"<a">"/Players/__8">On Saturday, 14th November 2009, Ireland play France in the first leg of their World Cup playoff. France are the bookies’ favourites to win the two-legged affair, but Ireland certainly have more than a reasonable chance of booking their place for the tournament in South Africa. Sports retailers will certainly be hoping for a French victory, as they are likely to be one of the best selling World Cup Jerseys likely to be among the best selling kits next summer. Before we look at the two teams in more depth, let’s take a look at their qualifying performance in the group stage.The first thing that comes to mind is that many people will feel that Ireland exceeded expectations and France underachieved in their group. Serbia appear to have a strong team, but I certainly would have expected France to qualify top of Group 7. I would also expect that Raymond Domenech will most likely lose his job if those playing in a France World Cup jersey do not qualify for the World Cup. In Group 8, Ireland finished a few points short of Italy, but certainly ran them close for most of the campaign. One thing that Ireland should be looking at as a major positive going into the matches against France is that they remained unbeaten in all ten matches, including the two against Italy. This should be a massive boost to the Irish camp.When you compare both squads, France have the far superior individual players, but as everyone knows, that does not mean that France are certainties to win the tie. A major blow for France is that Franck Ribery appears to be out of the squad with injury, but with players like Patrice Evra, Williams Gallas, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Lassana Diarra and Nicolas Anelka at their disposal, there is an abundance of quality players in the squad. Ireland, who do not have as many good players as they did around the 2002 World Cup, have done extremely well under Giovanni Trapattoni and will be looking to rely on the experience of Shay Given, John O’Shea, Kevin Kilbane, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane to help take Ireland through to the World Cup.I think that this is a really tough playoff to predict, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Ireland managed to pull a fantastic result out of the bag. However, I do feel they must win at Croke Park to have any chance.Written by Stephen Whiteford, a sports writer who blogs about the 2010 World Cup.
The first thing that comes to mind is that many people will feel that Ireland exceeded expectations and France underachieved in their group. Serbia appear to have a strong team, but I certainly would have expected France to qualify top of Group 7. I would also expect that Raymond Domenech will most likely lose his job if those playing in a France World Cup jersey do not qualify for the World Cup. In Group 8, Ireland finished a few points short of Italy, but certainly ran them close for most of the campaign. One thing that Ireland should be looking at as a major positive going into the matches against France is that they remained unbeaten in all ten matches, including the two against Italy. This should be a massive boost to the Irish camp.
When you compare both squads, France have the far superior individual players, but as everyone knows, that does not mean that France are certainties to win the tie. A major blow for France is that Franck Ribery appears to be out of the squad with injury, but with players like Patrice Evra, Williams Gallas, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Lassana Diarra and Nicolas Anelka at their disposal, there is an abundance of quality players in the squad. Ireland, who do not have as many good players as they did around the 2002 World Cup, have done extremely well under Giovanni Trapattoni and will be looking to rely on the experience of Shay Given, John O’Shea, Kevin Kilbane, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane to help take Ireland through to the World Cup.
I think that this is a really tough playoff to predict, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Ireland managed to pull a fantastic result out of the bag. However, I do feel they must win at Croke Park to have any chance.
Written by Stephen Whiteford, a sports writer who blogs about the 2010 World Cup.