t played recently would be Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey or Israel.. we’re not missing out on any glamour fixtures, basically.

# 27 January 2012 at 4:36 pm

Paul said:

We need more than three warm up matches between this January and June. Would like to see two more matches added, especially between February and May. I suppose when at camp they will be playing scrimmages in Italy against some lower level Italian clubs, but the players need more.

# 27 January 2012 at 7:58 pm