In the aftermath of Ireland’s disappointing Euro 2012 campaign, many fans looked forward with a degree of trepidation to the qualifying route Ireland would have to take in order to get to Brazil 2014. Germany, Sweden, even a decent Austrian outfit we no longer felt confident about taking on as much as we may have at the start of the summer.
But at least, some might have consoled themselves, there is the two lowest seeds. The Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan. There should be 12 points in the bag right? And even better, our first competitive game since Poland was against one of them.
Today, Irish football fans wake up wondering just what happened last night, as a team bereft of leadership, stable formation and competent team selection or positioning came within minutes of a result on par with the Cypriot disaster of 2006 that precipitated the end of Steve Staunton’s tenure. The late late show from Kevin Doyle, scoring one and creating another has partly spared the blushes, but that cannot completely hide what we were subjected to.
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Never Felt Better 