Ireland Draw Estonia In Euro 2012 Play-Offs – Is There No End To The Good Karma?
By Alan Duffy
Trap collapses with joy on hearing the play-off draw
I think it’s fair to say that the Irish have been paid back with interest for that infamous Henry handball in the World Cup qualifiers in 2009.
Not only did they find themselves on the good side of a terrible handball-related refereeing decision against Armenia during the week, but now they have drawn Estonia in the play-offs, arguably the weakest of the unseeded teams.
Over in Krakow, the balls of fate have been lovingly cajoled from the bag of destiny and the draw for the Euro 2012 qualification play-offs has been made, with the Republic of Ireland lucking out with what, on paper (and considering the rest of the sides in the pot), looks like the easiest draw of the lot – indeed, the Estonians currently lie in 58th place in the FIFA rankings, 29 positions below Trap’s boys.
The Euro 2012 play-off draw in full…
Turkey vs Croatia
Estonia vs Republic of Ireland
Czech Republic vs Montenegro
Bosnia & Herzegovina vs Portugal
Surely the Irish can’t mess it up now? Mercifully, it looks like we’ve managed to dodge a couple of potentially nasty Balkan derbies that could’ve cropped up as well.
Who are you backing to reach the twin holy lands of Polkraine folks? I’ll have a shiny shilling on Turkey, Ireland, the Czechs to make it through, with Bosnia upsetting Portugal over two legs to seal themselves a shock qualification.
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It is not fair to say that Ireland have been paid back with interest for the Henry handball. We were denied a place in a WORLD CUP
While Croatia get Turkey and Bosnia get Portugal…
Most Estonians were hoping to face Ireland as well so very much looking forward to the games now.
BREAKING NEWS: Thierry Henry has just announced he will be returning to international football. He has declared himself available for selection by Estonia, a move that can only be described as truly extraordinary.
@Dale
Probably the worst joke I’ve ever heard.
The shock would be Portugal beating BandH
Good on Ireland, too bad for Bosnia; would rather have seen them play that Portugal in the tournament. Hopefully Czech Republic and Croatia make it through.
Excellent draw for Montenegro, we have a realistic chance against the Czechs, who are quite shite based from what I’ve seen from their matches against Scotland, actually, I think they are much weaker than Ireland…
Rosicky as the best player in any team nowadays…come on…
Good for Ireland, in fairness I bet Estonia are only delighted with the draw too! Ireland may be functional and boring but fully merited second place in that group, that in hindsight was soft as fuck, this karma talk doing the rounds the last few days is retarded. If Ireland make it to the Euros, they won’t last long but it’ll be great to watch a tournament with a vested interest and not just as a neutral.
There is no comparison between what happened with Henry and what happened the other night, and today with the draw. Firstly, Henry handled the ball as blatantly as could be. He purpously put his hand out to control it. It was an act of cheating. The Armenian goalkeeper was harshly sent off, i agree with that. But if he had stayed on the pitch it would not have guaranteed Armenia qualification. They still had to beat us, which i don’t think they would have done.
And there is no easy draw at this stage. Estonia are in the playoff’s on merit and are obviously a good side. We are not guaranteed to go through against them.
So all in all i don’t think that Henry’s handball that denied a nation a chance of qualifying for the World Cup has been suitably “revenged”. A marginal decision by a referee (in the Armenian goalkeepers situation, it did hit his arm afterall and it was outside the box) in the group stages is not comparable to Henry’s blatant act in the last few minutes of a playoff. No way Jose……
Is the person that writes these articles on Ireland by any chance French? Irelands Kharma dosent stop? Are you joking? We would have to win the Euros by going through each stage on own goals if we were to be paid back for losing out in the WORLD CUP. Im guessing your not French but English so lets talk about luck…Montenegro, wales, switz and bulgaria, thats luck…then world cup just past… Slovenia (smallest nation in the tournament) USA, Algeria. and still finish 2nd. Those teams are luck!
want irenalnd, checzh republic and portugal to qualify.
between turkey and croatia, i want em both to lose and disappear from the face of the planet too but since turkey is by no means an european country, but ASIAN, they can go to hell and fuck off the european competition in general. same goes for those flea-market ‘beijan’ countries that compete in the uefa for some ungodly, satanic reason.
@ Matt Steele:
Good shout, Hit the nail on the head mate. End of conversation.
@LpLp hahah as rough as your comments were they’re quite funny and I agree with them…what the hell is Turkey doing in the Euro’s the EU doesn’t want them why the hell does UEFA want em. ‘Beijan’ countries wawawewa very nice! The Monte’s are smooth criminals, they’ll go through.
iplp, learn English mate.
lplp… And we have a bigoted prick. :)
@lplp if Turkey is Asian, what is armenia and russia? you probably meant muslim but what about Bosnia or the French national team? sometimes i ask myself how people can be so blinded by hate and xenofobia. is it fun to be stupid?
lplp is right. who cares if your capital city is in Europe when 70% of your land is in ASIA, you’re an ASIAN country! That goes for Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, etc… Even more insulting is Isreal in UEFA.. they should just combine with the USA to create a team called “MONEY” and be an instant inclusion in every tournament…Blatter’s dream come true. Up the IRA.