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Irish Football > 2012 Euro Finals

Ireland at Euro 2012 Finals

Euro 2012 logo

After ten years since their last appearance at a major football championship finals the Irish senior team finally qualified for the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine. After the heartbreaking disappointment of the 2010 World Cup play-off match in Paris Irish manager, Giovanni Trapattoni guided his charges to second place in the Euro 2012 qualification group. The Republic of Ireland drew Estonia in the Euro 2012 play-off matches and following an outstanding 4-0 win in Tallin the Irish closed out the deal with stress-free 1-1 draw at the Aviva Stadium.

It had been generally accepted that Ireland had been lucky in drawing Estonia in the play-offs but that luck deserted the Irish when the draw for the Euro 2011 finals was made in Kiev on 2nd December 2011. Ireland was in Pot 4 of four and was the lowest ranked team amongst the 16 qualifiers.

Euro 2012 Final Draw

The draw was made amid great fanfare in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The Irish were drawn in Group C by French footballing legend Zinedine Zidane. Unfortunately for Ireland the top seed in Group C was, Euro 2008 and 2010 Word Cup champions, Spain. Zidane then drew Croatia from Pot 3 and as though the task wasn't difficult enough Dutch master Marco Van Basten drew Italy from Pot 2 to complete the group. The sequence of matches was also determined by the draw process and Irelands group matches were as follows:

Date
Opponent
Venue
10 June 12
Croatia
Poznan
14 June 12
Spain
Gdansk
18 June 12
Italy
Poznan

Euro 2012 logo

For many football pundits and Irish fans the opening match against Croatia in Poznan would determine whether Ireland could progress to the knockout stages of Euro 2011. A win in this match would set the Irish up for a heroic campaign but a loss would make it almost impossible to make it out of the group. One possible positive omen was that Ireland's match against Italy was scheduled for the 18th anniversary of the famous and well-deserved victory over Italy at the 1994 World Cup finals at Giants Stadium in New York.

While the draw was anything but favourable to Ireland the fact the the team was based in Poland made travel arrangements for the Irish fans was far easier than if the team had been drawn to play in the Ukraine.

At the time of the Euro 2012 Finals draw the following were the vital statistics of Ireland's (FIFA World Ranking 21) opponents in Group C:

SPAIN
FIFA World Ranking: 1
Manager: Vicente Del Bosque
Qualified: Group A winners -
P8 W8 D0 L0 Pts 24
Previous Euro Cup honours: Winners 1964, 2008
Runners-up 1984
Republic of Ireland record v Spain: P24 W4 D7 L13
ITALY
FIFA World Ranking: 9
Manager: Cesare Prandelli
Qualified: Group C winners -
P10 W8 D0 L0 Pts 26
Previous Euro Cup honours: Winners 1968
Runners-up 2000
Republic of Ireland record v Italy: P11 W1 D2 L8
CROATIA
FIFA World Ranking: 8
Manager: Slaven Bilic
Qualified: Group F runner-up, beat Turkey 3-0 on agg in play-off
Republic of Ireland record v Croatia: P6 W3 D2 L1

Euro 2012 Group C Table

Euro 2012 - Qualifying Group c - Latest Standings
  Nation
Played
Won
Drew
Lost
Goals F
Goals A
Points
German flag
Spain
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Swedish flag
Italy
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Irish flag
Republic of Ireland
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Austrian flag
Croatia
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

Ireland & 2002 World Cup Finals - 2002 World Cup Irish Squad - 2002 World Cup Irish Group Matches
Ireland V Cameroon 2002 - Ireland V Germany 2002 - Ireland V Saudi Arabia 2002 - Ireland V Spain 2002
Ireland & 1990 World Cup Finals - Irish Squad World Cup 1990
Ireland V England 1990 - Ireland V Egypt 1990 - Ireland V Holland 1990
Ireland V Romania 1990 - Ireland V Italy 1990
Irish Squad World Cup 1994

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