By Robbie Butler
I watched the Republic of Ireland on Saturday and Tuesday. The squad is not in a great place right now and it is difficult to be optimistic about the short-term future. England are an excellent team and a 2-0 loss is not unexpected. The Greece result is far more worrying. In the not to distance past, the home side would handle such opposition and a draw would be deemed a 'poor' result. How times have changed.
The data below shows the national team's performance in qualifying (both Euro and World Cup) since 2000. The successes in 2002, 2012 and 2016 are matched by higher points total percentages. 2018 appears to be a near miss - a playoff defeat to Denmark end the Martin O'Neill era.
I watched the Republic of Ireland on Saturday and Tuesday. The squad is not in a great place right now and it is difficult to be optimistic about the short-term future. England are an excellent team and a 2-0 loss is not unexpected. The Greece result is far more worrying. In the not to distance past, the home side would handle such opposition and a draw would be deemed a 'poor' result. How times have changed.
The data below shows the national team's performance in qualifying (both Euro and World Cup) since 2000. The successes in 2002, 2012 and 2016 are matched by higher points total percentages. 2018 appears to be a near miss - a playoff defeat to Denmark end the Martin O'Neill era.
The 2020 campaign under Mick McCarthy saw a falloff in performance and this has been exacerbated by the disastrous campaigns during 2022 and 2024.
The data suggests that a win rate of 50%+ is necessary to qualify - all home games for example. This will become harder as Ireland fall down the ranking. Previously, we had been a 2nd second seed so only had to play one higher ranked team at home. In the near future we may have to play 3 higher ranked teams at home.
Right now, Ireland are winning about 20% of qualifying games. That's about 2 games per campaign. Considering each group has the likes of a San Marino, Gibraltar or Liechtenstein, that's a pretty poor return.
The data suggests that a win rate of 50%+ is necessary to qualify - all home games for example. This will become harder as Ireland fall down the ranking. Previously, we had been a 2nd second seed so only had to play one higher ranked team at home. In the near future we may have to play 3 higher ranked teams at home.
Right now, Ireland are winning about 20% of qualifying games. That's about 2 games per campaign. Considering each group has the likes of a San Marino, Gibraltar or Liechtenstein, that's a pretty poor return.
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