Ireland’s national soccer team will contest their sixth major tournament play-off when they face Estonia in the first of two legs in Tallinn on Friday 11 November, with the return leg in Dublin four days later. The massive prize for the winner will be a place at the UEFA European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine next summer.
Unfortunately, Ireland’s record in previous play-offs makes for dismal reading: four defeats and a solitary victory against Iran a decade ago.
The Irish lost their maiden play-off against the Netherlands on 13 December 1996 in a one-off game played at a neutral venue. Liverpool’s sacred ground Anfield provided the stage for Patrick Kluivert to score both goals for the Oranje in a one-sided match that proved to be the final curtain on Jack Charlton’s incredible career as the Irish manager.
Mick McCarthy took over the job from Big Jack, and in his first campaign in charge, the former centre-half managed to guide the Boys in Green to another play-off spot. On this occasion it was Belgium, who stood in the way of a passage to the World Cup finals. This was also the year that the two-leg format was first introduced.
Denis Irwin opened the scoring in Dublin, but Luc Nilis equalised to leave Ireland with an uphill battle for the return in Brussels. There the Diables Rouges took the lead with a Luís Oliveira goal, but Ray Houghton squared up the tie just before the hour mark. However, it was Belgium’s hero from the first leg, Nilis, who scored with 20 minutes remaining to end hopes of a trip to France ’98.
Two years later, McCarthy’s men found themselves in another play-off against Turkey for Euro 2000. In the first leg, Robbie Keane scored for the home side with 11 minutes left but Lee Carsley handled the ball in the box just four minutes later and Tayfur Havutçu made no mistake with the resulting spot-kick.
A scoreless draw in the Bursa Ataturk Stadium and the away-goal rule ended Irish dreams of Euro 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Ireland once again finished runners-up in their qualifying group for the World Cup in South Korea and Japan in 2002, thus finishing in a play-off position for the fourth consecutive major tournament campaign.
On this occasion the Boys were pitched against Iran. It was deemed a favourable draw and proved to be third time lucky for Mick McCarthy. A 2-0 victory at Landsdowne Road with Ian Harte scoring from the spot on the stroke of half-time, and Robbie Keane adding a second after the break, ultimately determined a place at the World Cup finals. Yahya Golmohammadi did manage a consolation goal for Team Melli in the final minute in Tehran, but Ireland held on for a 2-1 aggregate win.
It was during the group stage of that campaign when Ireland last met Estonia. The Irish prevailed 2-0 in both fixtures. Four players who lined-out against the Estonians over a decade ago are still in the squad today: Richard Dunne, Robbie Keane, Damien Duff and Kevin Kilbane, who currently has a back injury. It was Dunne who scored the opening goal in Tallinn after just eight minutes.
The only previous meeting between the two sides was a friendly in Paris after the 1924 Olympic Games, which Ireland also won 3-1.
The fifth and last play-off, against France for a place at last year’s World Cup in South Africa, was arguably the sorest one of all: a 1-0 defeat after Nicolas Anelka’s deflected goal in Dublin. It was a gallant effort in Paris, with Robbie Keane getting the all-important goal to force extra-time, only for William Gallas to score the winner for Les Blues after a cynical handball by Thierry Henry.
But that was then and this is now. Irish fans were happy with the draw last month, but so too were Tarmo Rüütli and his players. And a lot will depend on which Estonian team turns up to play: will it be the squad who lost to the Faroe Islands and at home to Slovenia, or the team that beat Northern Ireland twice and, more impressively, defeated both Serbia and Slovenia away from home.
The A Le Coq Arena in Tallinn will be buzzing in what will surely be Estonia’s biggest game in their history. The stadium holds just about 10,000 supporters but the Jalgpallihaigla – the most vocal section of Estonian fans – will no doubt make themselves heard in what must be the annus mirabilis of Estonian soccer.
