Briany

I would regard hosting the tournament as a qualification. If you consider all the money and effort a host nation puts into staging a tournament, qualifying their team automatically is a just return, IMO.

Great question, but one with debatable answers. There are a number of teams with country populations of 1 - 17 million that either straddle the border of Europe but are in UEFA, and teams that only became independent in the last 20 - 25 years but went to tournaments as part of a bloc.

Both Ireland and Scotland are pretty average right now. Scotland have shown some class, but Ireland have shown some bottle. Who can be slightly less average than the other? Time will tell.

Irish here. I know how it feels to get disappointing results and be hoping for favours and miracles, too. Ireland and Scotland are like two bald men fighting over a comb. Two average sides scrapping over the right to be knocked out in the playoffs, tripping over themselves in the process. Scotland may find themselves 4 points behind Ireland, come Tuesday, and if that is the case it will go right to the wire because Ireland have two tough final games. It'll be interesting, but I don't think either team is going to the Euros at this stage.

Awful muck from Ireland last night. Even the RTE pundits roundly agreed that Scotland deserved to win it. I had said before the game that Ireland have to have some sort of threat going forward and they showed almost none of that. They had a chance here or there, but it was all reliant on luck. Seems like the whole team got booked as well. On the upside that new 'BOOOOOOO' lad playing for Ireland seems like a keeper. On the downside, Ireland's tactics and prospective talent means the team appears to be on a fairly unavoidable downward trajectory. I can only thank god that we have those fantastic Carling Cup memories to get us through these dark times. /S Well done, Scotland, ye slick goal-scoring hoors ye.

It's going to be an emotional game in Glasgow, that's for sure. Scotland can afford to be quite happy with their position, but I suspect that a good many of their fans would trade for Ireland's if they could, being on 7 points, a hearty goal difference (courtesy of a team who really shouldn't be in the competition IMO), no lost games and two very good away results. That's why I think we'll see the lion's share of the attacking play from the Scottish in Glasgow, especially in the 1st half. M'ON will probably be setting his team up conservatively once again to soak pressure, to frustrate, but also with a more adventurous player like Hoolahan in midfield and a slightly more expansive formation to give Ireland a proper counter attacking threat, as he won't give Scotland quite as much creedence as a team who can get in behind Ireland's lines like Germany could. It's been nearly 20 years since Ireland have played another of the nations from 'these islands', that wasn't Wales, in a proper competitive derby (sorry, Carling cup). Some atmosphere will be experienced, some craic will be had. Looking forward to it.

Thought it was a pretty typical Irish away performance against 'lower' opposition. It was edgy and it was unsure but Ireland still somehow managed to get 3 points out of the game. One positive thing I'll say about Ireland is the team has been able to consistently get results against 6th, 5th and 4th ranked teams throughout the last six years or so, something that Scotland, NI and Wales have had trouble with. On the other hand, the team has not beaten a higher ranked opposition side away from home in competition in over a quarter of a century, not unless you count the second leg of the WCQ playoff in 2009, which I don't since that went to extra time.

A touristy type is what I meant. As far as tinkers go, I don't know. There could be a few there maybe. It's not a pub I'd stop in to check up on the matter though.

And here was us Irish fans hoping for a lovely time when over there. *Sigh* Better rent that armoured car.... But yeah that shooting came as a shock. Usually, if I hear of a pub shooting I expect it to have happened in a place like the Cappagh House, a known rough shop. Certainly no traveller would ever find themselves there (because it's outside the city proper for one thing), not unless they got severely lost and had no common sense.