Ireland face challenging start to World Cup qualifying campaign

The Republic of Ireland face a challenging start to their campaign to qualify for the next World Cup with Martin O’Neill’s side having been handed trips to Belgrade, Chisinau and Vienna before Christmas of next year.

The run is punctuated by the team’s only home game of the campaign in 2016, against Georgia on October 6th. O’Neill, assuming he is still in charge of the team, will be under pressure to deliver results on the road to ensure Ireland are still in contention for qualification when they travel to top seeds Wales for the final qualifier a year later.

O’Neill said on Saturday night that he had no particularly strong preferences regarding the order of the fixtures and has made much over the course of the current campaign of having key matches at home later on. Ireland’s failure to beat Scotland in the first of those a few weeks ago has put a serious dent in his European Championship qualification ambitions.

He is unlikely to be thrilled this time by having to visit two of his side’s key rivals so early in the campaign, Serbia, who are struggling at present, will be anxious to kick their new campaign off in a much more positive manner while on present form, Austria in November will be pose a particularly stern challenge.

Wales will come to Dublin on March 24th, 2017, a Friday, with the return game taking place on October 9th. None of the venues have been been confirmed yet but that game will almost certainly be played in Cardiff. It comes immediately after the visit to Moldova, adding somewhat to the potential difficulty. Austria visit Dublin that June with Serbia coming in September, three days after Ireland play in Tbilisi, another potentially tricky double header.

Speaking on Saturday evening, before the fixtures were announced O’Neill said: “It’s a draw where I think the teams will take points off each other, I’m happy enough to be in it.”

Republic of Ireland fixtures: 2016 – Monday, September 5th: Serbia (away); Thursday, October 6th: Georgia (home); Sunday, October 9th: Moldova (away); Saturday, November 12th: Austria (away); 2017 – Friday, March 24th: Wales (home); Sunday, June 11th: Austria (home); Saturday, September 2: Georgia (away); Tuesday, September 5th: Serbia (home); Friday, October 6th: Moldova (home); Monday October 9th: Wales (away).