European Championships: The History

The Republic of Ireland has failed to qualify for the latter stages of the European Championships on each of the two previous occasions it has been staged in France.

The inaugural “tournament” in 1960 consisted of just three games with the USSR beating Yugoslavia in the final after the hosts and Czechoslovakia had been beaten in the semis. Just 17 teams had entered the qualifying rounds with West Germany, England and Italy amongst those who stayed out.

Ireland did take part and with the qualifiers played on and home and away knockout basis, made a promising start to their preliminary round tie against the Czechs by winning 2-0 at Dalymount Park in front of an estimated spectators 37,500 thanks to first half goals from Liam Tuohy and Noel Cantwell.

Unfortunately, they conceded after just three minutes of the return leg, staged in Bratislava, and three second half goals sent them crashing out.

By 1984 there was a more recognisable group format to things and, having been amongst the third seeds for the draw, Ireland were unfortunate to be landed in a group with both the Spanish and Dutch. Iceland and Malta made up the numbers.

It was a decent squad of players with the likes of Liam Brady, Gerry Daly and Kevin Sheedy all featuring prominently but despite some strong performances - an 8-0 win over Malta and a 3-3 home draw with Spain, as well as Frank Stapleton finishing the campaign with as many goals as Ruud Gullit - the Irish finished third on nine points, four behind both of their main rivals.

Highs and lows of Ireland Euro qualifying campaigns

1988 under Jack Charlton

Ireland’s first ever qualification success was, of course, clinched courtesy of Gary McKay whose solitary goal for the Scots away to Bulgaria a month after Jack Charlton’s men had wrapped up their programme of games, ensured that the Irish finished top of a group that also included Belgium and Luxembourg.

Charlton’s team was outscored by its two closest rivals and while they only conceded once at home - against Luxembourg oddly enough - their failure to beat either the Belgians or Scots in Lansdowne Road ensured a nervous finish to the campaign.

Beating Bulgaria thanks to goals from Kevin Moran and Paul McGrath kept hope alive, however, and McKay did the rest.

2012 under Giovanni Trapattoni

The group campaign wasn’t without its worrying moments but ultimately the Irish secured second place behind Russia thanks, in part, to being the only side to win in Armenia. The really stand out performance was actually in Moscow where a lot of last ditch defending yielded an heroic point, although that made no difference in the end.

In the play-offs, Ireland got the luck of the draw, being paired with Estonia whose players, perhaps because of the scale of the occasion, folded in the first leg, making a series of errors that contributed much to a 0-4 home defeat. The second leg was a formality and ended in a 1-1 draw.

1972 under Mick Meagan and Liam Tuohy

This was the worst of Ireland’s Euro outings really with just one point taken from six group games and three goals scored, two of them from the penalty spot.

The one draw was achieved in the opening game, at home to Sweden with Tommy Carroll getting the only goal of his 17-game international career from the penalty spot in front 28,194 at Dalymount Park before Don Brzokoupil equalised 20 minutes into the second half.

From there, it wall went steeply downhill with defeats suffered home and away to Italy as well as in the team’s two other group matches before matters culminated in a humiliating 6-0 loss to Austria in Linz where Thomas Parits scored a hat-trick to sour manager Liam Tuohy’s first game in charge.