Irish national football team

This article deals with the national football team of the Republic of Ireland or the Irish Free State; In addition to this team, there was or is the all-Irish national team (until 1921) and the Northern Irish national football team, as well as the Irish and Northern Irish women's national football teams .

Republic of Ireland
Poblacht na hÉireann
Republic of Ireland

Nickname (s)	The Boys in Green
Association	Football Association of Ireland
confederacy	UEFA
Technical sponsor	New Balance
Head coach	Stephen Kenny , since 2020
Assistant coach	Keith Andrews , Damien Duff
captain	Séamus Coleman
Record scorer	Robbie Keane (68)
Record player	Robbie Keane (146)
Home stadium	Aviva Stadium , Croke Park
FIFA code	IRL
FIFA rank	34th (1486 points) (as of July 16, 2020)
First jersey Second jersey
Balance sheet
566 games 222 wins 159 draws 185 losses
statistics
First international match Irish Free State 1-0 Bulgaria ( Colombes , France ; May 28, 1924 )
Biggest win Republic of Ireland 8-0 Malta ( Dublin , Ireland ; 16 Nov 1983 )
Biggest defeat Brazil 7-0 Republic of Ireland ( Uberlândia , Brazil ; May 27, 1982 )
Successes in tournaments
World Championship
Participation in the finals	3 ( first : 1990 )
Best results	Quarter-finals 1990
European Championship
Participation in the finals	3 ( first : 1988 )
Best results	Round of 16 2016
(As of November 18, 2019)

The Irish National Football Team (September 2013)

Giovanni Trapattoni, coach of the national team until 2013

The Irish football team , officially football team of the Republic of Ireland ( English Republic of Ireland national football team , irish foireann sacair náisiúnta Phoblacht na hÉireann ) called, represented in football , the Republic of Ireland , a state on the island of the same . It celebrated its greatest successes in the 1980s and 1990s.

history

The Republic of Ireland became an official member of FIFA in 1923 as the Irish Free State .

From the 1920s to the 1950s, both the Northern Irish Federation, the Irish Football Association (IFA) and the Free State Federation, the Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS) and later the Federation of the Republic of Ireland, nominated the Football Association of Ireland (FAIreland), players from all over the island for the respective national teams. Sun denied Jimmy Dunne , who until 1967 Irish scorer was 1928-1932 seven games for Northern Ireland and a game in 1930 for the Irish Free State from 1936 to 1939 still 14 games for the Irish Free State and scored 13 goals for the Irish at this time Free State and four for Northern Ireland. It was not until the mid-1950s that FIFA stopped this practice.

Under cult coach Jack Charlton , the first measurable success came with qualifying for the European Football Championship in Germany in 1988 . Charlton used a ruse to do this. He was on the lookout for good players from other nations who had little chance of being called to their own national team and who could easily acquire Irish citizenship because of their ancestry. He found many of them in the professional leagues in England and Scotland . With John Aldridge , Ray Houghton and Ronnie Whelan, three players from the legendary Liverpool FC team of the 80s came . From this colorful pile he managed to create a functioning team that scored a great success with the 1-0 victory (goal by Houghton) at the European Championships in Germany against arch-rivals England . The semi-finals were only just missed.

Two years later, Ireland not only reached the finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy , but even made it to the quarter-finals, where the hosts were too strong. This is the team's greatest success to date.

Ireland was the only team from the British Isles to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the United States . Among other things, by beating Italy , it was able to reach the round of 16.

In qualifying for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan , Ireland was even able to prevail at the expense of the Dutch and played in a group with Germany . It was able to wrest a 1-1 draw from the eventual finalist and also scored the only goal against Oliver Kahn before the final through Robbie Keane . In the round of 16, the Irish then failed on penalties against Spain .

In qualifying for the European Football Championship in 2004 , Ireland only missed the second group position required for the play-off games in the last group game (2-0 defeat away from Switzerland) and only ranked third behind Switzerland and Russia.

Even with the qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Ireland ultimately failed to Switzerland. In the last decisive group game, the two teams drew 0-0 in Dublin , so Ireland missed the points required for the second group position entitled to the play-off game. Ireland even fell into fourth group position behind France, Switzerland and Israel.

In qualifying for the European Football Championship in 2008 , Ireland ultimately had no chance as third party with ten or twelve points behind Germany or the Czech Republic.

In qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa , Ireland achieved unbeaten, with four wins and six draws, second in the group behind Italy , which was also unbeaten, and qualified for the play-off games, which were drawn against France . After France won the first leg in Ireland 1-0, the Irish were in the lead at the Stade de France after regular time with the same result, so it came to extra time. In the 103rd minute, Thierry Henry took a hand in the penalty area to prevent the ball from going out, which he admitted immediately after the final whistle. The subsequent pass from Henry was used by William Gallas to the decisive goal for France's World Cup qualification, as the Irish did not manage to score the winning goal for the rest of the season. Ireland requested FIFA to replay the game. However, since this wrong decision is considered a factual decision, FIFA decided not to respond to this request.

In Group B for European Championship qualification 2012 , the Irish team finished second behind the Russians with six wins, three draws and a 2: 3 home defeat to Russia and thus qualified for the play-off games. In November 2011, Estonia was the opponent here. The Irish won the first leg in the Baltic states 4-0. In June 2012 they received the UEFA special award for fair play, for the frenetic support of their fans, despite the three defeats at the 2012 European Football Championship . In qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil , Ireland only had theoretical chances to qualify after eight out of ten match days, which prompted the Irish Association to dismiss head coach Giovanni Trapattoni in September 2013 .

Participation of Ireland in football world championships

→ Main article : Irish National Football Team / World Cups

Ireland took part in three football World Cups. The team always survived the group phase. The best result came when they first took part in 1990 , when they made it to the quarter-finals. In the all-time World Cup table, however, Ireland is only in the middle of the field.

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1930	Uruguay	not participated
1934	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification to the Netherlands and Belgium failed
1938	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Norway failed
1950	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification of Sweden failed
1954	Switzerland	not qualified				In the qualification of France failed
1958	Sweden	not qualified				In the qualification of England failed
1962	Chile	not qualified				Failed in the qualification at the ČSSR
1966	England	not qualified				In the qualification to playoff in Paris to Spain failed
1970	Mexico	not qualified				Failed in the qualification at the ČSSR
1974	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of the USSR failed
1978	Argentina	not qualified				In the qualification of France failed
1982	Spain	not qualified				In the qualification to Belgium and France failed
1986	Mexico	not qualified				In the qualification of Denmark and the USSR failed
1990	Italy	Quarter finals	Italy	8th.	Jack Charlton
1994	United States	Round of 16	Netherlands	16.	Jack Charlton
1998	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Romania failed
2002	South Korea / Japan	Round of 16	Spain	12.	Mick McCarthy	Defeat on penalties, after regular playing time and extra time it was 1-1.
2006	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of France and Switzerland failed.
2010	South Africa	not qualified				In the qualifying play-offs in France failed.
2014	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification Ireland met Germany , the Faroe Islands , Kazakhstan , Austria and Sweden and could not qualify.
2018	Russia	not qualified				In the qualifying failed in the playoff games of the runners-up at Denmark.

Participation of Ireland in the European Football Championship

→ Main article : Irish National Football Team / European Championships

Ireland took part only twice in the final round of the European Championship and failed there in the group stage. In the all-time European Championship table, the 28 teams led only for 21st place.

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1960	France	not qualified				failed in the preliminary round at the later third Czechoslovakia
1964	Spain	not qualified				failed in the quarter-finals at later European champions Spain
1968	Italy	not qualified				in the qualifying again Spain failed, that could but did not qualify for the final round
1972	Belgium	not qualified				failed in qualification to Italy , which could not qualify for the finals
1976	Yugoslavia	not qualified				failed in qualification at the USSR , which could not qualify for the finals
1980	Italy	not qualified				failed in qualification to England
1984	France	not qualified				failed in qualifying at the later European runner-up, Spain
1988	BR Germany	Preliminary round	England , Netherlands , USSR	-	Jack Charlton	after a win against England, a draw against the eventual vice European champions USSR and a defeat against the eventual European champions Netherlands, they were eliminated as third in the group
1992	Sweden	not qualified				failed in qualification to England
1996	England	not qualified				failed in the relegation games to the Netherlands
2000	Netherlands and Belgium	not qualified				failed in the relegation games after two draws at Turkey due to the away goals rule
2004	Portugal	not qualified				failed in qualification to Russia and Switzerland
2008	Austria and Switzerland	not qualified				failed in the qualification to the Czech Republic and the later European runner-up, Germany
2012	Poland and Ukraine	Preliminary round	Croatia , Spain , Italy	-	Giovanni Trapattoni	after defeats against Croatia, Italy as well as world champions and defending champions Spain eliminated as bottom group
2016	France	Round of 16	France	-	Martin O'Neill	after a draw against Sweden , a defeat against Belgium and a win against Italy survived the preliminary round for the first time.
2021	Europe					With the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland provides a venue for 3 group matches and 1 round of 16, but the Irish team must qualify for the European Championship. The opponent in the playoffs is initially Slovakia . As the winner, Ireland would face the winner of the game between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland .

Record player

rank	Surname	Calls	Gates	position	Period	World Cup games	EM games	Record international player
01.	Robbie Keane	146	68	attack	1998-2016	4th	5	since June 7, 2013
02.	Shay Given	134	0	goal	1996-2016	4th	3	March 2, 2010 to June 7, 2013
03.	John O'Shea	118	3	Defense / midfield	2001-2018	0	6th
04th	Kevin Kilbane	110	8th	Defense / midfield	1997-2011	4th	0	March 2 to November 17, 2010 (together with Shay Given)
05.	Steve Staunton	102	7th	Defense	1988-2002	13	0	June 6, 2001 to March 2, 2010
06th	Damien Duff	100	8th	midfield	1998-2012	4th	3
07th	Aiden McGeady	93	5	midfield	2005-2017	0	6th
08th.	Niall Quinn	91	21st	attack	1986-2002	7th	1
	Glenn Whelan	91	2	midfield	2008–	0	5
10.	Tony Cascarino	88	19th	attack	1985-1999	6th	2	September 1, 1999 to June 6, 2001
11.	Paul McGrath	83	8th	Defense / midfield	1985-1997	9	2	November 15, 1995 to September 1, 1999
12.	Shane Long	82	0	attack	2007–	0	6th
13.	Pat Bonner	81	0	goal	1981-1996	9	3	June 5, 1994 to November 15, 1995

Status: Source: eu-football.info (November 18, 2019)

Record goal scorers

rank	Surname	Gates	Calls	Quota	Period	World Cup goals	EM goals	Record scorer
01.	Robbie Keane	68	146	0.47	1998-2016	3	0	since October 13, 2004
02.	Niall Quinn	21st	91	0.23	1986-2002	1	0	October 6, 2001 to October 13, 2004
03.	Frank Stapleton	20th	71	0.28	1976-1990		0	June 2, 1990 to October 6, 2001
04th	John Aldridge	19th	69	0.28	1986-1996	1	0
	Tony Cascarino	19th	88	0.22	1985-1999	0	0
	Don Givens	19th	56	0.34	1969-1981			May 26, 1976 to June 2, 1990
07th	Shane Long	17th	82	0.21	2007–		0
08th.	Noel Cantwell †	14th	36	0.39	1953-1967			February 22, 1967 to May 26, 1976
	Kevin Doyle	14th	63	0.22	2006-2017		0
	Jonathan Walters	14th	54	0.26	2010-2018		0
11.	Gerry Daly	13	48	0.27	1973-1986
	Jimmy Dunne †	13	15th	0.87	1930, 1936-1939			May 17, 1937 to February 22, 1967
13.	Ian Harte	11	64	0.17	1996-2007	0
14th	James McClean	10	72	0.14	2012–		0
.....
21st	Robbie Brady	8th	46	0.17	2012–	0	2

Annotation:

1. ↑ For the Irish Free State, also 4 goals for Northern Ireland
2. ↑ For the Irish Free State, also 7 games for Northern Ireland

Other well-known players

• Liam Brady (national player 1974–1989; 72 international matches, 9 goals) - two-time Italian champion with Juventus Turin (1981, 1982).
• Lee Carsley (national player 1998–2008; 39 caps, 0 goals) - is a regular at the moment.
• Steve Finnan (international 2000–2007; 50 international matches, 2 goals) - was a regular at the 2002 World Cup.
• Ray Houghton (international 1986-1998; 73 internationals, 6 goals) - was one of the players in the successful Liverpool team in the 1980s. With his header to 1-0 he ensured the victory against England at the European Championship in 1988.
• Chris Hughton (national player 1980-1992; 53 caps, 1 goal) - was the first black national player of Ireland. During Brian Kerr's tenure as Irish national coach (2003-2005) he was his assistant coach.
• Denis Irwin (international 1991-2000; 56 caps, 4 goals) - defender, was part of the Manchester United team that won the 1999 Champions League.
• Roy Keane (national player 1991–2005; 67 internationals, 9 goals) - for a long time probably the best-known player in Ireland. 1999 named first footballer sportsman of the year in Ireland . Because of his falling out with coach McCarthy, who was also Sportsman of the Year in Ireland in 2001, he did not take part in the 2002 World Cup. Roy Keane ended his playing career with Celtic Glasgow in 2006 . He was the coach of Ipswich Town until 2011 . From November 2013 he will coach the national team together with Martin O'Neill .
• Mick McCarthy (national player 1984-1992; 57 internationals, 2 goals) - replaced Jack Charlton as national coach in 1996 and remained in this position until 2003.
• David O'Leary (national player 1977–1993; 68 caps, 1 goal) - was the last coach of al-Ahli .
• Ronnie Whelan (national player 1981-1995; 53 caps, 3 goals) - was also a member of the successful Liverpool team of the 1980s.

Trainer

• Alex Stevenson † (1953–1955)
• Johnny Carey (1955-1967)
• Mick Meagan (1969-1971)
• Johnny Giles (1973-1980)
• Eoin Hand (1980–1985)
• Jack Charlton (1986-1995)
• Mick McCarthy (1996-2002)
• Don Givens (2002-2003)
• Brian Kerr (2003-2005)
• Steve Staunton (2006-2007)
• Don Givens (2007-2008)
• Giovanni Trapattoni (2008-2013)
• Noel King (2013)
• Martin O'Neill (2013-2018)
• Mick McCarthy (2018-2020)
• Stephen Kenny (since 2020)

International matches against German-speaking national soccer teams

→ Main article : List of international matches for the Irish national football team

International matches against the German national soccer team

(Results from an Irish perspective)

	date	place	Result	occasion
01.	May 8, 1935	Dortmund	1: 3
02.	October 17, 1936	Dublin	5: 2
03.	May 23, 1939	Bremen	1: 1
04th	17th October 1951	Dublin	3: 2
05.	May 4th 1953	Cologne	0: 3
06th	May 28, 1955	Hamburg	1: 2
07th	November 25, 1956	Dublin	3-0
08th.	May 11, 1960	Dusseldorf	1-0
09.	May 4th 1966	Dublin	0: 4
10.	May 9, 1970	Berlin	1: 2
11.	May 22, 1979	Dublin	1: 3
12.	September 6, 1989	Dublin	1: 1
13.	May 29, 1994	Hanover	2-0
14th	June 5, 2002	Ibaraki , Japan	1: 1	World Cup preliminary round
15th	September 2, 2006	Stuttgart	0: 1	European Championship qualification
16.	October 13, 2007	Dublin	0-0	European Championship qualification
17th	October 12, 2012	Dublin	1: 6	World Cup qualification
18th	October 11, 2013	Cologne	0: 3	World Cup qualification
19th	October 14, 2014	Gelsenkirchen	1: 1	European Championship qualification
20th	October 8, 2015	Dublin	1-0	European Championship qualification

The Irish A national team also played twice against the German B national team :

	date	place	Result	occasion
01.	March 11, 1975	Dublin	1-0
02.	May 21, 1981	Bremen	0: 3

International matches against the Liechtenstein national football team

(Results from an Irish perspective)

	date	place	Result	occasion
01.	October 12, 1994	Dublin	4: 0 (3: 0)	European Championship qualification
02.	June 3, 1995	Ash trees	0-0	European Championship qualification
03.	August 31, 1996	Ash trees	5: 0 (4: 0)	World Cup qualification
04th	May 21, 1997	Dublin	5: 0 (3: 0)	World Cup qualification

International matches against the Luxembourg national football team

(Results from an Irish perspective)

	date	place	Result	occasion
01.	May 8, 1936	Luxembourg	5: 1 (1: 0)
02.	October 28, 1953	Dublin	4: 0 (1: 0)	World Cup qualification
03.	March 7, 1954	Luxembourg	1: 0 (0: 0)	World Cup qualification
04th	May 28, 1987	Luxembourg	2: 0 (1: 0)	European Championship qualification
05.	September 9, 1987	Dublin	2: 1 (1: 1)	European Championship qualification

International matches against the Austrian national soccer team

(Results from an Irish perspective)

	date	place	Result	occasion
01.	May 7, 1952	Vienna	0: 6
02.	March 25, 1953	Dublin	4-0
03.	May 14, 1958	Vienna	1: 3
04th	April 8, 1962	Dublin	2: 3
05.	September 25, 1963	Vienna	0-0	European Championship qualification
06th	October 13, 1963	Dublin	3: 2	European Championship qualification
07th	May 22, 1966	Vienna	0: 1
08th.	November 10, 1968	Dublin	2: 2
09.	May 30, 1971	Dublin	1: 4	European Championship qualification
10.	October 10, 1971	Linz	0: 6	European Championship qualification
11.	June 11, 1995	Dublin	1: 3	European Championship qualification
12.	September 6, 1995	Vienna	1: 3	European Championship qualification
13.	March 26, 2013	Dublin	2: 2	World Cup qualification
14th	September 10, 2013	Vienna	0: 1	World Cup qualification
15th	November 12, 2016	Vienna	1-0	World Cup qualification
16.	June 11, 2017	Dublin	1: 1	World Cup qualification

International matches against the Swiss national football team

(Results from an Irish perspective)

	date	place	Result	occasion
01.	May 5, 1935	Basel	0: 1
02.	March 17, 1936	Dublin	1-0
03.	May 17, 1937	Bern	1-0
04th	September 18, 1938	Dublin	4-0
05.	December 5, 1948	Dublin	0: 1
06th	May 10, 1975	Dublin	2: 1	European Championship qualification
07th	May 21, 1975	Bern	0: 1	European Championship qualification
08th.	April 30, 1980	Dublin	2-0
09.	June 2nd 1985	Dublin	3-0	World Cup qualification
10.	September 11, 1985	Bern	0-0	World Cup qualification
11.	March 25, 1992	Dublin	2: 1
12.	October 16, 2002	Dublin	1: 2	European Championship qualification
13.	October 11, 2003	Basel	0: 2	European Championship qualification
14th	September 8, 2004	Basel	1: 1	World Cup qualification
15th	October 12, 2005	Dublin	0-0	World Cup qualification
16.	March 25, 2016	Dublin	1-0
17th	5th September 2019	Dublin	1: 1	European Championship qualification
18th	15th October 2019	Lancy	0: 2	European Championship qualification

See also

• Irish National Football Team (U-17 Youth)
• Irish National Football Team (U-20 Men)
• Irish National Football Team (U-21 Men)

Web links

Commons : Irish National Football Team  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• FAI homepage (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bbc.com: "Republic of Ireland: McCarthy 'hugely disappointed' but 'fully understands decision'"
2. ↑ The FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking. In: fifa.com. July 16, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 . 
3. ↑ All internationals of Jimmy Dunne
4. ↑ Media report on NZZ Online from November 19, 2009
5. ↑ Press release from FIFA ( Memento of the original dated November 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from November 20, 2009  
6. ↑ Irish fans receive special price
7. ↑ World Cup qualification: Trapattoni is no longer allowed to train Ireland. In: Spiegel Online , September 11, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2013.
8. ↑ Eternal World Cup table. In: fussball-wm-total.de. FOOTBALL World Cup total, July 11, 2010, accessed on October 1, 2013 . 
9. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930–2010 (PDF; 200 kB)
10. ↑ Eternal EM table. In: fussball-em-total.de. FUSSBALL-EM-total, July 1, 2012, accessed on October 1, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Football PLAYERS ( English ) eu-football.info. Retrieved May 16, 2019.